III.1: Access to Data
Advocate on Issues of Access to Data Other Information:
Issues of the commodification of data, personal privacy, and data confidentiality have grown increasingly urgent. In a period
in which legal provisions designed to ensure both confidentiality and privacy have not kept pace with rapid technological
advances in both data gathering and dissemination, and where data producing organizations are suffering from increasing pressure
to recover costs, issues of access to data are particularly salient. Throughout its history, IASSIST has played a crucial
role in advocating for open access to data sources in a manner that ensures individual privacy. The current debate about the
balance between maintaining confidentiality, protecting data owners’ interests, and providing fair access requires that IASSIST
take an active role in advocating policy solutions that provide broad and affordable access to research data while safeguarding
individual privacy. This role is particularly important in a period in which governments and international organizations are
debating laws controlling access to government and international data, and commercial organizations consider data a valuable
commodity. The debate over access to personal information also informs related discussions of data retention and preservation.
IASSIST must maintain a voice in each of these dialogues to ensure long term access to data collections that respects individual
privacy. Activities in this strategy could include: § Consider creating an Action Group to collate and produce statements
of principals regarding best practices in distributing data containing sensitive information § Collaborate with organizations
to ensure tha t access to microdata from a variety of sources remains available to the social science community. Many opportunities
exist for IASSIST to play an active role in shaping government policy on data preservation and distribution.
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