In March of 2023, Taiwan’s government began implementing its “6000 Cash for Everyone” policy, distributing part of a tax revenue surplus to citizens in the form of cash payments. The government’s Opendata Platform (data.gov.tw) released information on ATMs where people could collect their NT$6,000 payments, including their map coordinates and their accessibility for handicapped people. After these data were published, the social media platform Line used this dataset to make a map of ATM locations to make it easier for people to find them.

Many international data experts have emphasized that making data public can promote innovation and enable it to be used in the public interest, driving societal progress. In Taiwan, where information and communications technology is highly developed, there have long been examples of “data altruism” all around us. For example, during the Covid-19 crisis, when the government made its data on stocks of surgical masks, vaccines, and rapid test kits publicly available, private-sector individuals and organizations with hi-tech skills wrote software to create maps detailing the availability of these items. They even took into account the needs of people with visual impairments by producing voice-based inquiry systems. These are all examples of public benefits produced by value-added applications of data.

Digital affairs minister Audrey Tang says that strengthened privacy protection technology enables non-personal data to be kept completely separate from personal data. Promoting innovative use of data for the public good is a focus of the Ministry of Digital Affairs’ work.

Social impact of big data

For value-added data applications to be able to promote the development of an ideal society, public access to data is critical. In Taiwan, the government began to implement its open data policy in 2012, and the following year the Opendata Platform came online. This not only made governance more transparent, it enabled the private sector to create value-added applications for the data, thereby stimulating the rise of more innovative services.

The Opendata Platform has been up and running for ten years now, and in order to enhance the usefulness of datasets and better meet the needs of the public, the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) has been gathering opinions from stakeholders throughout society and has established a special section on the Opendata website for types of data that are of high value to society. It covers six categories: climate and environment, disaster preparedness and response, transportation, health and medical care, energy management, and social assistance. These are all topics of urgent concern that need input from everyone to find solutions.

However, making data publicly accessible may be easier said than done, and often requires coordination between the public and private sectors. The Thaubing Footprint Project of the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance (GCAA) is a case in point. The project’s name means “transparency footprint,” from Taiwanese thàu-bîng (Mandarin touming), “transparent.” In the past, environmental movements have always been associated with on-site protests. “We have been continually thinking about how to overcome this dilemma for environmental movements and create a space for mutual dialogue,” says GCAA vice secretary general Tseng Hung-wen.

The GCAA’s first step was to promote open access to environmental data. After countless negotiations between the GCAA and the government, monitoring data on enterprises’ waste gas and wastewater emissions, and records of violations, became open government data. Moreover, with help from the GCAA and the tech community, these data were compiled into databases and posted on the Thaubing Footprint website. Tseng says that the website is now accessed by about 100,000 visitors per month, and it can be used for example by brand owners to monitor their supply chains, or by financial institutions to confirm eligibility for “green finance.” The project turns environmental data into a tool for citizen oversight and encourages businesses to fulfill their environmental and social responsibilities.

The government’s Opendata Platform (data.gov.tw) has been online for ten years. Recently a special section on high-value data applications was added to the site to encourage innovation. (Internet screenshot)

To implement the “Cash for Everyone” policy, the government not only created Chinese- and English-language websites, it also published a dataset of ATM locations. (Internet screenshots)

Using data to protect the environment

To raise public awareness of the issue of industrial pollution, the GCAA next considered the question of how to integrate environmental data into citizens’ lives. The GCAA linked records of enterprises’ environmental violations to product information to develop a mobile app called “Thaobing Footprint 2.0—Scan Before Buying,” launched in 2020. Consumers need only scan a product’s barcode or input keywords and the app will immediately display records of any violations by the manufacturer, enabling users to judge whether it behaves in an environmentally friendly manner.

This creative format for citizen participation has attracted attention from overseas. A Japanese TV station and magazines reported on this app, and it was even named a “Best Hidden Gem” on Google Play’s “Best Apps of 2020” list.

Given the international community’s pursuit of net-zero carbon emissions, in 2022 the GCAA came out with “Thaubing Footprint 3.0—ESG Detector,” a database of corporate environmental, social, and governance performance. It draws together data that were scattered around the Opendata Platform and voluminous corporate social responsibility reports and organizes them into 60 indicators for monitoring businesses’ ESG performance, creating Taiwan’s first free public ESG database. Besides enabling the public to monitor enterprises’ fulfillment of their carbon reduction commitments, the ESG Detector’s net zero simulator allows users to examine carbon-­reduction trends, so that “greenwashing” enterprises have nowhere to hide.

