Public trusts NHS on data ethics more than other organisations

A new consumer survey from the Open Data Institute (ODI) has revealed that 59 per cent trust the NHS and healthcare providers to use personal data ethically – the only type of organisation trusted by over half of those surveyed.

The majority of people trust the NHS and healthcare providers to use personal data about them ethically (59 per cent) and almost half trust emergency services (47 per cent). However, less than one in three people trust central government (30 per cent) and local government (31 per cent) to use data about them ethically, and only seven per cent trust public transport providers to do so.

The ODI’s online consumer survey reveals current attitudes of British adults towards the ethical use of personal data. The new survey results back up qualitative research by the ODI and the RSA, which explored how members of the UK public feel about data about them, what they think about having ownership or rights around it, and what kind of control or protection they feel is missing or needs strengthening.

Jeni Tennison, CEO at the Open Data Institute, explained: “The survey shows us that people quite rightly expect organisations to use personal data ethically. Organisations need to respond to their concerns and be more trustworthy in how they collect and use personal data. This is not only the right thing to do, it will help organisations to keep benefiting from the data they rely on and retain the trust of their customers and employees.

“Talking about using data ethically is not enough, organisations need to publicly demonstrate how they do this in order to build trust. At the ODI, we help organisations at any stage in their data journey to think about and respond to important questions, such as: ‘what biases and limitations are there in this data?’ and ‘who could be negatively affected by this project?’.”