isCDO “COVID19 Data and the CDO” Panel

As nations, states and businesses of all sizes look to use data and analytics in developing and improving their response to COVID 19 the isCDO looks at the role of data leaders in leading the use of data to design and improve how we can safely get out of lockdown and back to work. We will examine the benefits to be gained from the use of data and the possible problems that might limit the effectiveness of the use or which might impinge upon the privacy and freedoms of individuals.

Contact tracing in its various forms has variously been put forward variously as the risk-free route to a post COVID19 world on one extreme, on the other extreme as a back door to a dystopian surveillance state and all permutations in between. Its application at national, state/province or local government level and even by businesses raises a number of questions on the ethics of what is being done and highlights a number of privacy issues. The panel will examine if and why the ethical and privacy questions may or can be ignored and what the implications could be for individual privacy and freedom in the future.

It is for Data Leaders in their many guises to have the lead role in advising organisations at every level how they can use data, what the implications might be and how best to avoid the potential pitfalls. Getting it right will mean organisations being able to negotiate their way around the lockdown measures as they are relaxed, getting it wrong could mean fines or even prison on top of a disgruntled population/workforce who will not cooperate and all that may imply.