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Department of Business and Economics
Drawing of a head, a wheel and a dropper in light rainbow colors © UA Ruhr
Research Project

BMBF project "Optimizing informational sustainability for citizens in data ecosystems" (Opt-IN)

(Project duration: 2023 to 2026)

Funding body: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF)

Logo that shows a lock with a loading circle and the letters "OPT-IN" with a checkmark © Opt-IN

As part of the project "Optimizing informational sustainability for citizens in data ecosystems" (Opt-IN), an interdisciplinary consortium of scientists and practitioners is designing a data protection-compliant ecosystem for the smart home and smart city sectors. The aim is to enable citizens to exercise their fundamental right to informational self-determination in a world in which large American and Asian corporations are increasingly collecting personal data via digital platforms.

The aim of the research in the project is to promote awareness and trust among citizens for digital solutions in these application domains. In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the requirements for the products and services, the requirements, expectations and concerns of citizens are first thoroughly analyzed. Based on state-of-the-art technologies, the consortium develops business use cases and a best practice framework for value-added platform services and privacy-compliant products.

The project focuses on a holistic and user-oriented privacy-by-design approach to ensure data protection and privacy for citizens. An innovative live data cockpit will enable transparent decisions to be made on the use and revocation of data. The open ecosystem promotes cooperation between all stakeholders involved, especially citizens as data providers. The consortium is pursuing broad acceptance, low barriers to entry and high interoperability, in particular by focusing on everyday use cases. The research results obtained aim to promote people's trust in digital solutions in private homes and public spaces. Privacy by design will become a driver of innovation and a competitive advantage, while at the same time strengthening technological sovereignty.

The project duration is 36 months from 10.2023 to 09.2026.

Project manager and contact person for questions or cooperation offers is: Prof. Dr. Manuel Wiesche

Contact person at the Chair of Digital Transformation is: Björn Konopka, M. Sc.

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