It’s been too long since I wrote something here, so let me put up a short list of the four fine projects that we’ve funded in the Surveillance and Resistance theme of the Human Data Interaction NetworkPlus.
- Countermeasures: Giving children better control over how they’re observed by digital sensors — Angus Main, RCA.
- Collaborative ResistancE to Web Surveillance (CREWS) — Steven Murdoch, UCL.
- Resisting Surveillance in Connected Cars — Anna Rudnicka (UCL)
- Privacy Awareness for Active Resistance (PAAR) — Andrea Cavallaro (QMUL)
I am slightly envious of the people in these projects, as it seems interesting and timely to be asking: How to design for resistance against data surveillance? Human Data Interaction offers a conceptual framework for system design that to goes beyond notions of data/algorithmic transparency, to focus on helping people understand what is happening to their personal data in data-intensive systems (legibility), to change those systems to be in better accord with their wishes (agency), and to work with the other people using this data, so as to improve that processing (negotiability). Work so far in HDI generally assumes that at least one of these three features can be implemented effectively, to meet people’s needs and desires. However, what should we do when legibility, agency and negotiability are not enough?
More details, as and when.
Matthew Chalmers 