Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CSI-COP (Citizen Scientists Investigating Cookies and App GDPR compliance)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-01-01 al 2022-06-30
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is an EU law that requires organisations to safeguard personal data and uphold the privacy rights of EU citizens. Citizen scientists can play a valuable role in helping to protect citizens’ privacy by providing a better understanding of how personal information is tracked online.
The EU-funded CSI-COP project is mobilising citizen scientists from across Europe and beyond to investigate the different types of trackers in website cookies and apps. It is also developing methods to preserve privacy in the collection of data. The project is offering training material to informally instruct citizen scientists on the GDPR with the aim to produce a classification of trackers that will subsequently be used to create an open-access database.
The project's overall objectives are to:
• recruit and teach a diverse community of citizen scientists to investigate cookies and hidden trackers in websites and apps.
• informally educate citizen scientists and the wider public on their rights according to the GDPR.
• create a classification of trackers in cookies and apps.
• create an open-access, searchable online database of website and app trackers citizen scientists and project researchers have identified.
• mentor and nurture citizen scientist “privacy champions’ to engage with a variety of audiences such as privacy professionals, policy makers and journalists in activities workshops, roundtable and other events.
CSI-COP is investigating GDPR compliance to better understand how far we are all being tracked as we visit websites and apps on our mobile devices. CSI-COP is engaging citizen scientists to address the growing concerns in society around privacy issues, and develop methods that attempt to ensure integrity in the collection and use of data.
Regardless of background, the CSI-COP community of citizen scientists is being recruited from across Europe and beyond. A series of free-to-attend workshops and an online course has been developed with training material to informally educate them about the GDPR. Once fully trained to explore cookies and apps for embedded trackers, citizen scientists are supported as they investigate and research the use of cookies on websites they normally visit, and apps on smart devices they use daily. They are encouraged to record and report on the number and types of trackers they uncover.
The unique findings on digital trackers uncovered by the citizen scientists will be systematically mapped by the project producing a classification of trackers. This classification will be used to create an online database which will be available as an open-access resource on trackers embedded in cookies and apps. The resource will be a useful tool for a variety of audiences including data protection researchers, GDPR compliance authorities, tech journalists, software developers, parents, teachers, higher education curriculum developers, and any organisation that provides computers for public use, such as libraries.
CSI-COP's work is carried out by ten partners from universities, research institutes and small businesses in the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. Its work areas include researching best practices for recruiting and training citizen scientists, creating informal education resources, innovating a classification of digital tracking and a searchable database of online trackers as well as raising awareness among the general public on the implications of tracking technology and its effect on their fundamental right to privacy.
The EU-funded CSI-COP project is mobilising citizen scientists from across Europe and beyond to investigate the different types of trackers in website cookies and apps. It is also developing methods to preserve privacy in the collection of data. The project is offering training material to informally instruct citizen scientists on the GDPR with the aim to produce a classification of trackers that will subsequently be used to create an open-access database.
The project's overall objectives are to:
• recruit and teach a diverse community of citizen scientists to investigate cookies and hidden trackers in websites and apps.
• informally educate citizen scientists and the wider public on their rights according to the GDPR.
• create a classification of trackers in cookies and apps.
• create an open-access, searchable online database of website and app trackers citizen scientists and project researchers have identified.
• mentor and nurture citizen scientist “privacy champions’ to engage with a variety of audiences such as privacy professionals, policy makers and journalists in activities workshops, roundtable and other events.
CSI-COP is investigating GDPR compliance to better understand how far we are all being tracked as we visit websites and apps on our mobile devices. CSI-COP is engaging citizen scientists to address the growing concerns in society around privacy issues, and develop methods that attempt to ensure integrity in the collection and use of data.
Regardless of background, the CSI-COP community of citizen scientists is being recruited from across Europe and beyond. A series of free-to-attend workshops and an online course has been developed with training material to informally educate them about the GDPR. Once fully trained to explore cookies and apps for embedded trackers, citizen scientists are supported as they investigate and research the use of cookies on websites they normally visit, and apps on smart devices they use daily. They are encouraged to record and report on the number and types of trackers they uncover.
The unique findings on digital trackers uncovered by the citizen scientists will be systematically mapped by the project producing a classification of trackers. This classification will be used to create an online database which will be available as an open-access resource on trackers embedded in cookies and apps. The resource will be a useful tool for a variety of audiences including data protection researchers, GDPR compliance authorities, tech journalists, software developers, parents, teachers, higher education curriculum developers, and any organisation that provides computers for public use, such as libraries.
CSI-COP's work is carried out by ten partners from universities, research institutes and small businesses in the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. Its work areas include researching best practices for recruiting and training citizen scientists, creating informal education resources, innovating a classification of digital tracking and a searchable database of online trackers as well as raising awareness among the general public on the implications of tracking technology and its effect on their fundamental right to privacy.
Period 1, January 2020-December 2021
The research phase concluded with the production of several public reports relating to citizen science and project management which are openly accessible from Zenodo (https://zenodo.org) and other online platforms.
These reports list all CSI-COP activities to date, including a report on citizen science best practices, the development of a privacy-by-design, no-tracking project website and a set of guidelines for inclusive (diverse) citizen science engagement,
Period 2, January 2021-June 2022
Despite the impact of COVID-19, CSI-COP completed the majority of its recruitment drive of citizen scientists by using the informal, online course it had developed (Your right to privacy online).
The course, available in a number of languages (Catalan, Czech, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Romanian, Polish and Spanish), was delivered in a variety of ways: self-learning/own-time; online, hybrid and in-person workshops across Europe and in Israel.
The recruited citizen scientists started their investigations of how compliant websites and apps were with the GDPR.
In addition, project partners delivered many workshops, public lectures, presented at conferences and contributed articles to scholarly journals to highlight the work of CSI-COP as part of their work to disseminate the findings of the project.
The research phase concluded with the production of several public reports relating to citizen science and project management which are openly accessible from Zenodo (https://zenodo.org) and other online platforms.
These reports list all CSI-COP activities to date, including a report on citizen science best practices, the development of a privacy-by-design, no-tracking project website and a set of guidelines for inclusive (diverse) citizen science engagement,
Period 2, January 2021-June 2022
Despite the impact of COVID-19, CSI-COP completed the majority of its recruitment drive of citizen scientists by using the informal, online course it had developed (Your right to privacy online).
The course, available in a number of languages (Catalan, Czech, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Romanian, Polish and Spanish), was delivered in a variety of ways: self-learning/own-time; online, hybrid and in-person workshops across Europe and in Israel.
The recruited citizen scientists started their investigations of how compliant websites and apps were with the GDPR.
In addition, project partners delivered many workshops, public lectures, presented at conferences and contributed articles to scholarly journals to highlight the work of CSI-COP as part of their work to disseminate the findings of the project.
CSI-COP's work is delivering a public service, through the creation and delivery of a free informal education resource, increasing the scientific literacy of the general public.