The minutes for each meeting of the Data Ethics Advisory Group between 2019 and 2022, grouped by date, are summarised here.
Advisory Group: Professor Colin Simpson (Chair), Kate O’Connor, Dr Will Koning.
Stats NZ Officials: Caleb Johnstone, General Manager – Data System Policy; Tennille Maxey, Manager – Data System Policy; Gillian Parry – Contractor, Data System Policy; Caleb Stone, Data Broker – Integrated Data.
Secretariat: Ellen Cox, Governance and Executive Secretariat
Item Two: Department of Internal Affairs (DIA). Justin Rowlands, GM Te Pou Manawa, Tim Waldron, Manager Business and Market Development, Grant Stark Principal Advisor – Identity and Biometrics
The Chair welcomed members and officials to the meeting and a karakia was given.
No conflicts of interest were noted for this item. Though one member is working on a project to migrate identity data with DIA.
A presentation was given, and discussion was held with DIA representatives on their work with Identity Check and plans regarding Digital Verifiable Identity Credentials (VICs). The purpose of the Digital Identity project is to unlock Aotearoa’s digital services ecosystem and economy.
Managing, maintaining, and storing official identity information is a key service for DIA and they regard this information as a taonga. The intention is to give control to individuals of their information.
There is a recognition that there is a growing interest from the public on the social licence for use of biometric/facial recognition by the public and private sectors, and it is important to navigate this context with care.
The benefits of the project include time and money savings, removing the constraints to access services, and ensuring agencies are only collecting the information they need.
The Groups discussion identified issues on the following topics, Digital inclusion and equity, risks and benefits, engagement with key communities, trust and confidence in the government holding personal data, fraud protection features and accessibility, Digital Trust Legislation before the House, and similar digital identity issues over overseas and lessons learnt.
Approval of previous meeting minutes and forward agenda reviewed
Stats NZ Officials provided the group with a verbal update on the proposed Centre of Data Ethics and Innovation
Discussion was held regarding the support available to DEAG under the terms of reference
An updated Terms of reference was presented to the group for feedback and discussion. Further updates were requested.
Next steps were discussed and meeting closed.
Advisory Group: Professor Colin Simpson (Chair), Kate O’Connor, Dr Will Koning.
Stats NZ Officials: Dr Craig Jones, Deputy Chief Executive – Data System Leadership; Caleb Johnstone, General Manager – Data System Policy; Tennille Maxey, Manager – Data System Policy; Jess Buck – Senior Advisor, Data System Policy; Caleb Stone, Data Broker – Integrated Data.
Secretariat: Ellen Cox, Governance and Executive Secretariat
The meeting was opened with a welcome and karakia from the Chair. Introductions were made.
An update on the current direction and priorities for the Data Ethics Advisory Group and the role of the GCDS in fostering trust and confidence and broader work to improve visibility and examine settings for the ethical use of data was held. It was noted that the group was seen as an important mechanism to support trust and confidence in addressing complex data use issues.
This session focussed on the operating model for the group and refreshing the approach taken to providing advice to initiatives.
It was agreed that that agencies should be encouraged to engage with the group at early stages of an initiative when they are more formative, rather than be seen as a compliance exercise or too late to influence the direction. This way the Group would have meaningful impact and provide a space for agencies to test thinking as it develops in away that improves effectiveness and reduces risk
Current membership of the group was discussed.
The Secretariat and Stats NZ Officials were asked to prepare a draft appointments process for new members.
A discussion was held focussing on the forward agenda for the group, and projects identified of being of interest to the group were noted.
Next steps were discussed, and a review of the Terms of Reference was requested of the Secretariat.
A summary of the meeting agenda - 03 June 2020
Advisory Group: Professor Juliet Gerrard (Chair), Dr Amohia Boulton, Dr Will Koning, Dr Nessa Lynch, Kirikowhai Mikaere, Professor Colin Simpson, Kate O'Connor, Dr Ang Jury
Stats NZ secretariat: Dale Elvy, Travis Ancelet, Nienke van Dijken
(Virtual meeting on Teams)
Professor Gerrard opened the virtual meeting of the Group by welcoming all of its members.
