The Department of Information Systems at the University of Kassel is coordinating a project on nudging privacy in the digitalized world of work. The project will run for three years and is being funded by the BMBF with around 1.2 million euros. The aim is to develop privacy nudging concepts that promote the sensitive handling of private and company-related data.

Almost every decision we make in our everyday lives or in the course of our work requires the handling of diverse, sometimes sensitive data. This applies to both private online purchases and the maintenance of company databases.

One approach that can be used to train employees more effectively in handling data is privacy nudging. This is a method that can be used to influence people's behavior without restricting their decision-making options. Nudges in digital work systems should be designed in such a way that they encourage individuals to change their behaviour while complying with organizational, legal and ethical requirements. This serves to improve the design of IT systems with regard to the privacy of employees and at the same time to promote the informational self-determination of users.

The University of Kassel, represented by the Department of Information Systems (Prof. Dr. Jan Marco Leimeister) and the Department of Public Law, IT Law and Environmental Law (Prof. Dr. Gerrit Hornung), smarTransfer GmbH (Dr. Philipp Bitzer, Dr. René Wegener) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO and Future Work Lab (Sven Schuler) are working on the implementation.

"The handling of personal data is becoming increasingly important for both individuals and companies. Employees need to receive more training in this area. The nudging concept offers a good, individual and modern approach to raising awareness among employees," says Prof. Dr. Jan Marco Leimeister, Head of the Department of Information Systems at the University of Kassel. Prof. Dr. Gerrit Hornung, Head of the Department of Public Law, IT Law and Environmental Law, adds: "Influencing behavior through nudges can certainly interfere with the self-determination of those affected. This is precisely why we want to define the data protection and employment law framework conditions for their use in interdisciplinary work". "Legal permissibility, ethical justifiability and technical feasibility should be combined. Without one of these components, there can be no work organization design rules for the conception and use of nudging for production work," adds Sven Schuler, project manager and research associate at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO.

Within the research project, privacy nudging concepts are being developed and piloted with the Future Work Lab in Stuttgart and the company smarTransfer GmbH with its freelancer technology Lyncronize, among others. In the long term, it should be possible to offer these concepts as individual services to a broad market.

Further information:

www.nudger.de

www.inf.wirtschaft.uni-kassel.de

Contact:

Dr. Andreas Janson
University of Kassel
Department of Information Systems
Phone: +49 561 804-6321
Email: andreas.janson@uni-kassel.de

Prof. Dr. Jan Marco Leimeister
University of Kassel
Department of Information Systems
Phone: +49 561 804-6064
Email: leimeister@uni-kassel.de