The government of the future will need to be adept at securely collecting, storing and managing dataat volumes and velocities that stretch far beyond those seen today. And it will need to build trust at a time when cybercrime and data misuse are challenging citizen confidence.

Data is intrinsic to every significant digital transformation initiative across health, education, defence and other critical infrastructure. And it underpins many of the megatrends – collections of

interlinked trends that impact every single Australian citizen – identified by the CSIRO in its Our Future World: An analysis of global trends, shocks and scenarios report. We need to understand how education impacts long-term health. And what our infrastructure needs to deliver in a world where defensive capabilities are being tested by adversaries that use digital rather than physical weapons.

But while data is a key ingredient for digital transformation, governments face many challenges as they increasingly seek to digitise services.

Data is key to using AI to support decision making

When we consider healthcare, there are strong use cases for the collection of patient data.

MyHealthRecord gives individuals the ability to see their health data in real-time and allows them to

make data-driven decisions about their own health and well-being. At the same time, it enables

better patient care as healthcare professionals can have access to patient data without needing to

wait for information to be manually shared between practitioners.

When anonymised data is collated, it can be used to train artificial intelligence (AI) models that can

be used to detect anomalous information, such as breast cancer from a mammogram or conditions

from blood tests. The AI relies on large pools of high-quality data to be trained. Those models can

help to alleviate shortages of skilled healthcare professionals.

AI models, however, cannot be treated as black boxes where data is ingested, and a result is

delivered without any transparency in how it was calculated. There are dozens of cases across the world of how AI systems have delivered poor outcomes. This comes about because of biased data used to train the models and/or algorithmic bias in the calculations.

Ethical data use will build citizen trust

The ethical use of data and AI is a serious challenge. But we can learn lessons from projects in other jurisdictions and ensure that the AI we use helps us make better decisions. The proposed laws

created by the European Union are an interesting step in legislating the ethical use of AI.

The benefit case for the collection and use of data is significant. But it is not without challenges and

risks. We need to be thoughtful about the data we collect and how we use it. Often, the data is

collected and used with good intentions but the sources of the data– individuals–aren’t properly

informed or consulted about its use. This leads to mistrust in both the systems and agencies that use

the data.

With digital services now just services and the digital economy simply the economy, it is critical that

everyone is informed about how their data is being stored, used and shared. That transparency is

critical for building trust and supporting the journey to becoming a data-driven organisation.

Trust has been eroded with several significant data breaches in Australia across a variety of industry

sectors, showing no one is immune from potential attack. The human impact is important.

Government departments and agencies and the private sector must all work together and be clear

about what data is should be stored, who owns it and how it is controlled. Our perception of data

has shifted. While it remains a valuable asset, we must be aware that it is also a target for criminals.

We should only collect and retain data that is absolutely necessary.

Security is critical to deciding how to manage data

According to the Australian Cyber Security Centre’s most recent annual report, the frequency and

severity of cyberattacks are increasing. It is critical, therefore, that the collection, storage and use of

data are subject to a thorough risk assessment. Rather than asking what data can be collected, the

question needs to turn into “What’s the least data I can collect to deliver a service?”.

One of the biggest challenges is bridging the digital gap between verifying a piece of data and the

need to store it. In the past, it was sufficient for someone to show an identity document to prove

their identity. Today, it’s likely that a person will need to either submit personal data to a system or

supply a digital copy of an identity document.

Our interactions with private companies and the government depend on secure data exchange. As

digital transformation efforts progress, the volume, velocity and variety of data will necessitate risk

assessments in data collection, storage and use. The organisation collecting the data needs to ask

themselves whether they need to store the data. Citizens will need to be informed of how their data

is stored and used, while private and public companies will need to properly assess the risks

associated with that data and implement steps to mitigate those risks.

Risk assessments need to consider each data element that is collected and stored, as every piece of

personal data collected represents some level of risk. A name, on its own, might only result in

minimal harm if stolen. But a name and date of birth could result in a higher risk of harm.

Organisations that use appropriate controls such as the Essential Eight, NIST, ISO 270001 or similar

alongside a risk-based assessment to ensure they protect their most valuable data assets can

mitigate the risk of an attack and contain the impact of attacks.

The Australian Government can support the private sector by establishing secure identity

verification platforms that don’t require citizens to hand over identification information and

documents that can be stored indefinitely. And it can set high standards for how data is securely

collected, stored, used and shared.

The safe flow of data can be a significant enabler for government agencies, departments, and the

private sector. And while data governance, risk assessment and ethical use of AI may not be headline

grabbers, they form the bedrock of building and retaining public trust in processes and systems.