Data Access Policies

Data access policies are important to the development of GIS and related applications because they affect the extent to which data resources are available, under what conditions, and by whom. They should be a subset of broader information policies, that is, policies that articulate the role of information for an organization and define processes for its creation, dissemination, use, and maintenance. The term data is defined here as a collection of facts organized in an electronic database that need further processing in order to derive valuable information.

Information policies are critical to the development of today's society but are complex because they are influenced by legal, economic, and technological considerations, which are affected by social, political, and cultural contexts and vary from country to country. Data access policies have come recently in particular focus because they are closely related to funding mechanisms. This entry highlights some of tensions evident in this field.

Data access policies set by private sector organizations that comply with relevant legislation, such as data protection, and national security, where applicable, do not raise particular issues except where the data producer is a monopolist that uses its dominant position to impose conditions that distort the market and damage the wider interests of society. In many countries, one refers such a situation to a competition regulator, although in practice, the legal costs may deter small companies from doing so.

In the field of geographic information, a much more common situation is one in which the data owner is a public sector organization, given that the public sector is by far the largest collector of such information. What makes this case interesting is that the public sector is not only the producer but also the key consumer and the regulator. These multiple roles make it more difficult to define and maintain a coherent position in the face of often conflicting requirements.

The diffusion of electronic databases and the Internet have enormously increased the importance of data and information management for the effective functioning of government. The emergence of e-government, in which transactions within government and between government, citizens, and businesses take place electronically, shows particularly well how critically important good information management has become. At the same time, the strategic and political value of information becomes increasingly enmeshed with recognition of the potential economic value of public sector information. Digital information has the properties that it can be shared and retained at the same time and that transport costs are almost negligible. So, there are opportunities to defray at least some of the costs of data collection and maintenance through the sale of information or related services, while at the same time retaining ownership of the original goods. Other arguments put forward to justify cost recovery include support for government tax reduction policies; reallocation of taxpayers' money from activities focused on data collection or maintenance to more politically sensitive policies, [Page 62]such as the provision of health, education, and policing; and more customer-focused services.

Counterbalancing the perceived political and economic value of public sector information by government are the social and democratic value of access to information by the public and the economic value of access and exploitation by the private sector. The former is underpinned by democratic theory on the importance of informed public participation to make government accountable. In many countries, public access to information is underpinned by legal frameworks, including freedom-of-information legislation allowing citizens to request records held by government. In the environmental sector, there are additional international agreements and legislation supporting public access to information.

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