[Index]
Internet, Statistics and Privacy
Geneva, 13 March 2001
"Information and communication technologies (ICT) have opened up
a wide range of new possibilities to collect and use statistics for decision-making and
policy. However, ICT have also endangered the basic right to privacy, creating new risks
of disclosing private information belonging to individuals and businesses," says
Jana Meliskova of the Statistical Division of the United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe (UNECE), commenting on the UNECE-Eurostat Meeting on the Management of
Statistical Information Technology held a few days ago in Geneva. The rapid progress of
ICT has had a significant impact on users and uses of statistics, fostering the
international comparability of data, accuracy and timeliness, and minimising the burden on
respondents to questionnaires.
Electronic data reporting via Internet enables an easy and frequent
access to the balance sheet of business enterprises, their production and employment data
and stock market valuations. Use of e-mails and Internet services at work make it possible
to have up-to-the-minute information about employees, working time and work relations.
Prices in stores and supermarkets, and expenditures via credit cards can be observed on a
daily basis so that inflation and consumption indicators could be produced very frequently
and almost automatically. Such "real time" indicators were totally unthinkable
using the traditional technologies for data collection based on paper questionnaires.
A most significant challenge however lies in providing an
infrastructure, methods and tools that protect data confidentiality and guarantee data
security to the benefit of statistical respondents and clients. Other new problems arise
that statistical managers must solve. These include: (a) standardisation of concepts and
statistical definitions so that business information and statistical data have an
identical interpretation, (b) increasing awareness of the importance of data quality, (c)
the necessity to re-engineer statistical applications, and (d) continuous training and
re-qualification of statistical staff.
What are the major challenges and opportunities for statistical offices
working in a network and ICT-intensive environment? How can new approaches to design and
implementation of data warehousing increase the quality of statistical production? What
improvements should be introduced in the resource management of data providers? How can
the quality of ICT management be improved? These and many other questions were discussed
at this first jointly organized UNECE-Eurostat Meeting on the Management of Statistical
Information Technology. About 80 ICT statistical managers from 29 UNECE member
countries, Eurostat, IMF, OECD and many other international organizations attended this
meeting.
Although the potential for applying in a systematic way the latest ICT
to statistics in many countries is quite high, the meeting showed that measures for the
improvement of data quality through ICT are in many ECE member countries still at an early
stage of development. The Geneva meeting clearly confirmed that international co-operation
and transfer of know-how in this area are indispensable.
More information could be found on the following address:
http://www.unece.org/stats/documents/2001.02.msit.htm
For more information please contact:
Jana Meliskova
Team Leader, Team on EDP and related matters
Statistical Division
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
Palais des Nations
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: +41 22 917 4150
Fax: +41 22 917 0040
E-mail: [email protected]
Ref: ECE/STAT/01/02