Navigating the new energy landscape
5
DATA RIGHTS, SECURITY AND QUALITY: HANDLE WITH CARE
With many businesses likely to use specialist third party analytics companies to crunch numbers, impact assessments and well-thought-out contractual agreements must be in place before information is handed over. As Williamson said: Data is now very much a boardroom issue – from the value perspective but also from the risk side. There needs to be rigour and proactivity around managing it. It was a view echoed by Olivier Thereaux, whose view was that like any other risk, data should be subject to corporate risk management processes. “We need to stop thinking about data risk in binary terms of ‘risky/non-risky’ and start seeing it as something that can be mitigated,” he said. With “mindblowing” numbers of data points being created, questions around quality of data came into sharp relief. The possibility of “garbage in, garbage out” as coders put it (whereby inaccurate or unreliable inputs will lead to inaccurate or unreliable outputs) looms large. As the system is modernised over the next decade or so, it’s essential to know where data comes from and how it is constructed, to improve system design and management and ultimately achieve better outcomes for consumers, according to BarnabyWharton.
Clyde & Co’s Mark Williamson and Tom Tippett urged delegates to consider the “rights, restrictions and obligations” of data. Although that there are no property rights here as there are for physical assets, nonetheless data might be subject to contractual terms in relation to the way it can be used, or intellectual property rights may apply. The point was made that having data does not mean there is carte blanche to use or share it, even if it has the potential to deliver a major benefit beyond the commercial sphere to society at large. The message was: handle with care. To help cut through what can seem a daunting “spiderweb” of possible permutations for authorisation to use, store or share data, implementing an organisation-wide data strategy is essential to ensure legal compliance. This will help direct focus, zeroing in on what data a business has, wants and needs and what it must do to leverage or protect it, e.g. via specific clauses in contracts, or by anonymising or segregating data to make it more secure. Importantly given the reputational and financial costs of mishandled data, such measures will enable organisations to get their approach right from the start.
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