Privacy enhancing Nutrition Labels for a Good Digital ID

Choose what happens to your data in a Digital ID

We propose Privacy enhancing Nutritional labels for a Good Digital ID, as a lasting solution to address the fundamental knowledge gap existing between data standards adopted by service providers and individual practices/capacity, primarily in developing countries.

What data is collected, shared and used, are some of the basic questions which the label will answer, inform users, and allow them to have greater oversight and control of their personal data,  and also help them intelligently assess risks of data sharing.

The nutrition label will provide information in a simplified and standardized format and have features like icons, voice over, colour codes in order to engage users from diverse backgrounds of language and literacy. It would enable the user to exercise agency over its personal data, and make choices that reflect their own preferences. The identification thus created will align with the individual’s concept of privacy.

In developing countries like India, users seem to know about their right to privacy, but do not seem to know how to secure it. This was a key finding of user perception surveys undertaken by us to gauge users’ understanding of concepts like data privacy, and protection, while engaging with digital technologies. Most users do not read privacy policies, and among those who do, only a minuscule percentage understands it. Length, legalese, and language were recorded as prime impediments, which continue to feature in current privacy policy frameworks. Users continue to give their personal data to avail benefits offered by digital technologies (like easy access, time and cost saving) with the expectation that data will be used only for stated purposes while ensuring privacy and anonymisation. To ensure users trust is retained it is important to reconceptualise the interaction between service providers and users, which is the key objective behind nutrition label for privacy, which will reduce informational asymmetry between consumers and firms, and encourage service providers to adopt good data hygiene.

Incorporating transparency and different aspects of privacy such as data aggregation, secondary use of data, accessibility of ID information, rights to add/ modify/ delete, security of collected information within the label design can bring about a sustainable transformation in developing Good IDs across the diverse landscape of developing nations. Privacy labels can help make positive use of technology - a harnesser and amplifier of trust across geographical barriers, sectors, and users.

Rather than restricting the ways in which consumers and services interact, we intend to customize user experiences to match their personal privacy preferences and enabling privacy by design. Therefore, a platform like Privacy Enhancing Nutrition label for Good Digital ID will improve people’s understanding of general data standards and bring about good data practices which hold the potential to improve behaviors and outcomes.

The idea of nutrition label evolves organically from our body of work, and allows us to build constructively on the trajectory of securing consumer rights, enable and empower them to make their own decisions.

Nutrition label for Good Digital ID is a new application of technology. Based on data of user preferences collected across demographics in India, terms and conditions of Digital IDs relevant for different user profiles will be identified through technology and presented in user friendly format.

The solution will help users by enabling them exercise more agency over their personal data.It will be first of its kind in developing nation. It seeks to address diversities in language, literacy levels, and barriers like low connectivity – features which are synonymous across developing nations, thus, could be introduced in other nations.

Our solution will use information collected only for the stated purpose of empowering users. The data collected would only be useful in aggregate analysis, as it will be anonymised and will not be to able to identify the user. Different aspects of privacy related to the Digital IDs such as data aggregation, secondary use of data, accessibility of ID information, rights to add/ modify/ delete, security of collected information will be addressed as part of the label design. 

The solution is a bridge correcting informational asymmetry between consumers and firms. It is a missing link which positions itself as a pre-requisite to any Good Digital ID.

The privacy label will allow users to understand -what information is being collected, what purpoe will it be used for, with whom will it be shared and for what purposes, how is their data being protected and whether privacy is being ensured and data protection features incorporated by service providers, including Digital ID firms. The label will highlight sensitive personal information as per the local laws, and user preferences and requirements in accordance with user profile. It will also enable the user to mark any personal data as sensitive.

Such a format allows users to compare the privacy attributes offered by different services, and conversely encourages industry to provide better choices to consumer, which in turn enables more opportunities while being cost effective. The data collected by Digital ID firms will be thus informed by user choice and aligned more closely with their perception.

It will be accessible offline as well as online. The online platform will have a mobile application design as well. It will have simple hierarchy and easy to use navigation like roll over, one click features to ensure easy access and speed, and convenience. Labels, and visuals will be designed keeping in mind the diversity of users in a developing country

The solution allows interoperability in that it will work across systems, industry/sectors, users and geographies. Although the data will be anonymised and a particular user will not be identifiable.

The solution is conscious of the socio cultural diversity and the technological barriers in a developing country. The label will have voice over feature which will read out the information in the preferred language and navigate user to give inputs in a yes or no format, indicated through colour coded icons, easily accessible by illiterates or/and less literates. Users will also be able to obtain relevant information in pictures, signs and other better understandable formats. For literates, it will have icons and option of preferred language.

The nutrition labels have the potential to bring sustainable shift in user perception for safeguarding their informational privacy, and engineer an appetite for healthy privacy attributes. The behavioral change may result into initiating competition within industry to give users more choice, more control, over their personal data, thereby making privacy enhancement a central goal for all actors within the digital ecosystem. It will also provide comfort to new users in developing countries, to confidently engage with digital IDs and service providers. Users across developing and least developing countries will be able to benefit from the solution in time to come.

Our Nutrition Labels’ team comprises of experts on the subject (key investigators), researchers, and program implementors from two organisations- CUTS  International (Consumer Unity & Trust Society) and IIIT-B (International Institute of Information Technology- Bangalore). The former being a global consumer facing think tank, will bring in consumer perspective and help conduct consumer surveys, feedback, lab studies, and workshops, and the latter being a premier education and research institution of international repute, will  bring in technical expertise and help develop the prototype of the Privacy enhancing Nutrition Label for Good ID.

On privacy, data protection and digital economy, CUTS has implemented several evidence based research led advocacy and capacity building initiatives with a view to strengthen and promote consumer sovereignty. Whereas IIIT-B, has the academic as well as technical expertise in this realm. We are engaging with Dr. V Sridhar, a professor at the Centre for IT & Public Policy, IIIT-B, and offers a course on “Privacy in the Digital Age”, that addresses technological, economic, social and regulatory issues on Privacy. He has authored two books and several articles on ICT regulation and related subjects.

Our user perception surveys highlight the importance of safeguarding users’ trust in digital ecosystem. A Nutritional label is an important first step to foster sustainable privacy enhancing security practices and retain, and restore consumer trust in the digital ecosystem.

The future of the online economy depends on products and services that compete both on security and functionality. Greater transparency and awareness about the users personal data and privacy attributes through efforts such as Nutritional label will better educate consumers, who will demand products that put security first. Pursuant to that, both the supply side and demand side will be aligned towards understanding what goes into the digital ID, and how to enhance the privacy attributes. This in turn will generate market forces for designing better security through transparency, and greater user control on their data.

Embedding security in this way will help bring more users, sectors, industries, and geogrpahies within its fold to build a more reselient and sustainable digital ecosystem for tomorrow.

The platform will allow us to showcase our idea of empowering the consumers of global south. The challenge offers an opportunity to leverage our idea having huge potential to transform the lives of billions by marrying the global best practices with the inherent dynamism of developing countries. And, it will also help us engage and interact with such other like minded people and ideas, and allow us a space to collaborate with stakeholders who are working on a similar tangent.

Designing a solution which incorporates the socio- economic and cultural diversity of developing countries while being mindful of the barriers like low connectivity environments can be challenging, and hence would require a fine balance in its design and functionality.

We will therefore attempt to use a lean framework on which our prototype will be constructed. Although the design will have icons, voice over and color coded features to incorporate dynamism, but at the same time will be mindful of barriers and therefore will not be bandwidth hungry and could be used on low end smart phones too.