X-IDF: Explainable Internet Data Flows

Citizens are in countless interactions via Internet-based applications, but they have too little knowledge about how user data are shared and flow to third parties. We need improved capacity for citizens to understand and have agency of these Internet Data Flows (IDF): if they cannot trust data usage, distrust will increase, with the risk of hurting both democracy and innovation. This project takes on a new and fundamental mission: we need to develop a concept of Explainable Internet Data Flows (X-IDF). X-IDFs will offer a pathway to greater user efficacy and agency, by making the data flows among users and third parties explicit, transparent, and actionable. We will (i) investigate citizens' knowledge and attitudes about IDFs in general and X-IDFs in particular, (ii) build a technology for visualising and comparing X-IDFs in terms that is accessible to and actionable for citizens, and (iii) test X-IDFs for citizen comprehension and trust.