Tech teams battle data-sharing risks to protect privacy

Three teams of data scientists joined the good fight against risks associated with sharing large datasets at last week’s Data Sharing Direct Ideation competition in Sydney.

The event — similar to a hackathon — is the third run by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) since it released its white paper ‘Privacy in DataSharing – A Guide for Business and Government’, which posited a framework for safe data sharing, in November last year.

Over three weeks, the teams looked at ways organisations could share data while maintaining individuals’ privacy.

ACS President Yohan Ramasundara said this work was critical for governments and businesses.

“Without a secure framework, private information is always going to be compromised and the collective value of data will be underleveraged.

“For all governments, including the NSW Government, this is a high-stakes game of risk and reward.”

Dr Ian Oppermann, NSW Chief Data Scientist and leader of the ideation project, said, “We had teams throw incredible intellectual effort against a problem which is complex.

“We turned the dial another half a turn and that has helped inform a lot of what we will do going forwards, but clearly there’s a lot more work to be done.”

Team Good Fighter won the competition, earning a $2800 prize, while Privately Concerned and Basically Measure Zero drew for second.

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