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DataSkop Publications – What happens to my Data?

The BMBF-funded DataSkop project focuses on the potential of innovative user interfaces and visualisations to promote the digital sovereignty of users. Below you will find published research papers as part of the project.

Further information can be found here and on the DataSkop platform website.

Election recommendation pilot project: What does the YouTube algorithm show you about the Bundestag elections?

On the 15th of July 2021, a new data donation tool was published that examined the YouTube algorithm for the German federal election campaign. The first DataSkop data donation project investigated which personalised recommendations and search results the YouTube system delivered around topics related to the German federal election. Data could be donated for six weeks, from the 15th of July to the 25th of August 2021.

What was special about this study of the YouTube recommendation system was that in most of the research projects, recommendations and search results from YouTube were only viewed from the outside, i.e. without being logged in with a personal account. With the help of DataSkop, potential donors were able to see analyses and explanations of their YouTube profile data directly. Visualisations could be used to search for patterns and anomalies in the data. If these interactive experiments convinced the donors, they could donate their data.

The donated data was analysed by researchers from the European University Viadrina (Frankfurt an der Oder) and data journalists from "Der Spiegel" and the "Stiftung Neue Verantwortung".

Data donation and digital sovereignty – an investigation into needs and attitudes from a design perspective. Master's thesis Emilia Knabe (M.A.)

As part of the DataSkop research project, Emilia Knabe's master's thesis analysed needs, attitudes and experiences on the topic of data donation and digital sovereignty. Two workshops were held for this purpose. Based on the findings of the workshops, three visual strands of screen designs were developed as suggestions for the design of the DataSkop data donation programme. The screen designs were then evaluated in three moderated user tests. Finally, recommendations for the design of the DataSkops data donation programme were formulated based on the findings of the workshops and the user tests.

Master's thesis on interface design Emilia Knabe, University of Applied Sciences Potsdam
Supervision: Prof. Constanze Langer, Marie Beuthel, M.A. (summer semester 2021)

Simulator platform dynamics Explore the principles and functionality of recommendation algorithms better with a simulator

In addition to the data donation projects, the "Platform Dynamics" simulator was also designed, developed and implemented during the course of the project. This is intended to support educational work on digital sovereignty and was published on the 7th of March 2022.

The focus of the development process was the creation of simulation data sets; visualisation of data dependencies and changes to various platform settings depending on user input; definition of the necessary functions and interaction mechanisms; graphical user interface and UX/UI design.

Click here for the simulator "Platform dynamics"

Information graphic for educational work: Recommender systems (recommendation services)

In order to promote the digital sovereignty of pupils, teaching material in the form of an information graphic was conceived and designed on the basis of our research. The information graphic is available as a download for school lessons.

Student project from the seminar "Digital Sovereignty" Urlosaurus: Frank Rausch (2021)

In the course of the research project, 3 courses (main study programme and Master's degree) were offered at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, which focused on the topic of digital sovereignty.

The students' results range from explanatory videos, print media, infographics and scrollytellings to functional prototypes for smartphones.

The final project "Urlosaurus" by Frank Rausch (M.A.) is shown here as an example. In his coursework, Frank Rausch investigated how to enable users to deal with URL tracking confidently and raise awareness of the issue. To this end, a digital tool was designed to enable users to defend themselves against URL tracking by using Urlosaurus to help users recognise hidden trackers concealed behind links.

Data donation project: What makes TikTok tick?

What do TikTok users see in their For You feed? Which niches are they directed to? These questions were the focus of DataSkop's second data donation project. Users were able to voluntarily provide their data to the project until the end of March 2023. These data sets were used to analyse how the platform's recommendation algorithm works.

Users were able to download the open source software at http://dataskop.net, which requested their GDPR data for them. This is private usage data that platforms are required to disclose under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). As soon as this data was available, it was automatically retrieved. The users then saw three visualisations of their usage behaviour, which the team from the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam designed together with AlgorithmWatch. Users were then given the opportunity to donate their data to the research project.

The aim of the study was to analyse the TikTok recommendation algorithm with real usage data: How and where do trends and niches emerge? Are there indications that the platform places certain content prominently in the for-you feeds?

Visualisations: What makes TikTok tick?

In winter 2023, the anonymised donated data was used to create visualisations at the Department of Design that examined events such as the user activity of all data donors. It was filtered according to different types of app usage, the usage of the TikTok app per hour, per day, was compared with the actual consumption of videos on the platform and the usage behaviour of individual data donors was presented.

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