Finding a sustainable approach to data collection
As cities modernize and advance their services using technology, they are amassing a wealth of information about their people, infrastructure and ecology. But we are beginning to learn that you can collect too much data. How then do we balance the advances we seek from the data we collect with the negative effects of collecting it? The goal is to offer better quality services and products, and more efficiently use resources, but there is always the risk of realizing an unexpected result.
When humans are involved, these risks are high, and the responsibility of data collection cannot be understated. Frequently the amount of data is touted as an indicator of the ability to make the right decision, but what if the amount of data collected is the wrong decision?
For instance, the public has grown concerned with what they view as an invasion of data privacy and governments have responded by placing limits on what and how information can be collected. The result of this is that much data is excluded.
Similarly, awareness of digital exclusion — the lack of access and capacity to use information technology — is increasing. Data harvesters are limited to obtaining information from those that have access to an advanced infrastructure and the knowledge to use it.
Trust and understanding of technology further limit data harvesters to those that are willing to allow access. A survey of more than 1,900 technology consumers found that about two-thirds said that knowing “my data is collected and stored securely” is their number one concern in choosing to share data.
The outcome is that data is being collected from those who are willing and able to share it. However, for those who are not sharing their data, there is the risk they will be excluded from the direct benefits of technology, as well as the indirect benefit of having their voice heard and being counted.
If you consider the types of endeavors a city undertakes, these constraints on data collection demand broader, and not narrower data collection efforts, to mitigate the impact of a skewed population. It’s critical that the information derived from data not be tainted by lack of data. But then what are the implications of the broader data collection effort for the environment?
A push for sustainable solutions
Digital cities that aim to improve the services and quality of life for their citizens must take a balanced approach that considers the data’s purpose, immediate and long-term value, and overall quality. In essence they must collect data about data and establish and implement data organization and normalization.
Doing this enables us to leverage new sustainable solutions that will for example prioritize and consume energy efficiently.
It is estimated that technology consumes 10 percent of the world’s electricity. Storing and transmitting data is estimated to require one percent of the world’s electricity. Data has grown significantly — what was once measured in bytes is now easily measured in terabytes.
The result of harvesting limitless amounts of data is that data requires a tremendous amount of energy and resources — PC computing power, network bandwidth, storage and ultimately data centers that run it all and consume water at a rate of 300,000 to 1 million gallons per day to stay cool enough to broker it all.
Potential solutions range from software code that allows a user to focus processing power on higher value data, to storage that can store the lowest value data with minimal energy consumption.
Establishing a purpose for data collection also supports differential privacy terms. Differential privacy disguises individuals’ information by randomly changing impertinent information that makes it close to impossible to determine someone’s identity. Privacy-conscious individuals may be more inclined to share information if they better understand what is being collected and why.
It requires more effort to normalize data and it remains to be seen how much of a positive impact these efforts can have. The amount of effort could be mitigated through improved software and user Interfaces that simplify and automate data normalization. However, environmental benefit aside, higher quality data has more value in that it can generate better results faster.
Cities must therefore be able to consider the benefit or harm of their data collection efforts and mitigate them through using more modern tools. We are already seeing how public demand is driving technology companies to respond with better solutions, but ultimately, it’s up to us to use them.