How Might Informed Consent Transform Tech Design?
Technology’s wild west days are over. As the impact of rampant growth, unchecked development and astronomical investment makes itself clear on a daily basis, so questions are being asked of how we create technology. This morning’s news surrounding school children in China working overnight to produce Amazon Alexa devices is case in point.
Profit may be the primary aim for tech businesses, but as the consequences on people, communities and society — unintended or otherwise — become better understood, the very individuals the tech industry needs to sell to are starting to assess whether trading their personal details for convenience is all that worthwhile.
As a result, the decisions made during the design and development process are under the spotlight, and resources are being made available to help those involved in its creation consider the big picture.
Resources like Doteveryone’s consequence scanning workshops, the work Agile Ethics are undertaking in educating and training for technologists and the open-source tools being made available by Ethics Kit. As one of The Federation’s cohort of ethical enterprises, how we simplify processes and enhance outcomes is a major focus for founder, Phil Hesketh.
As a designer and developer — working with the Co-op, social design agency Common Good (now LovedBy) and training at Hyper Island — the day-to-day challenges of designing responsibly are well understood. Yet, while influencing the design process to consider social outcomes is essential, it’s the increase in industry regulation that has inspired his latest project, Consent Kit.
As the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) begins to show its teeth, the realities of GDPR is coming home to roost for many large organisations. With Marriot recently fined £99.2 million for a breach of 339 million guests data, and British Airways charged £183 million for not adequately securing data from hackers, data compliance is currently front of mind for all businesses.
Speaking with Phil during the shaping of the new responsible tech solution, whether the data is collected through the use of tech products or processes, or employed during the design and development process, the case for informed consent is increasingly pressing.
“Informed consent matters, and it’s both a legal and ethical requirement”
The regulators are simply taking a stance for those people who don’t always understand what it is they’re getting involved in. Yet, as distrust in businesses, technology and the internet increases, how everyone — from chief technology officers and marketing managers to user researchers and coders — responds can make all the difference in the products designed and sold too.
“People who are conducting research, and the people they are doing the research with don’t always understand what it is they;re getting involved with, and how its going to be used. The aim is to inform the quality of informed consent across the industry, by enabling researchers to create clear and ongoing opportunities to ask for consent to use data”
With quality data and insights are essential for designers and developers to create products, the intention of Consent Kit is to give people control of their data during the research process. In the process, the informed consent tool can also up new opportunities for the researcher to engage with participants, and doing so in a timely way means compliance becomes easier to track.
“It allows researchers to ask for consent ahead of time — rather than on the day — and for the people participating, better track and understand where and how their data has been used, or if they want to pull out, they can do it easily. People are more empowered with regards to their data”.
Designed to input, track and communicate with research participants from one place, using best practice consent documents and organising across disparate design and development teams, features like data deletion reminders can help teams more easily abide by data regulation. That and shift the time (and money) spent capturing, recording and storing data back to the research.
“The research system is only as good as the weakest link, and if people are storing data inappropriately or a team member or contractor leaves the organisation, its harder to allow participants to manage their own data. By having a central place to manage consent, it changes the dynamic of how consent works, and alleviates potential GDPR headaches too”.
Yet, it’s the potential to establish relationships, built on trust, and the better insights it can bring that offer the biggest opportunity for those keen to establish more robust practises when it comes to responsible tech. Phil’s aim is not just to make the bureaucracy around consent more time and cost-effective, but practically demonstrate the benefit of designing better products as a result.
In The Federation, where social innovators like InnovateHer work with young women and girls to inspire careers in tech, and another organisation is designing a homeless employment solution with people impacted by the issue, the responsibility of capturing and responsibly using data is key.
“Businesses are starting to wake up the importance of consent and what that means, but we still have a long way to go. Researchers have an important role to play in building trust, but we need to raise the bar a little bit more.”
The trust built during the design process will be a deciding factor in the quality of the recruitment model designed. Yet, it also provides the opportunity to build a community around the work and keep those engaged in the design process during the testing and launch of products. Unicef's U-Report, where data is crowdsourced globally to build insights and lobby government is case in point.
“Informed consent removes all the angsty bits around a conversation, and removes the pressures on the quality of the interaction when it’s done right. It's not universally done, and it’s really really important. It can make or break an interview”.
Currently in beta mode — and looking for early adopters to test and feedback on its efficacy — Consent Kit already has 12 organisations engaged globally. Enabling compliance and facilitating better design, the questions it raises around responsible tech has the potential to inspire change how organisations approach technology as much as it does the outputs.
Get involved in Consent Kit’s trial here.
Taking Action at The Federation
We’re bringing the major players in our tech ecosystem together to explore what responsible tech means, why it’s relevant to your organisation, and more importantly, how we can collectively mobilise to make it a reality.
Digital ability and accessibility, tech skills & employment, tech innovation & design and digital information & data are all up for consideration. Join us at The Federation on Thursday 22nd August and play your part.
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