The public sector
should learn from Amazonwhen it comes to
building up trust with individuals, said Glyn Evans, transformation
policy leader atBirmingham City Council.
Evans said citizens should have individual information accounts
to make them feel in control of their own data.
And he said Amazon's individual approach to customers - giving
them accounts and looking at their purchase history to make
recommendations - could be applied to the way councils and central
government departments treat citizens.
"You feel you've got a measure of control over it," said Evans.
"I think we should try to take that thinking to the public
sector."
Birmingham council is considering introducing individual
information accounts, where each citizen can choose which agencies
they want to link up with and add their information to.
"It changes the power balance - instead of the public sector
being all-powerful, members of the public should feel they can
influence things. They decide how they want government to join up
by controlling their own account."
Recent high profile
failures in data security mean trust in the public sector's
ability to manage individuals' information is at an all-time low -
but the government is looking to increase
data sharing between different agencies and increase the amount
of information held on people.
The answer is to make data services more customer centric, Evans
said. "We shouldn't have a one size fits all approach. We need to
realise that everybody is different, so there are going to be
differences in how people want to be treated.
"You know it is a computer behind Amazon that works out what
products to recommend to you, but the emotional response is that
this thing is trying to be helpful.
"You feel like they are talking to you as an individual. A lot
of the time, I don't think the public sector gets that right.
"The question is, how do you turn that thinking from the
Amazon world into the public
sector?"