Smart Data Donation Service

At a glance

Secure infrastructure for acquiring, managing, and sharing donated data

Complete design capability to solve trust, usability, and motivation issues in data donation

Thought leadership regarding data donation as a new way to understand the world

Community-wide mentorship and upskilling regarding associated research methods and ways of working

About the Smart Data Donation Service

Empowering individuals across the country to obtain their own digital footprints and share them safely with researchers.

Individuals in the UK have the right to obtain a machine-readable copy of the personal data that any corporation holds about them. The Smart Data Donation Service (SDDS) is the first piece of national research infrastructure built around this right.

SDDS will help citizens across the UK to obtain copies of their digital trace data; assist them in using it to understand their digital lives; and offer them the opportunity to enrich and donate their data for use in scientific research.

Initially focusing on social media and video game domains, SDDS aims to address the urgent need for evidence-based policy around online safety and digital wellbeing. It will facilitate research into diverse topics including mental health, media literacy, digital community, discriminatory behaviour, and disinformation.

Data focus

Digital behavioural data from tens of thousands of individual donors
Targeted sampling of youth and at-risk populations across digital platforms
Combined digital trace data with self-reported experiences and perceptions
Longitudinal datasets tracking individual changes in digital engagement patterns

What’s coming?

Tiered access system offering different security levels for sensitive data
Community engagement through hackathons and a “lab in residence” programme
Digital wellbeing indicators for policy development and intervention assessment
Personalised tools enabling individuals to visualise and understand their own data

Gambling insights from banking data

University of York researchers conducted an innovative pilot study where they invited active gamblers to share their banking data. Through this approach, the team successfully quantified how gambling problem risk escalates with increased gambling expenditure. The research also explored whether higher income levels served asa potential protective factor against gambling-related harm. This data-driven approach provided valuable insights into the relationship between income and gambling harms.

The team

Led by the University of York, with embedded partners from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and Ofcom. The team is headed by Dr David Zendle and Professor Florian Block.

Dr David Zendle from the Smart Data Donation Service — Dr David Zendle

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