Thread by @EinsteinsAttic

So @cabinetofficeuk (@GDSTeam) has updated the #DataEthicsFramework for government and the public sector today - the first version of which was published by @MattHancock in 2018, when he was at @DCMS:
gov.uk/government/pub…

Two obvious questions:

1) Where are the published...

...ratings for all of the government & public sector data projects / programmes that have been started since 2018?

A framework that neither demands nor provides publicly visible outputs surely fails on two of its own 'overarching principles'; #transparency and #accountability...

2) Other than "consult with your team leader", what happens when a project 'fails' the framework - say a national programme that doesn't do a #DPIA, or a body that employs a #discriminatory #algorithm?

An 'ethics' framework without meaningful #consequences ain't #ethical at all.

It's fine that the Government keeps putting out papers. I'm sure it's keeping you all busy - and some of us are even reading them*.

But in the name of all that is holy, when are we going to see some actual, testable results?!

Here's a suggestion...
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*

https://twitter.com/GavinFreeguard/status/1305424923259817986?s=19

...I mentioned a couple of examples above; in case it's not obvious they were #TestandTrace & @ofqual's 'mutant algorithm'.

So how about publishing the #DataEthics ratings for each of these at the point they were launched on the public, what action was subsequently taken, and...

...the new rating so the public can see how gov't rates itself #ethically, what it does when it screws up, and whether this #DataEthicsFramework makes any real contribution.

Or it could just sit there for another 2 years, until the next update - with no measurable output at all.