A collection of agriculture groups and technology providers has put forth a collection of principles on the privacy and security of data gleaned from farms and farm equipment. The principles state, among others, that farmers own information generated on their farming operations and must give approval for any use of that data by a technology provider.
Since construction equipment fleet managers have been raising similar concerns over telematics data generated by their machines, aspects of this agreement contain areas fleets should consider.
- Education: User organizations and industry should develop programs that help create educated customers who understand their rights and responsibilities. Technology providers should strive to draft contracts using simple, easy-to-understand language.
- Ownership: Farmers own information generated on their farming operations.
- Collection, access, control: A provider should be granted permission only with the affirmative and explicit consent of the farmer.
- Transparency and consistency: Providers shall notify farmers about the purposes for which they collect and use farm data.
- Portability: Farmers should be able to retrieve their data for storage or use in other systems.
The signatories of the Privacy and Security Principles for Farm Data:
- American Farm Bureau Federation
- American Soybean Assn.
- Beck’s Hybrids
- Dow AgroSciences
- DuPont Pioneer
- John Deere
- National Assn. of Wheat Growers
- National Corn Growers Assn.
- National Farmers Union
- Raven Industries
- The Climate Corp.
- USA Rice Federation
