Abstract

It is no surprise that, in recent years, the use of digitally-generated data has moved into the focus of National Statistical Institutes. The timely availability of such data provides an opportunity to capture relevant information on socio-economic phenomena. Due to increasing budgetary requirements and a shortage of highly-skilled labour, the rapid advancement of information technology systems has created a significant challenge for the public sector. It is a fact that most new digital data, usually generated on a highly frequent basis, is collected and held by private companies rather than by public administrative authorities. Official Statistics could benefit from these data as it could feed into indicators relevant for decision makers. The objective of this panel is to outline hands-on experiences of the National Statistical Institutes of the Slovak Republic, Austria, Hungary and Ireland. An important and necessary precondition for obtaining privately-held data is to build a trustworthy relationship with private data holders. Most of the current data ecosystems do not contain a legal enforcement mechanism for private companies to provide data to producers of official statistics. Questions, such as “Should such a data act exist?” and “If so, should private data owners be compensated?” are to be addressed by the panellists. Moreover, it is crucial that NSIs maintain a trustworthy relationship amongst its stakeholders and the general public while using these new data sources, which raise questions such as “How to ensure and maintain ethical standards?” and “How to secure social acceptability and maintain trust in official statistics?”. To stimulate the discussion, panellists will present examples of already implemented use cases in their National Statistical Systems and may consider questions related to matters of data governance and data quality. The inclusion of new forms of collaboration between the scientific community and NSIs as part of the discussion is worthwhile.