How we’ll get there
3A: Build community trust with strong and fit for purposes approaches to privacy and security
Our aim is to ensure that the NSW Government is coordinated, transparent and trusted in its data practices. This includes being proactive and accountable in protecting and sharing data while also using it to best effect.
The way personal and sensitive information is handled and used is changing as technology advances. Governments are increasingly implementing safe data sharing practices to generate more holistic views and valuable insights that were previously unavailable. Advances in technology can also enhance protection of personal information.
To build community trust and social licence, the NSW Government must use and manage data responsibly and accountably. It must also provide true and clear information to the community about its data practices.
Advances and innovation in data use must be accompanied by effective data security and privacy mechanisms at the regulatory, policy and practice levels, along with exploring suitable approaches to social licence testing.
- Explore privacy enhancing technologies that make data sharing safer
- Monitor and assess the regulatory environment for data privacy and sharing and assess the need for regulatory change
- Inform the community about how government uses, manages and protects data
- Explore approaches to building and testing social licence
- We are improving ways to detect and mask personal information. The Data Analytics Centre, Department of Customer Service has developed a Personally Identifiable Information (PII) detection and masking tool using machine learning. The tool protects personal information without affecting the ability to use the data to gain valuable insights.
- NSW Transport is improving road safety through its Mobile Phone Detection Camera program. The program uses AI software to detect and review cases of illegal mobile phone use while driving, with several stages of human review and strict security and privacy protocols. Since its introduction, there has been a decline in camera-detected mobile phone offences with the rate falling from 1 in 82 drivers detected during a pilot period in 2019 to around 1 in 649 drivers detected over a 12-month period in 2023.
- NSW Transport is improving the way that personal information in images (for example, from speed cameras) is protected. By developing AI assessment processes and data retention policies, faces and vehicle registration plates are automatically blurred.
- The NSW Government listens to the experiences and views of customers through Customer Experience Surveys. It is one of the largest public sector surveys of its kind in the world. The results are used to drive continuous improvement of services across the sector.
- The NSW Government has updated its AI Assessment Framework to enhance risk management and assure safe, ethical and responsible use of AI, particularly generative AI, including data security and privacy. This is crucial to maintaining public trust in government.
3B: Shared approach to emerging trends and technologies, including AI
The exponential advancement and uptake of AI technologies in recent years, highlights the need for government to take a planned, coordinated approach to addressing the challenges and opportunities of innovation. This includes being proactive in managing data practice implications.
A siloed approach to managing emerging technologies is likely to result in inefficient and inconsistent practice and duplication of effort.
Our aim is to embed proactive and shared methods for managing technological change. This includes developing strong data capability and literacy fundamentals along with coordinated solutions.
- Collectively develop a cross-sector plan and register of use cases to leverage emerging technologies
- The NSW AI strategy sets the direction for data management practices that support safe and ethical use of AI
- Homes NSW in the Department of Communities and Justice, conducted a survey to ge input from the community about delivering better outcomes for people seeking housing and homelessness assistance. There were an unprecedented 5,000 responses to the survey. The Data Analytics Centre, Department of Customer Service assisted Homes NSW to quickly draw insights from the survey responses by conducting an in-depth thematic analysis within 2 weeks using Artificial Intelligence (AI) modelling. The analysis provided a holistic view with thematic groupings on areas that NSW Homes should prioritise, maintain or change.
- The Data Analytics Centre, Department of Customer Service have developed an interactive tool that allows Revenue NSW to identify non-compliance relating to land tax and duties. The tool also includes an efficient, secure and user-friendly chat interface to search for Australian Securities and Investments Commission data.
- NSW school students can safely explore the benefits of generative AI through NSWEduChat. By using NSWEduChat, students can engage with AI confidently, knowing it's purpose-built to support teaching and learning in NSW. EduChat offers a protected environment that prioritises data privacy and student safety, addressing the potential risks associated with generative AI use, such as exposure to harmful or inappropriate content.
- Talk to the updated AI assessment framework from a data perspective?