Open Data Round-Up: 02/08/13

One of the biggest debates in the open data world at the moment is all about openness vs. privacy, something fuelled by the launch of the midata Innovation Lab a few weeks ago.

There have been a number of stories related to this debate in the news this week:

• Dan Bates of midata gave an interview to ctrl_shift this week about his vision for the future of the midata lab
• Nigel Shadbolt also ran a twitter Q&A on the midata programme
• US company Abine launched a browser add-on called ‘MaskMe’ which creates online aliases so you don’t have to give companies your real information online. Of course you do then have to trust Abine with your personal data to enable this service…

In other Open Data-related news this week:

• The Open Data Institute announced their Autumn events programme which includes an exciting selection of Friday Lunchtime Lectures
• The UK Government’s Open Data User Group has put out a call for new members

So what do you think? Can we have open data at the same time as protecting privacy? How comfortable are you with sharing personal data online?