by changes in physical storage devices, it platforms and software. the theory and practice of building archives in the big - data era is in its infancy ; it needs to grow up fast. third, the emergence of big data has raised the importance of data integrity, confidentiality and privacy to a level never seen before. protection of personal data is central to our societies ; one could say that it helps to define them, to the extent that it is inextricably linked to the protection of individual rights more generally. the sheer amount of personal data now available, and the growing ease of connecting individual information across databases, have far - reaching implications for fairness and freedom ; they have thus spurred much digital - privacy regulation. the connections with the previous point are, i think, rather obvious ( data integrity, for instance, is central to both ) ; so are the implied trade - offs. for instance, the right to be forgotten, increasingly ( and, i think, rightly ) granted to individuals, conflicts with society ’ s desire to keep records. no wonder that rules are sometimes inconsistent across different jurisdictions, data domains or legal purposes. a systematic way of weighing conflicting principles against one another should be found. ideally, one would like to have global standards ; international cooperation is therefore to be encouraged as far as possible. however, there are limits to this, at least as long as different societies protect individual freedom to a different extent. for the time being, we have to live with this limitation. the challenges of big data require continuous organisational and technological innovation in the institutions that want to use them effectively and fairly. at the bank of italy we have taken several steps in the past few years to enhance our ability to collect, store and exploit huge amounts of data, using state - of - the - art hardware and software. other institutions are surely doing the same. this workshop is a good opportunity to share experiences. preserving the confidentiality of individual data is one specific challenge that many institutions represented here will often face. the issue is not just that the social value of statistical analysis cannot override the legal obligation to refrain from infringing on personal privacy, but also that the quality of the data itself is often premised on confidentiality being guaranteed : without it, proprietary data would be impossible to collect, and much sensitive data, such as data on personal wealth, would be next to useless. we are cooperating with other institutions to find ways to reap the value of merging data from different sources

them, returning the discount window to more normal operations. as part of this first step, the fomc would also eliminate its commitment to maintaining “ exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period. ” second, with these steps taken, with the improvements in market conditions and liquidity, and with an improving outlook, the fomc would be prepared to raise the funds rate target to 1 percent by the end of summer. this would continue the current highly accommodative policy, but would move nominal rates away from zero and real rates to a less negative level. we would then pause, maintaining the funds rate at 1 percent while we assess the economic outlook and emerging financial conditions. this would provide time to judge whether and to what degree further policy adjustments are warranted to assure long - run financial equilibrium and stability. based on the current outlook consensus, it seems reasonable that the economy would be well - positioned to accept this modest increase in the funds rate. as a reminder, the funds rate target remained between 1 and 2 percent even after the intensification of the crisis in the fall of 2008. it was reduced to its current target range of zero to ¼ percent in mid - december 2008. relative to the depths of the crisis, conditions today are much improved from where we were 18 months ago. financial stress is clearly reduced and a sustainable economic recovery appears under way. it is also important to emphasize that the 1 percent fed funds rate target, coupled with the federal reserve ’ s large balance sheet, provides an extraordinarily accommodative monetary policy environment and one that would ensure the economy ’ s continued progress in the recovery. setting out such a plan would be a more orderly move toward unwinding the earlier extraordinary actions and would serve to reduce the likelihood of a buildup of new financial imbalances. let me turn now to the subsequent steps that might be taken to more fully restore policy to a long - run equilibrium policy level. given the relatively modest expected trajectory of growth and inflation, these added moves will involve some quarters to complete. but the direction should be firmly established now with the timing dependent on the performance of a combination of financial, inflation and growth variables. experience tells me that a clear commitment now to such action would mitigate the likely need to later tighten beyond our estimate of neutral that so often comes with delay. more specifically, these next steps involve raising the funds rate from 1 to above 3 percent reasonably quickly as we gain confidence