Cape Town to implement open data policy

[Kevin Lancaster]

Cape Town to implement open data policy

The City of Cape Town approved the open data portal and policy on Thursday, it said

 

[2026]

Information that was determined to be inappropriate by the committee would not be made available on the portal.

So they can censor the bad things if they choose?

 

[eltherza]

How do we get access to this data, anyone know?

 

[Species8472]

So they can censor the bad things if they choose?

I see your selective quote and raise you my own selective quote

“This will include copyrighted third party data; information that infringes on the privacy of individual citizens; information that the City cannot legally disclose and information that is deemed to be confidential.”

 

[BeVonk!]

So they can censor the bad things if they choose?

Do you want the whole world to know who you are, where you live, what your contact details are, your electricity and water consumption, outstanding traffic fines etc etc etc?

 

[entrepr]

Well if the ANC voted against - was that because they want Cape Town to fail or they genuinely believe it is no good?

i.e. is there still a chance that we may get the same benefits in Joburg?

 

[BeVonk!]

Well if the ANC voted against - was that because they want Cape Town to fail or they genuinely believe it is no good?

i.e. is there still a chance that we may get the same benefits in Joburg?

In the City of Cape Town the ANC will only agree with the DA if the DA were to declare all Mondays to be public holidays.

 

[w1z4rd]

So they can censor the bad things if they choose?

Yes. They will censor a lot. They have access to peoples names and addresses. Im pretty sure they going to censor that and not allow that data to be for public consumption.

This is brilliant though. Going to be of a lot of use to business.

 

[atomcrusher]

From the article

The city said the African National Congress in council voted against the measure.

I guess no surprises there.

 

[Bern]

So they can censor the bad things if they choose?

They could, but it would be really odd to have selective bits of data missing - i.e. it would be obvious and they would get nailed for it.

The main issue is about protecting people's right to privacy, so they need to be careful individual data cannot be accessed on the public portal or inferred. Then you will have supplier companies not wanting their competitors knowing too much detail about their deals which needs to be handled correctly.

 

[ld13]

How do we get access to this data, anyone know?

Directly from the article:

After an extensive internal and external public participation process, the city had decided to implement the portal within the next three months.

 

[RyanPCMR]

So they can censor the bad things if they choose?

That must be the ANC voter in you that's coming to the front.

 

[2026]

That must be the ANC voter in you that's coming to the front.

It's because of the ANC that the thought of censorship kicks in.

 

[grok]

So they can censor the bad things if they choose?

The DA is not the ANC, in fact as far as openness & integrity goes they are the opposite of the ANC.