personal data and transparency by reuben binns
DESCRIPTION
Every day, web users give away information such as likes and dislikes, purchase histories, messages, emails, tweets, GPS co-ordinates, browsing habits and search terms. Many people now track their daily activity, health and diet via the web. !hen combined, such data constitutes a rich digital profile of our lives. Mining and analysing this data can reveal a lot for marketers, researchers and individuals themselves.TRANSCRIPT
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Personal Data and TransparencyReuben Binns, PhD Web Science
Every day, web users give away information such as likes and dislikes, purchase histories, messages, emails, tweets, GPS coordinates,
browsing habits and search terms. Many people now track their daily activity, health and diet via
the web.
When combined, such data constitutes a rich digital profile of our lives. Mining and analysing
this data can reveal a lot for marketers, researchers and individuals themselves.
Background
Supervisors:Lisa Harris, ManagementDavid Millard, Computer ScienceMicheál O'Floinn, Law
[email protected], @RDBinns
Web Science
Data about the ways organisations use personal data was collected from the ICO over a 3 year period. It covers over 350,000 data controllers.
We used this to investigate the reasons for data collection, the types of personal data collected and from whom, the types of recipients who have access to the data, and international data transfer arrangements. This paints an overall picture of the personal data landscape in the UK.
Who, what, where and why?
Machinereadable reports on privacy practices can support transparency and broader social
goals:
Powering intermediary services to provide advice to privacyconscious individuals.
Helping data protection regulators discover good and bad practices.
Crossreferenced with other data to examine the relationship between privacy practices and other
factors such as location, growth or industry.
Applications