Data Stewardship: A Mozilla Perspective
In Designing Data Governance from the Ground Up, author Lauren Maffeo presents data stewardship as a pivotal role in data governance that is focused on maintaining data quality, consistency, and usability. Data stewards, in her view, are operational experts who ensure that data is of the highest quality, aligns with organizational standards, and supports business objectives.
At Mozilla, rather than taking such a broad role in data governance, a data steward’s responsibilities are deeply intertwined with the organization’s commitment to user privacy and ethical data practices. This approach reflects Mozilla’s mission to promote an open and accessible internet while safeguarding user trust.
Maffeo’s Framework: Operational Excellence
Maffeo outlines data stewards as key players in:
- Ensuring Data Accuracy: Identifying and correcting data quality issues.
- Maintaining Metadata: Documenting data definitions and standards.
- Enforcing Policies: Applying data governance policies consistently.
- Facilitating Collaboration: Bridging gaps between technical and business teams.
This model emphasizes the importance of data stewards in operationalizing data governance to enhance data quality, decision-making, and organizational efficiency. This work is spread amongst the product, data, data-engineering, and other organizations at Mozilla.
Mozilla’s Approach: Privacy-Centric Stewardship
At Mozilla, data stewards focus on:
- Evaluating Data Collection Requests: As outlined in Mozilla’s Data Collection documentation, data stewards are responsible for reviewing proposed data collections to ensure they align with Mozilla’s Data Privacy Principles, which emphasize user control, transparency, and minimal data collection.
- Collaborating Across Teams: Working with engineers, product managers, and legal teams to assess the necessity and impact of data collection and helping to ensure the collection is properly categorized and documented in a public way that is accessible to our users.
- Advocating for Lean Data Practices: Promoting the collection of only essential data needed to improve user experiences, in line with Mozilla’s commitment to user privacy.
- Guiding Data Publishing: Ensuring that any data shared publicly adheres to Mozilla’s Data Publishing policies, which categorize data sensitivity and dictate appropriate aggregation levels to protect user anonymity.
This stewardship model is proactive, emphasizing ethical considerations and user trust over data quality and operational efficiency.
Mozilla’s Data Stewardship in Practice
Mozilla’s data stewards operate within a structured framework that includes:
Data Collection Review: Any new data collection undergoes a review process to assess its necessity, potential privacy impact, and alignment with Mozilla’s principles. This includes ensuring data is correctly categorized by its sensitivity in order to ensure it is properly handled.
User Control and Transparency: Mozilla ensures users have meaningful choices regarding data collection, including the ability to opt-out and have their data deleted.
Public Data Sharing: When publishing data, Mozilla applies rigorous standards to prevent the release of sensitive information, following guidelines outlined in their Data Publishing documentation.
This approach ensures that data stewardship at Mozilla is less focused on managing data, but more about upholding the organization’s core values of user privacy and transparency.
Conclusion
Lauren Maffeo’s framework provides a solid foundation for understanding the operational aspects of data governance. Mozilla’s implementation of data stewardship focuses this role on ethical responsibility and user advocacy. At Mozilla, data stewards are less “custodians of data quality” and more “champions of user privacy”, ensuring that every data-related decision aligns with the organization’s mission to foster an open and trustworthy internet.
If you’re interested in learning more about Mozilla’s data practices or becoming involved in data stewardship initiatives, feel free to reach out to the Data Stewardship team.