Panelists give four simple questions residents should ask about data collection

City and nonprofit panelists told audience members that residents do not need to be data experts to insist on transparency. Beth Stagner of Raleigh IT set out four practical questions residents can ask whenever an organization requests personal information: what are you collecting, why are you collecting it, who gets to see it, and how long will you keep it or how will you delete it.

"What are you collecting? Why are you collecting it? Who gets to see it? How long do you plan to keep it?" Stagner said, calling those four simple questions a useful checklist for nontechnical users. Other panelists added that when a service is offered for free, users should assume the data may be the currency—giving examples such as grocery loyalty cards, connected cars and voice assistants that track habits.

Panelists recommended that community members demand transparency about long-term impacts and environmental consequences, particularly for data-center deployments that support large-scale AI, and to press organizations to explain how data-driven decisions affect local programs and services.