A field guide to: data driving by and flying high

Virtual poster session: Monday 6 April - Thursday 9 April.

Collection, use and sharing of data from devices for research purposes

Preliminary Results from case studies on vehicle and drone data.

Proposed is a poster on the legal and ethical challenges for researchers gaining access to and processing device data responsibly. 

Although my PhD research looked at insurers as main users of car data, the challenges they face are similar to those for researchers who want to use car data for research purposes.  The poster will present those challenges that are relevant for researchers to become aware of and discuss what may be the practical implications of the challenges and whether the current regulations are fit for purpose to address these challenges. (spoiler alert: there are many uncertainties where there is a gap or discussion about how to comply with the legal requirements)

Introduction
Humans, animals and objects are increasingly equipped with advanced sensors and communication technologies that generate and share vast amounts of data, which may reveal valuable information. For example, the data obtained from connected cars not only reveals whether you are a safe driver which is relevant information for your insurer and law enforcement; but also about traffic flows and road conditions which is useful for (smart) city planning for example. Given the urgent need (and calls) for research that looks into improving road safety, addressing climate change and other issues for which access to vehicle data we argue that researchers should also have access to the data generated through devices.

In reality however, much of the data is not readily available because of technical or physical barriers or because access is controlled by those that capture the data which often is the car or the device manufacturer. Other challenges for researchers include security and as vehicle data generally constitutes personal data, ethics; privacy and data protection regulations,. This is especially the case with geo location data as this may reveal highly sensitive data when a person’s whereabouts are tracked over longer periods.

As some of the same issues arise when researchers use drones to capture data the poster aims are as follows: 
to present questions to gather feedback from the RDA community bringing an interdisciplinary and international scope to the challenges and proposed solutions in the EU context; and to instigate a discussion and raise interest amongst the RDA community to join our working session to discuss the guidelines to be developed for drone data use.