Introduction
The Public Policy Programme's Ethics Team has partnered with Camden Council and Involve, supported by funding from Wellcome, to deliver a series of education-based public engagement workshops – known collectively as a Resident Panel. The panel was diverse and represented the community, and has supported Camden’s residents with the development and update of a data charter that can help ensure that the council's ongoing use of citizen data works for the common good.
Developing the Data Charter
In 2021, Turing researchers Christopher Burr and Cami Rincon participated in 3 day-long sessions with the 20 residents from Camden who make up the Resident Panel. The Panel was asked to reflect on a series of questions such as:
- Are there specific types of data that residents do not want Camden to collect?
- When projects involve sensitive information, how should Camden balance any trade-offs between values such as privacy and public benefit?
- Who should benefit from the data that Camden collects?
- How can data use be governed in a fair way?
In order to equip the residents with the appropriate tools to explore these questions, the Turing team put together a short Citizen’s Guide to Data (which is now in the process of being revised).
In January 2022 Camden published their Data Charter, pledging to adhere to ethical and safe uses of data in the borough. It will serve as a guide for Camden on how to collect, process and share data ethically.
Revising the Data Charter
In January 2023 Turing researchers Christopher Burr and Claudia Fischer joined the Residents Panel for 3 days, presenting around data uses by the council, discussing data use case studies and leading stakeholder engagement activity around potential AI system use by the Council. These case studies were then used to develop possible areas of change or recommendations to the Data Charter itself, and the output of all groups and case studies were aggregated to produce final recommendations of changes and revisions to the Data Charter.
Find out more about the revision of the Data Charter, including from Turing researcher Claudia Fischer below:
Explaining the science
The structure and content of the workshops is built upon on the idea of democratic deliberation, whereby participants engage in structured dialogue and educational activities intended to help them build consensus around issues of ethical, social, and legal significance.
Project aims
Working with our partners – Involve and Camden Council – we have facilitated a series of reflective discussions and activities to explore issues related to data ethics (e.g. privacy and fairness), data for social good (e.g. inclusive participation and sustainability), as well as legal aspects of data usage (e.g. the impact of data-driven technologies on human rights).
This project supports the Turing's wider commitment to becoming a national thought leader in the field of responsible research and innovation in AI and data science, while also building on the Public Policy Programme's commitment to developing a comprehensive programme of educational resources, training, and public engagement.
Moving forward, we hope to continue supporting Camden in engaging residents, providing expertise on how to present and frame ethical challenges posed by data driven technologies used by the Council.
Applications
The data charter will provide Camden Council with a policy framework and set of principles, which reflect the views of their citizens, in order to guide their approach to how they use the data they hold, now and in the future.
Organisers
Dr Christopher Burr
Innovation and Impact Hub Lead (TRIC-DT), Senior Researcher in Trustworthy Systems (Tools, Practices and Systems)
Claudia Fischer
Research Assistant, Data Justice and Global Ethical FuturesPrevious contributors
