Hyper-privacy: Case of Domestic Violence (Hyper-DoVe)

This Research in the Wild project addresses the "Sustainable Society" challenges by applying technologies in tackling problems associated with domestic violence, enabling victims of domestic violence to obtain support and assistance, and therefore improving their quality of life.

Increasingly individuals embrace mobile and internet technologies as an integral part of their daily lives. As a result, various concerns have been raised with regard to privacy and social implications of living with and through such technologies. This project investigates and responds to these concerns by exploring the needs and challenges associated with hyper-privacy. By "hyper-privacy", we mean situations where privacy is so paramount that any privacy breach or information leakage could lead to psychological harm, physical harm or even death.

We propose that one situation where hyper-privacy is crucial is that of domestic violence, where victims of domestic violence require hyper-privacy in order to safely seek help, or even in accessing certain online resources. However, the current reality for a victim of domestic violence is that any attempt to seek help, either from friends and family or from support organisations, is likely to attract attention and risk further abuse.

In 2010-2011, we collaborated with the Angelou Centre, a North East support centre for Black and Minority Ethnic women in investigating the technological issues that most affect victims of domestic violence. The purpose of the study was to understand these issues better and thereby improve the accessibility of digital support services aimed at helping victims. Our research so far shows that victims have two major barriers to successfully accessing the support services they require:
- locating the support services and the organisations that provide them;
- fear of provoking further abuse if their abuser discovers that they have been seeking help.

In effect, victims are being excluded from the socio-technical systems that the rest of us take for granted due to their personal circumstances. The objective of our research is to overcome these barriers by refining, developing and evaluating a toolkit of hyper-privacy technologies that enable users to achieve hyper-privacy while accessing information online, with minimum effort and without leaving digital record of their visit.

In order to design and develop hyper-privacy technologies appropriate for use by end users experiencing domestic violence, it is vital that these end users, and staff at support centres, are involved in all aspects of the design and evaluation of such technologies so that they sufficiently meet the end users' needs and requirements. In response, our methodology incorporates participatory, experience-centred design methods to ensure that women's voices, needs and requirements are well accommodated for in resulting designs and technologies from the outset of the project. Further to this, we take an iterative design, development and evaluation approach and by doing so seek to create a range of opportunities and spaces through which end users and service providers can engage with and influence the design and implementation of hyper-privacy technologies.

We acknowledge that even well-designed technology will not be a single solution to our end users' hyper-privacy needs. Education/training will also need to be provided to achieve workable and practical hyper-privacy solutions. For example, we have conducted technology training for regional Independent Sexual/Domestic Violence Agencies (ISVA/IDVA) in collaboration with the Centre for Cybercrime and Computer Security and the Northumbria Criminal Justice Board (http://cccs.ncl.ac.uk/regional-victim-charities-back-in-the-class-room.html). To reflect this understanding, this project will also investigate how such education and training can be achieved and improved further, resulting in a set of guidelines and best practices to address these issues.

Who Might Benefit
Various groups of people will benefit from hyper-privacy feature, in particular victims of domestic and sexual violence for accessing digital support services without leaving tell-tale electronic footprints that might lead to further violence from their abuser. Moreover, staff at women's support centres will also benefit, as the solutions implemented in this project will enable them to provide cost-effective and directly practical assistance to the victims.
The work will also be useful for researchers in computing science (including security, privacy and trust; Human Computer Interaction, especially experience-centred interaction design and usability), as well as social sciences (including deployment in the wild; cultural and social issues in technology uptake; and qualitative and quantitative evaluation). In particular, the work will benefit interdisciplinary researchers working in the design, development, and deployment of usable socio-technical systems addressing sensitive issues.

How Might They Benefit
The socioeconomic impact will be achieved through direct engagement with Independent Sexual/Domestic Violence Agencies (ISVA/IDVA) support centres in the North East of England (e.g. http://cccs.ncl.ac.uk/regional-victim-charities-back-in-the-class-room.html), in particular with our Project Partner, the Angelou Centre. Moreover, we have connection with all ISVA/IDVA in the region through our other Project Partner, the Northumbria Local Criminal Justice Board. We have designated and trained representatives of the Angelou Centre in using digital technologies before, and this project will provide continuation of our collaboration with them. Through these centres, the benefits of this research will then be passed on to the victims of domestic violence. We will monitor the progress of the deployment of our solutions through constant and direct interaction with our Project Partners, adjusting our solutions where necessary, and at all times we strive to ensure that the deployed technology will make a positive difference to these victims.
The investigators are Computer Science researchers with extensive interdisciplinary experience, combining skills and knowledge in interaction design, system implementation, human aspects of computer-based systems, security, privacy and trust. Close collaboration with researchers from relevant disciplines will be pursued and facilitated throughout the project. This will open up and foster dialogue among these interdisciplinary researchers in "understanding people" aspect, as well as in covering important issues associated with designing for vulnerable people.