Long Title: Testing for Transparency: Designing privacy-informing systems for young people

Speaker: Ephraim Luwemba

Affiliation: University of Nottingham

Abstract:
Testing for Transparency is a workshop that will be conducted by researchers at the University of Nottingham. The workshop is designed to bring young people into the conversation that is happening in the government and other organisations about how the internet affects their lives. Specifically, Testing for Transparency focuses on a range of policy guidelines and standards that are emerging around the concept of age-appropriate design: how online services that are used by young people can be created, taking into account the various developmental needs of all age groups approaching adulthood. The workshop will explore designs for age-appropriate privacy policies and engage the participants in a discussion about how to make them a readable, more effective media for communicating information to young users.

Biography:
I am currently enrolled as a PhD student in the University of Nottingham at the Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training where my research focuses on assessing guidelines and standards for age-appropriate design on the web. You can find my Horizon bio here.

Through the Horizon program, I am partnered with the 5Rights Foundation, a charity created by Baroness Beeban Kidron with the mission to articulate the rights of children in the digital environment. In early 2021 I completed my internship with them.

As a researcher, I was privileged to have the opportunity to work with a team with such a wealth of experience in my field. As well as helping to conduct research within the organisation, I had the opportunity to get involved in drafting literature, engage with a conference, and to do some standards work with the IEEE. I learnt a lot about how 5Rights operates, and how policy work is achieved in the real world. I continue to work alongside 5Rights toward achieving the IEEE P2089 ‘Standard for Age Appropriate Digital Services Framework’, which is based on their 5Rights principles. Following my time with them I plan on conducting some practice-informed (and eventually, practice-informing), research on age-appropriate design and how it can be implemented in practice.

I have a background in politics and philosophy (joint honours UG, and a postgraduate research degree in philosophy). My academic focuses prior to starting my PhD were in the areas of personal identity and in the political theory of the public realm (particularly Hannah Arendt). Following my masters I worked in the digital advertising industry where I gained an appreciation for the complex ethical challenges created by the web and how this can be a threat to our society’s development. My experiences in marketing have met with my background in politics, leading me to where I am today.