Page 25 - Proceedings of the 2017 ITU Kaleidoscope

Challenges for a data-driven society

2. MAJOR LEGAL CHALLENGES absence of detailed criteria and thus prevented from
deepening open government data and releasing higher data
As mentioned earlier, the rapid development and wide value.
application of big data has had profound impacts on every Secondly, the gap between developed countries and
aspect of society, and in particular, in light of the ongoing developing countries is further widened. According to the
development of the global digital economy, the exploitation “Global Open Data Index” published by the international
of data not only motivates social changes, but also challenges non-profit Open Knowledge Foundation, in recent years,
the social order and puts forth new requirements for legal countries in Asia, Africa and Oceania have actively joined
systems. On the one hand, traditional issues, such as open the open government data initiative, but are lagging far
government data and personal data protection, are facing behind developed European and American countries, and the
new challenges in the context of big data; and on the other survey indicates that of the top 10 countries and regions, 9
hand, in recent years, with the development of a data-driven are European and American countries.
society, some new issues, such as data exchange and cross- Thirdly, most countries fail to define the elements in
border data flows, have attracted attention from all parties. connection with open government data, including the
principles, platforms, data management systems (such as
2.1. Open government data data resource catalogue, open data catalogue and public
participation mechanism), data reuse licenses, costs and
charges, etc.
Open data is the prerequisite and basis for the development
of big data, and the government possesses over 80% of the
entire social information resource and is the largest data 2.2. Data exchange
producer and owner. The openness of government data has a
substantial effect on data development and utilization and is In recent years, big data applications have been rapidly
the number one problem to be resolved in the data-driven penetrating various industries and sectors, with the value of
society. data resources, as a production factor and social wealth,
In the early stages, the focus used to be on government becoming increasingly recognized. Also, there has been a
information disclosure on the improvement of government rising demand for online data exchange. Since 2008, the
information transparency. However, with the development global big data exchange market has been taking shape, and
of information and communication technology and big data several “data markets” and “data banks” have appeared.
technology, people began to realize that opening up According to the White Paper of China’s Big Data Industry
government information, on the one hand, can consolidate in 2016, the global big data industry in 2015 amounted to
democracy and public participation, and on the other hand, US$ 140.3 billion, and by 2020, this figure is expected to be
2
in an electronic form, government information is an up to US$ 1027 billion. As data trading develops so fast in
important national resource that has significant economic China, the State Council published the “Action Plan to
and social value and plays an important role in enhancing Promote Big Data Development” in 2015. According to the
government service efficiency, promoting economic growth plan, the establishment of a data transaction market will be
and creating jobs. Currently, opening up government data an important part of strengthening market mechanisms. The
has become an appeal for more and more people and an plan promotes the development, support, guidance and
important consensus for the international community. standardization of the mechanisms for data transactions and
Globally, in January 2009, US President Obama signed the its exchanges in the whole country.
Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, With the continuous expansion of data transactions, many
taking the lead to open up government data, and thereafter, a problems are emerging. For the moment, data exchange
rising number of countries has joined in, and government faces mainly the following problems:
data was opened up to a wider and deeper extent. On
September 5, 2015, the Chinese Central Government 1. Sound legislation and regulation on data exchange is
published “Action Plan to Promote Big Data Development”. not yet in place. Across the world, so far there is no
The plan proposed comprehensive requirements on key areas specific law and regulation on data exchange and the
such as, open mechanisms, open platforms, and open criteria. legal basis is not clear as to what data can be exchanged
It is also suggested in the plan to promote the opening of and how it can be exchanged. Meanwhile, no authority
public data resources under the premise of strengthening is clearly assigned to supervising data exchange, with
security and privacy protection. Despite some achievements, access to data exchange market, data security, data
currently there are still many challenges for opening up abuse, data exchange disputes and other issues being
government data. poorly regulated, and to avoid risks, some data owners,
Firstly, according to the self-assessment by the United States including the government, tend to refrain from data
and other forerunners, these countries are bottlenecked by exchange. Moreover, given the new circumstances,
inadequate awareness, poor policy implementation and laws, and regulations in connection with data exchange,

2 See Global Big Data Exchange: White Paper of China’s Big Data Industry
in 2016.

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