DataSkop - What Happens to My Data?

The DataSkop project, funded by the BMBF, explores the potential of innovative user interfaces and visualisations to promote users’ digital sovereignty.

Project status:

finalised

Period:

31/07/2020 – 30/12/2023

Type:

Research project

Profile:

Digital Space – Data, Interaction, Knowledge

Organisational Unit:

Department of Design

Course:

Cooperation partners:

AW AlgorithmWatch gGmbH European University Viadrina Frankfurt/Oder University of Paderborn mediale pfade.org – Verein für Medienbildung e.V.

Project participants:

Constanze Langer Christin Renner

The processes of algorithmic decision-making are increasingly permeating everyday life and this often happens in an incomprehensible way. The BMBF-funded DataSkop project focuses on the potential of innovative user interfaces and comprehensible visualisations to promote the digital sovereignty of users.

The aim of DataSkop is to strengthen digital sovereignty and thus the skills of the individual - i.e. to deal with data in an informed manner, to act securely in digital environments, to recognise algorithmic structures and understand the basics, and to assess topics in an interest-based manner.

The DataSkop project is developing such a system in the form of a platform-independent infrastructure consisting of a data donation platform and a personal data dashboard. Innovative visualisation concepts and competence-enhancing teaching and learning scenarios for educational work are being developed. Users learn how to handle data in a self-determined way, acquire new skills and gain an understanding of how to use technology.

On 15 July 2021, a new data donation tool was published that examined the YouTube algorithm for the German parliamentary election campaign. The joint goal of the research network was to analyse the personalisation of the YouTube video platform's recommendation system during the federal election campaign. Information from users about which videos they have watched so far and which channels they follow makes it possible to identify correlations and patterns between user behaviour and the recommendation algorithm.
The initial results of the analysis were published on the AlgorithmWatch website and by media partner Der Spiegel in autumn 2021. The open source platform DataSkop will also be available to other research institutions, NGOs and editorial offices for further data donation projects from mid-2022.

Further information can be found on the platform's website. https://dataskop.net/
Publications DataSkop - What happens to my data? https://www.fh-potsdam.de/studium-weiterbildung/fachbereiche/fachbereic…