The World Development Report 2021 (WDR) argues that private intent data (also called privately held data) are an alluring candidate to overcome public sector data gaps and offer new perspectives on development problems. According to the WDR, privately held data is in fact “increasingly large in scale, “always on,” zoomed in, and, at times, less biased”. If the value for such data for the public sector is nowadays undisputed, methods and approaches for establishing data pipelines between private and public stakeholders, including in particular National Statistical Offices (NSOs), still vary considerably and there are different routes which stakeholders and NSOs can choose from.

One of the most recent approaches emerging across different countries consists in the establishment of public sector data access rights via legislative measures, which can take the form of sectoral (i.e. on transport, energy, finance) or non-sectoral regulations and/or of the revision of Statistical Acts. In this context, the recently published European Data Act constitutes one of the first large-scale and non-sectoral attempts to provide the public sector with a right to access privately held data in particular circumstances. This text seeks to draw a balance between the public sector interest to dispose of private data which might be needed for policy making purposes and private sector interest to protect their data as business assets. It includes specific provisions concerning further data sharing between public authorities and NSOs, thus establishing new avenues for the statistical community to access privately held data.

In light of these new developments, this webinar explores the possible implications of the European rules for National Statistical Offices around the world. While most countries are not planning to update their statistical acts or adopt data access rules soon, the Data Act might still affect public and private partners’ strategies and approaches for collaboration and define new incentives or barriers for data sharing across different countries.

This webinar, part of the UN World Data Forum webinar series, will bring together experts to:

• What are the lessons learnt from the European experience in establishing data access rights for the public sector which can be relevant for NSOs?
• What will be the implications (if any) of the Data Act on the data sharing experiences of NSOs from other countries?
• How can National Statistical Offices benefit from the promulgation of overarching rules?