There were no conflicts of interest declared for this item.
The Group discussed changes made to their draft guidance based on additional information and detailed discussions with the Ministry of Education. Members agreed that some minor changes were needed before the guidance could be finalised. Members agreed that once these modifications were made, the guidance could be finalised.
The Group briefly discussed the Stats NZ submission and then identified several potential experts who could provide valuable input related to the item.
The Group agreed to provide the secretariat with the names of some experts so that the secretariat could coordinate the experts’ attendance at the next meeting.
The Group discussed papers produced for them on international data ethics frameworks and a case study of a similar data ethics group in the United Kingdom.
The Group agreed that the papers provided useful context and would be beneficial for them moving forward. They also agreed to publish the papers on the Group’s website.
Members reviewed the current forward agenda of items submitted to the Group and outlined the items they consider high priority for discussing at future meetings.
The meeting closed with members indicating that they would like to have a full meeting in-person in the near future.
A summary of the meeting agenda - 19 May 2020
Advisory Group: Professor Juliet Gerrard (Chair), Dr Amohia Boulton, Dr Will Koning, Dr Nessa Lynch, Kirikowhai Mikaere, Professor Colin Simpson
Stats NZ secretariat: Dale Elvy, Travis Ancelet, Nienke van Dijken
Apologies: Dr Ang Jury, Kate O’Connor
(Virtual meeting on Teams)
Professor Gerrard opened the first virtual meeting of the Group by welcoming all of its members.
Apologies were extended on behalf of Dr Ang Jury and Kate O’Connor.
Professor Simpson declared a potential conflict of interest regarding costings he received from Data Ventures for inclusion into two research grant proposals. It was noted that the costings and research proposals were undertaken after the Group had developed draft guidance for Data Ventures. Based on this, the Group unanimously agreed that there was no need for Professor Simpson to be excluded from the discussion on finalising the guidance.
The Group had a brief discussion about the draft guidance they had developed for Data Ventures around their Population Density Project. Members agreed to finalise the guidance after one minor change was made.
The secretariat provided the Group with a summary of the submissions received to date and an overview of current discussions with agencies interested in bringing their work to the Group.
A short prioritisation discussion was had to inform the items that would be considered in the Group’s next meeting.
Ahead of the Group’s formal review, the Group discussed how they feel the year has gone, how they should operate in the future, and whether the current membership structure of the Group is appropriate.
The secretariat began the discussion by providing a summary of how the Group was established and its members were selected. The discussion then shifted to the upcoming review of the Group and the secretariat provided a brief overview about how the review would operate and what the Group could expect the review to consider.
Once the scene-setting was complete, each member of the Group provided their insights about the Group’s operation and what should be considered as part of the Group’s review. Common themes brought up by members included:
The Group also had some discussion around making sure that their role was never seen as creating too many obstacles or overly critical. It will be important to get the right balance.
Group members had a free-form discussion about their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic and reflected on the changes they had seen in their professional and personal environments.
Members also shared their perspectives on how they were seeing data used locally and internationally.
The meeting closed with members indicating their willingness to have another virtual meeting in around a fortnight.
A summary of the meeting agenda - 20 November 2019
Advisory Group: Professor Juliet Gerrard (Chair), Dr Amohia Boulton, Dr Ang Jury, Kirikowhai Mikaere, Dr Nessa Lynch, Kate O’Connor, Professor Colin Simpson.
Item contributors:
Guest experts:
Stats NZ Secretariat: Travis Ancelet, Sabena Blackhall, Dale Elvy.
Apologies: Dr Will Koning.
Professor Gerrard opened the day by welcoming our returning members and reaffirming the Group’s role as a friendly mechanism established to advise rather than chastise.
