Project description
Software to analyse historical evolution of app connectivity
Every app has a hidden back-end that connects to third party services. Most users, including regulators, have no way of seeing this. Existing tools only offer a snapshot of connectivity at one point in time, making it hard to track how connections evolve. The ERC-funded JANUS project closes this gap. It analyses historical archives of app versions to reconstruct how their back-end connectivity changes over time and to reveal which third-party services apps connect to, what firms are behind these services and how different apps compare to each other. JANUS will be a software that non-profits and regulators without specific technical expertise can rely on to understand back-end connectivity and its implications for governance.
Objective
The use of apps has become very widespread, as we regularly interact with a huge variety of commercial, public, not-for-profit services through them, and yet we mostly do not understand what happens in the background. Who are our apps communicating with? How do they personalise their services? Where is our data going? What background services support them? Understanding the back-end connectivity of apps means being able to see which third-party services they connect to, who these services are, where they are located, and how this ecosystem evolves through time –increasingly important information to support digital governance in the public and non-profit sector. Existing approaches to study these hidden data flows are disjointed, ad-hoc, and often focused on specific events. There is no single tool that is simple to use, that provides customisable solutions and that creates pathways to explore contextual information to interpret the results. To address this gap, we have created a research software that maps, visualizes and audits the back-end connectivity of apps. To meet the societal challenge of creating tools to support oversight of tech companies by the public and non-profit sector, we propose to develop the software to allow individuals and organisations without specialized technical skills to (1) understand which third-party services apps connect to and how this connectivity has evolved through time; (2) find who the real entities are behind apps; (3) to examine how compliant apps are with localization and privacy rules across time; and (4) to evaluate how apps compare to each other and identify common links across different groups of apps. In the year of this project, we'll focus on validating our ideas, redesigning the software in a more robust and modular way, and creating a community of practice of academics, NGOs and regulators around it that will ensure its sustainability and continuous development to integrate technological advancements.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences computer and information sciences software
- social sciences sociology governance
- natural sciences computer and information sciences internet
- social sciences political sciences political policies civil society civil society organisations nongovernmental organizations
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-POC
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
WC2R 2LS London
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.