Open data is a public resource. Using it responsibly means respecting the conditions under which it was published, protecting the privacy of people it describes, and being honest about its limitations.
Respect the Licence
Every open dataset has a licence. Read it before you use the data. If attribution is required, provide it. If commercial use is restricted, don't use it commercially. If derivatives must use the same licence, apply that licence to your work.
Cite Your Sources
When you publish analysis or products based on open data, cite the source clearly. This is both an ethical obligation and often a licence requirement. A citation should include the dataset name, publisher, date accessed, and URL.
Understand the Data's Limitations
Open data is not always perfect. It may be incomplete, outdated, or collected using methods that introduce bias. Before drawing conclusions, understand how the data was collected, what it covers, and what it doesn't cover.
A dataset of reported crimes doesn't represent all crimes — only those that were reported to police. Using it to compare crime rates between neighbourhoods without acknowledging this limitation can lead to misleading conclusions.
Protect Privacy
Even when data is published as open data, it may contain or enable the identification of individuals. Combining datasets — a practice called data linkage — can reveal information about people that neither dataset alone would expose. Be thoughtful about re-identification risk.
Don't Misrepresent the Data
Present data honestly. Don't cherry-pick results, use misleading visualizations, or draw conclusions that the data doesn't support. Data literacy includes the responsibility to communicate data accurately.
Give Back
If you find errors in a dataset, report them to the publisher. Many open data portals have feedback mechanisms. Contributing corrections improves the data for everyone.
You've finished Open Data 101. Continue with Data Cleaning 101 or explore GIS 101.