How open data can help Singapore prevail

SINGAPORE’S government and businesses are well versed in seizing opportunities through innovation and training. The recent International Open Data Day, on Mar 5, provides a chance to examine whether more can be done in the use of data.

Consider this: the total amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed globally is predicted to grow from the pre-pandemic level of 44 zettabytes, to 180 zettabytes by 2025. That’s 180 trillion gigabytes of data which businesses will use to conceptualise, create, build, evaluate, and compete ever more fiercely.

Singapore, like many nations, needs to be ready for this growth. The city-state stands at an important juncture in its data journey, where access to data – in terms of volume, speed and veracity – is being thoughtfully considered, alongside regulation and public trust.

Successful organisations recognise the crucial role of data in staying ahead of the market and ensuring efficient operations, products, and services. In Singapore, as in many other markets, this often means participating in open data initiatives such as Data.gov.sg, which make vast volumes of population-level data available for public access, use, and distribution.

The Singapore Tourism Board, for example, makes the latest tourism data available to the public via its open data platform, Singapore Tourism Analytics Network. From visitor arrivals to tourist movement patterns, the city-state’s tourism industry can accurately assess the market and tailor offerings with those insights.

Open data initiatives have other, more critical benefits to society. The sharing or linkage of data is especially effective in identifying and tracing fraud, threats, or risks.

Consider the onset of Covid-19, when cross-border collaboration in open data and data-sharing became especially critical – not only to businesses but to livelihoods, households, individuals, and families. With little information available on the virus at the end of 2019, Singapore’s government – along with others – acted rapidly to collect and disseminate national statistics on its spread.

As more organisations contribute their data to such initiatives, the community becomes more capable of leveraging collective expertise. And as the hive-mind expands, so too does the need for powerful and agile analytics capabilities to digest and curate the data.

Balancing progress with public trust

It is common for organisations to be hesitant about participating in government-run open data schemes. Often, this stems from valid concerns over customers’ privacy and information security.

Therefore, for open data principles to succeed, ethical collection, stringent privacy and security measures, and quality control must be upheld by all parties involved in the collection, analysis, and distribution of data.

This is where government and industry collaboration is perhaps most critical. Without it, the open data concept does not work and the benefits to society are severely limited.

Leaders on both sides must establish and enforce guidelines that maintain data accuracy, with management and security regulations that shore up public trust in the process.

Businesses should therefore not be too hasty. Take a considered and long-term view of your data-sharing initiatives, starting with the identification of what can be shared and when. Each contribution to open data initiatives should be considered on its own merits, alongside relevant privacy and security measures.

As a rule of thumb, consumer privacy and security prevail. Personally identifiable information like addresses and contact details are not suitable for such sharing initiatives. To avoid information misuse and to protect consumer privacy, businesses must anonymise and de-identify data before sharing it.

Data for the future

Not only are open data initiatives increasingly at the forefront of good business and policy decision-making, they also present opportunities for innovation.

Having access to new data repositories, and being able to use them in real time, will help organisations and the government adapt, thrive, and gain competitive advantage – both in times of economic prosperity and in times of crisis.

Open Data Day is a reminder of the need to drive widespread digital transformation; use data to boost innovation, productivity gains and resilience measures; and enact fit-for-purpose data regulation.

The writer is senior vice-president for Asia-Pacific and Japan at data analytics provider Qlik.