Citizens Data Agency

The Citizens Data Agency project is a year long design research project exploring people’s data advice needs both today and in the future, with the aim of understanding how to better enhance privacy and security for people using digital technologies. We are seeing technologies being embedded within all aspects of our lives, within our cities, homes and pockets. These interactions create large amounts of information/data which are captured by private organisations and governments and have potential benefits, but also increased privacy risks.

The conversations around digital privacy do not normally involve people from marginalised groups, so their needs and experience are not included in the design of support and advice. We are interested in working with people from marginalised groups, such as people with disabilities or from minority ethnic groups, to explore current and future data advice and co-design a series of interventions around their experiences and needs.

This project is funded by the National Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial Influence Online (REPHRAIN) and Edinburgh Futures Institute.