Data sharing and privacy protection: Results from the Community Attitudes Survey 2026

Thursday 22 October 2026, 12:00pm-1:00pm AEDT, online via Ms Teams

Hosted by Family and Community Services Insights, Analysis and Research (FACSIAR)

Details

The NSW Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ), through the Family and Community Services Insights, Analysis and Research (FACSIAR) commissioned a third wave of the Community Attitudes Survey (CAS) to investigate NSW community attitudes towards data sharing and privacy protection.

The objectives of the research were to enable DCJ to:
Identify community attitudes and expectations towards data sharing, its benefits and risks, and necessary practices to manage these.
Identify attitudes towards data sharing in general, and sharing of the respondent’s own data
Identify a measurable and actionable ‘threshold’ and scope of appropriate data sharing practice.
Examine how the views and needs of vulnerable groups differ from those of the wider NSW community
Identify trends and changes over the past three years.

In this FACSIAR Lunch and Learn webinar, Phil Burnham, Associate Director of Lonergan Research, who undertook the investigation, will present the key findings from the survey, including:

Growing confidence in the NSW Government's ability to manage personal information.
Community perceptions of the benefits and risks of sharing de-identified data.
Attitudes towards data sharing across government, research institutions and other sectors.
Key trust drivers, including transparency, security and public communication.
Insights from specific population groups and demographic segments.

Following this presentation, Merran Butler, Director, Research, Linked Data and Knowledge Translation, FACSIAR will respond to the findings and discuss how we are using these findings to inform the Human Services Dataset

The session will provide valuable insights for policymakers, program leaders, academics and practitioners working across data, privacy, service delivery and public sector reform.

The session will conclude with a Q&A session with our presenters and the webinar will be chaired by Dr Jessica Stewart, Executive Director, FACSIAR, Department of Communities and Justice.

Presenters

Phil Burnham - Associate Director, Lonergan Research
Merran Butler - Director, Research, Linked Data and Knowledge Translation, FACSIAR, DCJ

Automated captioning via MS Teams is available on event day. The session will then be fully captioned and available on YouTube within one week of the live event. A link will be sent to all those who register.

If you have any other accessibility requirements (e.g. Auslan interpreters), please contact us by Thursday 15 October, 2026 at ResearchPartnerships@dcj.nsw.gov.au or 0499 944 905.

Questions or comments?

Contact: ResearchPartnerships@dcj.nsw.gov.au

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