The Group also extended their welcomes and made introductions to the Group’s new member, Kirikowhai Mikaere, who will fill the seat reserved for a representative of the Māori Co-Design Group whilst it is being established.
Members formally co-opted Dr Ana Koloto, Director Research and Evaluation at the Ministry for Pacific Peoples, into the Group for this meeting. Dr Koloto was invited to attend this meeting at the request of the Group Chair. This was to ensure that the perspective of Pacific Peoples was adequately represented given the potential impacts of the Equity Index.
Apologies were extended on behalf of Will Koning who was unable to attend the meeting.
The Group discussed whether they were happy with how the previous meeting had been run and where they thought improvements could be made. Through discussion members requested:
Members considered and approved the move to a 2-stage triage format for receiving submissions. This would involve submitting agencies completing a short form to allow the Group to make decisions on whether and when an item makes it onto a meeting agenda. Successful agencies would then complete a longer, more detailed form closer to the date of the relevant meeting to ensure up-to-date information for discussion.
Members discussed the work they were hoping the Group’s new intern would undertake. The intern is currently anticipated to undertake an international stocktake of similar groups and their work, and produce a paper for the Group’s use and reference. The scope of this work will be refined in discussion with members.
Members approved the Group operating documents:
Please note that, in variance to the agenda provided, the Group used the remainder of the time set aside for approving documents to discuss their questions on the Equity Index ahead of meeting with Ministry of Education representatives.
There were no conflicts of interest declared ahead of discussing the Equity Index.
The Group was provided with a presentation on the Equity Index being developed by the Ministry of Education. This was led by Damian Edwards, who was supported in his presentation by Philip Stevens, Stuart McNaughton, and Allan Vester.
Members queried several aspects of the Index before deliberating what they had heard, in private without the item contributors present.
The Group identified some areas where they required further information from the Ministry of Education ahead of formulating their advice and this was requested by the Secretariat following the meeting.
The meeting closed with members requesting that a teleconference call be set up between members ahead of delivering their final guidance so that they could discuss the additional information requested from the Ministry.
Members also reviewed the current forward agenda of items submitted to the Group and outlined the items they consider high-priority for discussing at future meetings.
A summary of the meeting agenda - 11 September 2019
Advisory Group: Professor Juliet Gerrard (Chair), Dr Amohia Boulton, Dr Ang Jury, Dr Nessa Lynch, Dr Will Koning, Kate O’Connor, Professor Colin Simpson
Guest expert: Liz MacPherson, Government Chief Data Steward
Item contributor: Robert Chiu, Data Lead, Data Ventures
Stats NZ secretariat: Sabena Blackhall, Dale Elvy
Liz MacPherson opened the day with her ambitions for the Group, grounding members in its origin, development and the role she sees it fulfilling in the data landscape.
Liz then provided an overview of the wider landscape in which the Group sits, highlighting existing ethics framework and initiatives, before highlighting the need to streamline and standardise these approaches – a role she sees the group playing a key part in.
Professor Gerrard built on the foundation laid by Liz, outlining the importance of establishing the Group as a supportive mechanism to guide and improve the ethics of data use across government. She emphasised that, as an unknown, people may have reservations about the Group but that these should be viewed as opportunities.
The Group then delivered individual introductions of themselves outlining their skills, experience and where they felt there is need to add value to the ethics and safeguards of the current data system.
The Group then focussed on discussing and refining their operations. This included:
A conflict of interest was declared by Will Koning with regards to his company’s proposed use of Data Ventures products.
The Group were provided with a presentation on the Population Density product being developed by Data Ventures. This was led by Robert Chiu, Data Lead, Data Ventures.
Members queried several aspects of the project before deliberating what they had heard in private, without the Data Ventures representative present.
The Group identified some areas where they required further information from Data Ventures ahead of formulating their advice and this was requested by the secretariat following the meeting.
Group guidance on Population Density Project Pilot
The meeting concluded with the Group requesting that updated copies of operational documents be circulated ahead of the next meeting.