Mandated vs. meaningful openness

Researchers must often respond to funder or institutional requirements or requests to make their data public. Without conversations around frontline community privacy or security needs, and without adequate training, researchers may inadvertently share data in ways that harm frontline communities’ interests. These interests may include common concerns with sensitive or personally identifiable information, but may also relate to community members’ agency and ownership over information about them or collected by them. For example, community members may simply want to know how their data is being used outside of initial research projects. Or they may want to impose restrictions on different users or types of use, or even reject the possibility of data being publicized due to potentially negative economic effects on their subsistence activities or ownership rights.