The Thaubing Footprint Project, which the GCAA has been pursuing for several years now, creates opportunities for using open data as a tool for managing environmental problems, and it has prompted numerous legislative amendments. Tseng Hung-wen observes that the program is a step in the right direction.

The Thaubing Footprint Project makes environmental monitoring data and records of enterprises’ violations of environmental regulations publicly accessible. GCAA vice secretary general Tseng Hung-wen (left) believes that open data can provide an impetus for change.

The “Scan Before Buying” app lets consumers examine records of penalties imposed on product manufacturers for environmental violations, to judge whether the enterprises operate in an environmentally friendly manner.

Innovation for the public good

In fact, Taiwan has long been moving forward in creating value-added applications that enable data to be used to benefit society, and since the founding of MODA, data altruism has become a focal point of government policy. The government is not necessarily the only source of data, and it is hoped that users and private enterprises will under­stand the public good that can be achieved using data, and will take the initiative to contribute data themselves.

MODA is working in a number of ways to promote data altruism, one of which is the first ever “Public Welfare Innovation—Call for 100 Proposals.”

Looking over the selected proposals, one that really stands out is a plan for an e-Foodbank that was submitted jointly by the social enterprise Guppy Inclusive and the Taipei-based Jen Ji Shiang Social Service Institute. The Jen Ji Shiang foodbank, launched by Fang Hesheng, a neighborhood chief in Taipei’s Wanhua District, had always operated by accepting donations of products nearing their sell-by date from companies and distributing them to needy families. Previously, to keep up their brand image, enterprises would remove products from their shelves well before their expiration dates and burn them as trash, but the founding of the foodbank resolved that problem.

When Fang made the acquaintance of Guppy Inclusive founder Bill Lin, the two men had the idea to ship goods from western Taiwan to the eastern counties of Hualien and Taitung. They created a transportation sharing platform and recruited individuals or companies that were planning to go traveling in Eastern Taiwan and were willing to use empty space in their vehicles to carry goods to a depot in Hualien, where they would be met by local pastors who would distribute the goods to disadvantaged families.

Lin, who has many years’ experience in e-commerce, wanted to expand the impact of this platform. He used technology to make the movement of goods transparent, with everything from home visits by pastors to assess family needs to transportation logistics all integrated into the same system. Lin also enlisted the help of a team of young people with expertise in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to try to convert each and every altruistic action into cryptocurrency (“good person currency” or “carbon currency”) which is then distributed to everyone who lends a hand in the food delivery process.

The social enterprise Guppy Inclusive and the Jen Ji Shiang foodbank founded by Fang Hesheng have collaborated to develop a platform that allows citizens to share empty space in their vehicles to transport goods to Hualien and Taitung. (Internet screenshot)

The social enterprise Guppy Inclusive and the Jen Ji Shiang foodbank founded by Fang Hesheng (wearing red in photo at right) have collaborated to develop a platform that allows citizens to share empty space in their vehicles to transport goods to Hualien and Taitung. (courtesy of Guppy Inclusive)

Strengthening privacy protections

When many people hear about data collection and analysis, they often connect this with the collection of personal information for illegal purposes.

However, digital affairs minister Audrey Tang explains that within Taiwan’s legal framework, “data” and “personal information” are two separate realms. This is similar to the situation in the European Union, where the relevant laws and regulations draw a distinction between “personal data” (PD) and “non-personal data” (NPD). Where Taiwan’s legislation refers to shuju (“data”), the definition excludes personal data, which is termed geren ziliao (“personal information”). “Because the definition of data does not include personal information, no matter how ‘data’ is used, personal information will not be exposed,” says Tang firmly.

However, precisely because people may easily get confused between personal and non-personal data, there has been an international trend in recent years to seek ways to build a foundation of trust between data holders and data users. Tang states: “On the one hand we have been guiding government ministries and agencies to introduce stronger technologies for privacy protection, while on the other we have published technical guidelines for legal certification which we have supplied to other countries for reference.”

The spirit of digital altruism is to make data publicly available to be utilized in the public interest, on a basis of mutual trust. Just as the GCAA has made the source code for the ESG Detector available under the MIT License system, Bill Lin also hopes that once the e-Foodbank system is fully developed, its underlying blockchain transparency will enable it to be utilized by charitable organizations worldwide and to serve as a platform for non-governmental organizations to manage social return on investment (SROI). Audrey Tang further mentions that in releasing ATM data for the Cash for Everyone policy, the government hoped to inspire the private sector to bring its own innovative ideas into play. Data altruism depends on broad public participation, and we can all play a part in helping to make the world a better place.

Guppy Inclusive founder Bill Lin (second from left) and his team have used technology to create the e-Foodbank in order to expand the impact of their sharing platform and get more people involved in carbon reduction for the public good.