The General Services Administration (GSA) has released a report detailing ethical principles that federal agencies must consider when leveraging citizen data for decision-making purposes.
Nextgov reported Thursday that the draft Data Ethics Framework report includes recommendations from a 14-member interagency team responsible for developing an ethics blueprint for the federal government.
The report also includes input from entities such as the Chief Data Officer (CDO) Council, Federal Privacy Council (FPC) and Interagency Committee on Standards Policy (ICSP).
According to the framework, agencies must “uphold applicable statutes, regulations, professional practices and ethical standards” when handling citizen data while ensuring adherence to transparency, accountability, confidentiality and privacy requirements.
“Instead of looking at issues from a single perspective, ethical decision making is best achieved by taking a holistic approach and widening the context to weigh the greater implications of data use,” the report states.
The framework will serve as a “living resource” that will be continually updated by ICSP and CDO. GSA intends to release the complete version of the report by the end of the year.
