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Harvard portal helps track and map use of personal data

“About theDataMaptheDataMap™ is an online portal for documenting flows of personal data. It tells you where your data goes. The goal is to produce a detailed description of personal data flows in the United States. The effort started with health data and is expanding to all other kinds of personal data. The motivation is to help journalists, advocates, regulators, policy makers and researchers understand the current state of personal data sharing so they can do their jobs better. Our aim is to help the helpers. A comprehensive data map will encourage new uses of personal data, help innovators find new data sources, and educate the public and inform policy makers on data sharing practices so society can act responsibly to reap benefits from sharing while addressing risks for harm. With funding from the Knight Foundation, we will launch a portal that engages members of the public in a game-like environment to report and vet reports of personal data sharing and to participate in data visualization and analysis competitions.” [theDataMap™ operates as a research project in the Data Privacy Lab, a program in the Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) at Harvard University. The project leader is Professor Latanya Sweeney.]

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