Putting end-users in charge of algorithms: Privacy and autonomy by design

This project will engage technologists and end-users in igniting social change. We will conduct a series of workshops using ‘Hackathon’ formats to bring together relevant communities (social media users, software engineers, interactive designers, policy makers and government representatives). We help these communities to forecast issues, design interventions to inform real-world practice, and address a real-world need of putting end-users in charge of algorithms to protect their privacy and autonomy.

The project will facilitate relationships between stakeholders, including technology partners and startups, community groups and policy makers and will embed a co-design approach within cross-sectoral communities to empower actors to imagine and create new ways of identifying hidden algorithmic constraints, participate in designing alternatives, and propose technical solutions to real-world problems. The research team’s interdisciplinary approach draws on interaction design principles and practice to create novel and accessible prototypes that increase transparency, raise awareness, and reveal the inner workings of data collection and profiling applications and algorithms.