Playbook: Sample Use Case

Sensitive Data

Many nonprofit organizations work with highly sensitive data from and about individuals, especially those organizations providing direct services or supporting people in crisis. Child helplines provided one of the original inspirations for the Better Deal for Data, and exemplify this complex sensitive data use case.

What do we want to do?

Collect data via our helpline about children who need assistance.
Use the data to provide counseling services, and referrals for resources, to the person seeking help.
Record the most significant problems using a case management system so that we can follow up with stakeholders, including the child who reached out, families, service providers, law enforcement, or government social services.
Support our internal staff and volunteer teams.
Analyze the data to improve our programs, report to donors, do research on the problems faced by children, and aggregate the data to advocate for funding and policy change.
We want to ensure that children, and their data, are protected from harms and exploitation.

Who are the data stakeholders?

We, the primary data collectors, are the nonprofit organization or government agency that operates a child helpline.
The data is collected directly from children themselves, or from other children and adults who contact us about a child who needs help. For example, this might be a neighbor who has observed a child being abused, or knows a child is working instead of being in school.
Downstream users of the data may include first responders, social service agencies, researchers trying to understand child abuse, or sector-wide membership associations.
Consumers of aggregated data reports include funders, policymakers, journalists, and others in the field of child protection.

What types of data do we use?

Collected data generally includes telecommunications metadata such as phone number, IP address, length and number of calls or texts, and call recordings or text conversations and transcripts.
A counselor will collect demographic data such as name, city, age, or gender identity, issue data, including the issue raised in a call (e.g. mental health, stress, or violence), and they will log the referrals provided. They may also include a summary of the conversation, and next steps for the case.
Note: while this is a representative use case, some helplines operate anonymously and go to great lengths to not collect personally identifiable data.

What benefits, challenges, or risks do we encounter?

The benefits of using this data are all about increasing the impact of child helplines: delivering better services, serving more kids per staff member, improving staff performance, growing funding, and becoming stronger advocates for children.
The challenges mainly result from a lack of funding, such as too few resources or services to refer to children who need them, or the inability to fully leverage the data for children’s benefit.
Collected data creates risk because many of the issues faced by children are highly sensitive, and children have concerns about the impact of reporting certain incidents, for example, being taken away from their parents in the case of child abuse. In addition, data about child survivors of sexual assault is especially sought after by pedophiles.

Is this use case appropriate for BD4D?

Yes. Child helplines hold highly sensitive information about children. They have the responsibility to protect that data, use it to benefit the children, and keep them safe from further harms.
Adopting the BD4D Standard changes the status quo. Organizations that work with highly sensitive data, such as the child helplines presented in this example, can mitigate risks to their already at-risk beneficiaries that could arise when collecting and using Your Data. For example, encrypting and limiting access to sensitive data as required by the Standard is critical for child helplines. In communicating that their data practices align to the BD4D Commitments, these organizations may increase the trust placed in them by their community.