Data Sharing Agreements and Licenses

Open data is data that an agency wants to make available to the public. Creative Commons licenses are recommended for all open data. The Creative Commons licenses are designed to provide copyright owners with an efficient way to manage the rights contained in their copyright work, and to provide data users with simple and flexible terms for use. Creative Commons is an internationally recognised licensing standard and has been adopted as the default position for open data in many other jurisdictions. 

Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) allows users to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the data, even commercially, as long as they credit the licensor for the original creation in the terms required by the licensor. CC BY is one of several licences in the Creative Commons licensing suite. 

See the full list of Creative Commons 4.0 license types. 

We are working with agencies to develop tools and approaches that let them customise data sharing agreements and develop data sharing approaches that best meet their needs. 

Currently we are developing a data sharing agreement template with agencies that are involved in data sharing. 

Please let us know if you are seeking guidance on how to create a new data sharing agreement. 

In the meantime, you can find valuable resources at the Information and Privacy Commission’s website on data sharing and privacy that are useful to consider when developing data sharing agreements.

The Data sharing checklist for data owners outlines key undertakings for data owners when sharing data. 

The Data sharing checklist for data requestors outlines key undertakings that data requestors should agree to when applying to use another agency's data. 

Agencies can use tools and assess whether they meet data sharing agreement needs in low risk data sharing scenarios.

The Information Sharing Schedule is used to register a new project under the MoU, and specifies the parties involved and the data to be shared. You must record all projects under the Human Services dataset by registering a Schedule with the Data Analytics Centre (DAC).

To register a Schedule: 

1.    Complete the Information Sharing Schedule template
2.    Request a Schedule register number from datansw@customerservice.nsw.gov.au and provide the following information:
       a.    Parties (i.e., agencies)
       b.    Purpose
       c.    Status (e.g., Draft, Proposed)
       d.    Content Manager (TRIM) reference number
       e.    Anticipated end date

Once the DAC receives the above information, the project will be recorded in the register. You will receive a confirmation email with the register number and the project details, which you will be asked to confirm.

Please note, we do not require a copy of the Schedule or MoU. 

If you already have a Schedule register number and you wish to add a sub-project to an existing Schedule, please follow step 2 above and include your Schedule number in your email to the DAC.