COVID-19 and the Data Governance Gap

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted many complexities involved in using data and advanced technologies to help resolve public health emergencies. These complexities highlight the need to embrace a broader framework of data governance with three foundational questions: ( a) who decides about data flows, ( b) on what basis, and ( c) with what accountability and oversight. These questions can accommodate the issues that have arisen in the literature regarding new types of data harms. However, these questions also foreground important issues of power, authority, and legitimacy. Data governance can provide an organizing normative framework to address emerging data themes including access to data, collective decision making, data intermediaries, data sovereignty, design and digital infrastructure, regulatory technologies, the rule of law, and social trust and license. The pandemic experience with contact tracing apps, in particular, showed the many unresolved governance challenges. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Volume 19 is October 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Ethical Considerations in Data Collection and Analysis: A Review: Investigating Ethical Practices and Challenges in Modern Data Collection and Analysis

“…The study provides a critical reflection on the operationalization of ethics in data science, highlighting the need for explicit governance models that clarify responsibilities and facilitate the practical implementation of ethical principles in data science. Austin (2023) discusses the data governance gap revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the context of public health emergencies. The paper argues for a broader framework of data governance, addressing foundational questions about decision-making, accountability, and oversight in data flows.…”