Unlocking the value of public sector personal information through coproduction

Abstract

In their day-to-day operations, public sector organizations collect and use huge amounts of information that if made available for re-use would contribute to economic growth. Much of this information directly or indirectly can lead to the identification of ‘natural persons’ and, as such, the personal data protection regulation applies to it. According to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) issued by the EU in 2016, unless it is regulated by a specific legislation, personal information can be processed only based on the data subject’s explicit consent. This raises the question of what strategies public organizations could implement to make the data subjects willing to allow the (possible) re-use of their personal information. By elaborating on evidences from the economics and the psychology of privacy literature, the paper suggests that public sector organizations can implement a coproduction strategy to unlock the value of public sector personal information in a user-centric personal information ecosystem. More specifically, the paper argues that the data subjects can be made more willing to consent to the processing (and possibly to the re-use) of personal information by involving them as coproducers in the processes through which public sector organizations can support economic growth in the digital society.