States Should Use Open Data to Empower Consumers

Choice engines—interactive, online tools that use machine-readable data to help consumers make more informed decisions—are a private-sector staple, writes Daniel Castro in Government Technology.E-commerce sites, e.g., Amazon and Netflix, famously use recommendation algorithms that help consumers decide what product to buy or what movie to watch based on millions of consumer reviews. But state regulators have largely overlooked these tools, instead focusing their efforts on making specific information available to consumers, such as airline baggage fees or home mortgage terms. Such disclosures can also lead to improved business practices, such as when food manufacturers reduced the amount of trans fat in their products after the Food and Drug Administration began requiring them to include this information on nutrition labels. However, regulators should also consider how they can unlock additional data sets to enable the development of sophisticated choice engines that help consumers make wiser purchasing decisions in areas of the economy where the market lacks transparency.