Digital Services and Data Policy

Type: Operational

Target audience: Public

1.0 Introduction

As an agency of the Government of Ontario, the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) is committed to high quality digital services, transparency and access to government data and is in line with the Ontario government’s Digital and Data directive, Ontario’s Digital Service Standard (DSS) and the Open Data Guidebook.

2.0 Purpose

To ensure all digital services built or provided by OTF are high quality and all OTF owned or managed data assets are transparent and accessible.

3.0 Scope

This policy applies to all digital services and data assets provided by, owned or managed by OTF.

4.0 Policy

4.1 Digital Services built or provided by OTF

  • All digital services built or procured by OTF are designed, delivered and implemented according to Ontario’s Digital Service Standard (DSS).
  • Principles of digital services take into consideration: prioritization of user needs, transparency, equitable access, and are data informed.
  • Digital services are user-centred.
  • Digital services are evaluated against performance metrics and improved accordingly.
  • Digital services are made with scalable, interoperable, secure, accessible and open technology and/or make use of reusable technology and data (where available).
  • Digital services are designed in an iterative manner by a multi-disciplinary team.

4.2 Data created or managed by OTF (Open Data)

  • OTF provides the Ontario government with a list (‘Data Inventory’) of all its data assets. The Data Inventory:
    • identifies any data asset which cannot be made accessible to the public as well as the reason why (e.g., protected by legislation, contains personal information, security, contains data owned by third parties, etc.);
    • identifies the data assets to be released as open data;
    • is reviewed and updated annually;
    • is published on OTF’s website.
  • Datasets are open by default, with exemptions for:
    • data that is subject to statutory confidentiality requirements (e.g. FIPPA, PHIPA, Ant-Racism Act);
    • data that should not be disclosed for legal, security, confidentiality, privacy, or commercial sensitive reasons identified by expert assessors (e.g. legal counsel, IT security professionals).
  • All open data is accurate, timely, openly accessible, interpretable, coherent, de-identified.
  • All open data is released in an open format.
  • All open data is released at no cost to the user.
  • No data assets released as open data is deleted or removed from public access, except where a dataset was published in error.
  • When newer or modified versions are published, the old version of the dataset remains publicly accessible in an archived format.
  • In situations where active maintenance and updating of a data asset is discontinued, the data asset description is updated in the Data Inventory to reflect the “inactive” status, without restricting public access to the dataset.
  • Open data is published in the language it was collected. This is an exemption in accordance with the French Language Services Act.

5.0 Definitions

Data: Facts, figures and statistics objectively measured according to a standard or scale, such as frequency, volumes or occurrences Data management. For the purpose of­ this Policy, refers to the identification and tracking of datasets, metadata, and databases (not to be confused with general records management).

Data Asset: Any aggregation or grouping of facts or figures stored in a structured format or “dataset”, as well as any additional information for its management, access or use (e.g. data models, algorithms, calculations etc.)

Digital Service: A government service delivered by means of internet or other technology, such as transactional services, information services, web applications, or extranets.

Inventory: A complete list that describes the data holdings of a program area and their characteristics.

Open Data: Data that is released to the public without charge in an open machine-readable vendor-neutral file format, under the Open Government Licence, through Ontario’s Open Data Catalogue. Open by default – Is a principle that says that Ministries and provincial agencies must adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure of public records unless there are specific reasons not to do so.

Open Data Guidebook: Refers to Ontario’s reference document maintained by the Treasury Board Secretariat. It contains open data technical standards and recommended data assessment processes.

Open format: This is a set of specifications used to store and transmit digital data that is platform independent, machine-readable, and made available to the public without restrictions that would impede the re-use of that information.

Personal information:  Defined by applicable legislation, such as the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, Personal Health Information Protection Act, or Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.