Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

article thumbnail

Human Rights and the Duty to Protect Sensitive Data

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

Privacy protections that ensure your doctor treats your information securely were mandated under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Yet, when humanitarian and social justice workers venture into the developing world to gather sensitive information, elementary privacy protections are often neglected.

Data 176
article thumbnail

Data and the Human Touch

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

These stories about the needs in our communities are data points of real, positive change. Data is now a core resource. We’re witnessing how data-driven insights are becoming a prerequisite in decision-making and in the practical work of policy and social service organizations. Data without context has little value.

Data 168
professionals

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Big Data Means More Than Big Profits

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

This post originally appeared as part of an online debate about How Big Data Can Have a Social Impact, which the Harvard Business Review Blog Network hosted jointly with the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. Big Data is all the rage in Silicon Valley. But can Big Data also create positive social change?

Profit 171
article thumbnail

Crowdsourced data is not a substitute for real statistics

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

Guest Beneblog by Patrick Ball, Jeff Klingner, and Kristian Lum After the earthquake in Haiti, Ushahidi organized a centralized text messaging system to allow people to inform others about people trapped under damaged buildings and other humanitarian crises. Kristian Lum has analyzed data from the same sources that the JRC team used.

article thumbnail

Benetech Human Rights Data Analysts Uncover Critical Evidence

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

As the worldwide debate continues about the release of government information by Wikileaks, history has shown that the uncovering of government data can be an important factor in human rights investigations. HRDAG analysis of formerly hidden data has promoted respect for human rights and raised the cost of crimes against humanity.

Chad 124
article thumbnail

More on Using Crowdsourced Data to Find Big Picture Patterns (Take 3)

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

You're absolutely right that information quality comes from people and that data's fitness for a particular purpose is very contextual. To continue in this direction, let’s look at how people use this information. The people who are in most need of information about humanitarian disasters are the organized responders.

Picture 140
article thumbnail

Release of Liberia Human Rights Data

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

We are pleased to announce the publication of the data and the accompanying data dictionary from the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. All of personal information has been removed from the published dataset to protect the identities of the victims and statement givers.

Liberia 100