Reduce harm to communities
Communities may hesitate to engage in research or collaborative efforts, fearing immediate risks to their safety, dignity, or livelihoods. They may also have deep-rooted mistrust stemming from prior experiences with extractive practices, such as data collection without reciprocal benefit or even intimidation of community members. In contexts involving open infrastructure, concerns around biopiracy, misuse of shared data, or potential exploitation can further compound reluctance. For example, sharing raw environmental sensor data (e.g., about wildlife locations, or air quality indicators) can be misused by commercial interests or bad actors. Community members might fear being stigmatized or criminalized as a result of sharing information that could identify them on any technology—open or proprietary—that lacks clearly defined privacy protections.
Solutions
1.
Invest in data privacy and security
Assess the risks of data sharing and affirm communities' rights not to publish information. Supporting community-led risk assessments, or facilitating these in collaboration with community members, can also enhance community agency. Identify and apply strong security, anonymization, and privacy practices, and share and discuss these practices with community members. If necessary, avoid collecting sensitive data at all. But if you must, have plans to anonymize data on two axes: obscuring identifying information of people (e.g., for storing survey data) and of sensitive locations (e.g., observations of endangered or at-risk species).
2.
Plan for sustained investment
Invest the, often large, time commitment needed to have closer, face-to-face, and sustained interactions with communities, especially if access to or sharing of community data will continue beyond a time-bound project. Ensure that community members are compensated for their time. Similarly, cooperative ownership models can also distribute the financial responsibility for maintaining services among the organizations that rely on them.
3.
Develop data use and sharing agreements
Co-develop and use data sharing agreements to delineate how data can be used—and under what conditions. These agreements can help you anticipate potential harms by identifying safeguards in advance, establishing reporting procedures, and setting expectations for accountability in case of harm. Set audiences to reference Researchers.
Know of another resource or solution?
Resources
The Data Ethics Toolkit (Data Governance)
The Data Ethics Toolkit from the Association for Advancing Participatory Sciences includes worksheets on data governance and report-outs that can help you think through and plan for possible risks associated with community data.
The NIST Privacy Framework
The NIST Privacy Framework, developed by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, helps organizations manage risks by building privacy into their data processing systems.
Eight Commitments
A Better Deal for Data’s Eight Commitments are a good model for pledges to protect communities and their data.
SAFETAG
SAFETAG is a professional framework designed to help civil society organizations assess and improve their digital security. Tailored for low resource contexts, it combines digital security auditing with organizational change. In the site, you can find instructions for creating a risk matrix and conducting a data assessment
OEDP’s Tools and Templates for Community Data
OEDP’s Tools and Templates for Community Data support community data stewards in being able to safely and equitably use and share community environmental data. They include tools like a data values statement template and data use and sharing agreement questions.
Designing a data cooperative to help make our homes more energy efficient
In 'Designing a data cooperative to help make our homes more energy efficient,' Open Data Manchester shares their experience with bringing various small cooperatives together into one larger one.