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To Do: Study the Data Divide

To Do: Study the Data Divide
Knowledge Base Article in: Tech Policy To-Do List
Last Updated: February 7, 2025

Recommendation

Congress should establish a bipartisan federal commission to study why data that enables public and private services isn’t collected equitably.

Details

Access to many public and private services in the United States, including those in the financial, educational, and health-care sectors, are intricately linked to data. But adequate data is not collected equitably from all Americans. Congress should establish a bipartisan federal commission to study this data divide, including its causes and impacts, and provide recommendations on opportunities to close the data divide to promote more economic and social opportunities for all Americans. The commission should engage a diverse group of stakeholders with the goal of improving federal statistics and data collection and supporting private sector initiatives to address critical data divides wherever a lack of data creates significant risk of exclusion in the data economy.

Keep reading:

Gillian Diebold, “Closing the Data Divide for a More Equitable U.S. Digital Economy,” (ITIF Center for Data Innovation, August 2022), https://itif.org/publications/2022/08/22/closing-the-data-divide-for-a-more-equitable-us-digital-economy/.

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