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Online advertising is now the dominant form of advertising in many OECD countries, and offers businesses the ability to reach consumers in ways that could only have been imagined previously. Online advertising has the potential to benefit consumers through more relevant and timely advertising, and by funding a host of “free” online services. However, it also raises some new and complex challenges for consumers and consumer protection authorities. This report by the OECD’s Committee on Consumer Policy provides an introduction to the complex landscape that is online advertising. It outlines the potential benefits and risks for consumers, drawing on the behavioural insights literature where relevant.
In October 2021, twenty-one OECD countries and partner economies participated in an online product safety sweep to identify the degree to which products were available for sale online despite (i) being banned or recalled, (ii) having inadequate labelling or (iii) not meeting voluntary or mandatory product safety standards. Results reveal that large volumes of unsafe products are readily traded across borders and a 79% average rate of non-compliance (or potential non-compliance) with product safety standards and laws. More needs to be done by online marketplaces and other retailers to identify and remove unsafe product listings and by consumer authorities to deter non-compliance.
This paper highlights the main principles, concepts and criteria framing open government data initiatives and the issues challenging their implementation. It underlines the opportunities that OGD and data analytics may offer policy makers, while providing a note of caution on the challenges this agenda poses for the public sector.
Finally, the overall analysis of key concepts and issues aims to pave the way for an empirical analysis of OGD initiatives. So far, little has been done to analyse and prove the impact and accrued value of these initiatives. The paper suggests a methodology comprising an analytical framework for OGD initiatives (to be applied to ex post and ex ante analysis of initiatives) and a related set of data to be collected across OECD countries. The application of the analytical framework and the collection of data would enable the acquisition of a solid body of evidence that could ultimately lead to mapping initiatives across OECD countries (i.e. a typography of initiatives) and developing a common set of metrics to consistently assess impact and value creation within and across countries.
Digitalisation is fundamentally changing science and the paper lays out some of the opportunities, risks and major policy challenges associated with these changes. More specifically, the paper lays out a conceptual framework for open science. This framework incorporates access to data and information, as well as civil society engagement, in the different stages of the scientific research process. It is not meant to be prescriptive but should help different communities to decide on their own priorities within the open science space and to better visualise how these priorities link to different stage of the scientific process and to different actors. Such a framework can be useful also in considering how best to incentivise and measure different aspects of open science.
Open finance enables the sharing of, and access to, financial sector data. This paper analyses the benefits, risks and implementation challenges of Open finance and provides policy recommendations for the safe and successful implementation of such data-sharing frameworks in finance. It considers the impacts of providing access to customers’ financial data and how to do this responsibly and safely, with due consideration for data privacy. The paper also discusses other consumer safeguards, notably related to consent and liability. Finally, it considers whether there is a need to support the development of technical infrastructure to promote data interoperability.
Citizen engagement is being promoted in many countries as a mechanism to improve the efficiency, quality and relevance of research and improve transparency and trust in science. At the same time, digitalisation is opening up new opportunities for consultation and exchange with citizens. This report includes an analysis of 7 different initiatives to engage citizens in the co-design of research agendas . These cases varied considerably in their scientific focus, geographic scale and overall aims and methodology. Nevertheless a number of consistent messages came through in relation to: 1. the rational for engaging citizens in setting research agendas; 2. how to do so effectively; 3. the resource implications and potential impact. The report includes 10 key observations or lessons learned to help guide policy-makers, research funders and researchers who are interested in citizen engagement in science.
Data-driven innovation and data-intensive science hold immense promise to address grand societal challenges. Open science initiatives, which facilitate open access to publications, data, algorithms, software and workflows, play an essential role in accelerating needed scientific research and the innovation process itself. This Going Digital Toolkit note provides an overview of the open science movement, highlights achievements of open science including that in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, identifies challenges to achieving all of the benefits that open science has to offer, and sheds light on the evolution of open science policies in a range of economies. The note also advocates a way forward that involves the seven pillars of the revised OECD Recommendation of the Council concerning Access to Research Data from Public Funding: (1) Data governance for trust; (2) Technical standards and practices; (3) Incentives and rewards; (4) Responsibility, ownership and stewardship; (5) Sustainable infrastructures; (6) Human capital; and (7) International co-operation for access to research data.
This paper presents and discusses the general findings and key policy messages of the 2019 OECD Open, Useful and Re-usable data (OURdata) Index, and provides a detailed analysis of the results for each pillar and sub-pillar. Additionally, it assesses the main advancements and challenges related to the design and implementation of open government data (OGD) policies in OECD member and partner countries by comparing the results for 2019 with those of the 2017 edition. This policy paper contributes to the OECD work on the digital transformation of the public sector, including digital government and data-driven public sector and open government data.
As part of the global movement toward more open government, citizens have become increasingly concerned with obtaining access to accurate, comprehensive and timely information on the budgets of their countries. The International Budget Project developed the Open Budget Questionnaire, a measurement tool to evaluate public access to budget information from the perspective of civil society organisations.
Openness has always been at the core of science and education: after all, their purpose is to generate knowledge and make it widely available to as many people as possible. The unprecedented connectivity afforded by digital technology is providing new means for this old mission. Knowledge is a force for economic, social and cultural progress, and academic institutions are exploring new ways to engage researchers, learners, educators and the wider society in producing, sharing, using and adapting knowledge for the common good.