Transparency, control & choice
People and their whānau have transparency, control and choice over their information
Transparency, control & choice relates to providing clients with options (where possible) around what information we collect, how we collect it, who we share it with, and being transparent about how we use their information.
“Where possible” means that while we aim to increasingly give people choices about what we do with their information, there remain many areas where people will not have choices. For example, we have Approved Information Sharing Agreements with other agencies where information is routinely shared and will continue to be. We also have to ensure that we have the information we need to determine eligibility for, and maintain integrity of, our services. In these areas we aim to be more transparent but will not provide choices around collection, use or sharing of information
Transparency, control & choice is important because…
Public interest in, and expectations about, transparency of information and data use is high. There have been high profile examples of public dissatisfaction in the way that entities manage personal information—both public and non-government, domestic and internationally. This has coincided with changing regulatory environments and expectations internationally and from government (see public sector expectation documents on page 5).
Better use of data and analytics can significantly improve outcomes for our clients, and is one of the cornerstones of enabling MSD’s Future Services Model. The public and Government expect that the use of algorithms and automation is balanced against individual rights. This includes the right to know how decisions affecting them are made and giving choices over how information is used, where this is possible. To deliver the Future Services Model we will need to give more control to people over what we do with their information if we want to operate in line with public expectations and legislation. Being open with people about what we do with their information enhances trust with our clients and demonstrates mana manaaki.
Moving from:
- MSD publishes what information and data that we hold, and how it used to make decisions at a high level. But clients do not have many choices or much visibility of what we do with their specific information, control over what we do with it, or who has access to it.
To:
- Where possible we give people choices about the information they provide, what it’s used for and who it is shared with and respect the choices they make.
- Where there are no choices, we are transparent about our use of their information, who it is shared with and how we use it.
- We proactively publish information about how MSD makes decisions, including what information is used to make those decisions and where the information was collected from.
When this is working well:
We understand what information must be collected to enable us to provide services, and what information we collect for other reasons where we can give people more control over what we do with the information. Where possible, we enable people to choose whether to provide information or not and whether we share it with others and we respect those choices. We make clear what information will be used for and who it will be shared with. We make clear where clients have no choices about our use or sharing of their information, and why not. In order to do this, we need to know why information is collected or created and to be able to track that through our systems so that we can make informed decisions about use and reuse.
Further maturity in the application of our Service Design Principles and Privacy Human Rights and Ethics Framework will enable this. From our roadmap Data & Information Governance, Consent Management, Enterprise Data Model and Information Architecture and Metadata Management will deliver these capabilities.
We make personalised information available, through self-service channels, about how information has been used, who we have shared it with and for what purposes. From our roadmap Enterprise Data Model and Information Architecture, Metadata Management and Master Data Management will deliver these capabilities.
We proactively publish information about how we use personal information to make decisions, where the information was collected from and who it was shared with. From our roadmap Data & Information Governance, Enterprise Data Model and Information Architecture, and Metadata Management will deliver these capabilities.
