Background: “Research Training Groups are established by universities to promote young researchers. They are funded by the DFG for a period of up to nine years. Their key emphasis is on the qualification of doctoral researchers within the framework of a focused research programme and a structured training strategy. Research Training Groups with an interdisciplinary approach are warmly welcomed. The aim is to prepare doctoral researchers for the complexities of the job market in science and academics and simultaneously to encourage early scientific independence.” (DFG, German Research Foundation)

Content: Mobile information and communication technology has become virtually ubiquitous due to the proliferation of smartphones and tablet computers; large sections of the society use it to their advantage. In reference to the relationship users-network, public debates highlight the increasing transparency of users -in the sense of a surveillance society- while the network is deemed to become increasingly nontransparent, i.e. inscrutable. The proposed Research Training Group (RTG) is a highly interdisciplinary collaboration between Computer Science and the fields of Law, Economics, Sociology, and usability research , and plans major contributions to reversing this trend:

• It shall enable better privacy protection for users and better transparency, i.e. assessability of the network.
• Privacy protection shall be customizable to personal interests yet manageable by the lay person.
• Privacy-opposing economic or societal interests shall be better reconciled.

Project partners: Research groups TU Darmstadt and University Kassel.

Funded members: Olga Sanina.

Formerly funded members: Jacqueline Brendel.

External Link: https://www.privacy-trust.tu-darmstadt.de.