This Week in Data – September 7

UK saves £300m in data-sharing scheme

Thanks to a data-matching program that cross-references information from public records against private ones, the UK government has been able to crack down on fraud in a massive way. All in a day’s work. (Well, not literally.)

THE TAKEAWAY:

“The NFI has recovered £5.5m from tenancy fraud and an £18m saving from the ‘blue badge’ disabled parking permit scheme. A total of 31,223 blue badges were revoked or withdrawn.”

The fierce debate over transit data

There are a bunch of companies now creating data about how we move around cities, and governments are eager to get their hands on it. But how much should we be sharing? GovTech looks into it and finds the answer isn’t so simple. Once you give the government data…it’s hard to keep it private.

THE TAKEAWAY:

“If somebody developed common privacy protection practices, data formats or even clearinghouse-like channels for sharing, it could make the process of local governments answering their questions much faster and more efficient.”

Google and Mastercard, together…at last?

Oh, Google. Now it’s offering select advertising clients data from two billion Mastercard users. The point is so that ad buyers can track offline behaviour but…well, you can see where this is going.

THE TAKEAWAY:

“The legal director of Open Rights Group, Myles Jackman, told the BBC; “This raises serious concerns regarding the use of private financial data…will Mastercard be compensating their clients for the data they have given away to Google for their own financial gain?”

China to send tax data overseas

You can’t escape the tax man. Now China is sharing information with about 100 other nations on individuals’ tax liabilities – it comes after the country made some significant changes to who owes the country tax, and why.

THE TAKEAWAY:

China also recently revised its personal income tax code, making foreigners who reside in the country for at least 183 days a year liable for tax on both onshore and offshore income.”

US-Euro data friendship not so friendly

Ultimatums have been given. There’s this thing called the “privacy shield”, and it defines how data flows between European governments and the United States. It’s kinda shakey right now. America isn’t playing nice, and now Europe has to try and stay tough.

THE TAKEAWAY:

“The immediate tug-of-war between the U.S. and the EU on the validity of Privacy Shield will signal quite a bit about the strength of the EU’s convictions and the future of global privacy legislation.”

Big data’s out. Advanced analytics is IN.

At least, down in Australia. TechnologyDecisions points out that governments need to invest massively in hiring analytics talent who can identify granular, specific and targeted changes from a sea of information. Private businesses have been in on this for a while…but for governments? This is pretty new territory. And it might be easier than they think…

THE TAKEAWAY:

“There is a tacit understanding that Facebook and Google will use your data — although there is now some pushback on this — but for government to be doing this is seen as something completely different.”

That’s our wrap for this week. Thanks for reading – we hope you found it entertaining and informational. We’d love to hear your thoughts on these articles and anything else data related! Email us anytime at enquiries@datarepublic.com!

Until next week,

Team Data Republic

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