Design and Policy Considerations for (Inter)Personal Intimate Data

October 2024 – October 2026

Objective
This research will develop design considerations and policy recommendations for designing with and applying (inter)personal and intimate data. The project will follow a participatory approach centered around people’s experiences interacting with and sharing intimate technologies that collect and store (inter)personal data.

Background

In today’s digital society, most people routinely interact with connected products and services that collect and indefinitely store personal data. Increasingly, these products and services — and the data they produce — permeate intimate spaces, such as smart vibrators collecting sensor data about people’s arousal and orgasm, and AI romance chatbots collecting self-reported information about people’s mental and sexual health. Moreover, these intimate spaces are often shared and relational. For instance, a connected voice assistant in a shared household collects data from the primary user, other household members, and even occasional visitors. Thus, data becomes both intimate and (inter)personal, shaped by and shared across (inter)personal relationships around shared experiences and spaces.

These characteristics raise critical questions for data, design, and policy. Although connected intimate technologies — and the data they produce — are often designed for individual use(rs), their use is often shared and relational: How can we design intimate technologies that empower their users to care for and share their data? Similarly, regulations such as the GDPR established several rights to empower individuals to control their data, such as the right to access: Who should access (inter)personal data?

About the Digital Futures Postdoc Fellow
Alejandra Gómez Ortega is a Design and Human-Computer Interaction researcher. She holds a PhD in Industrial Design Engineering from the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands. Her research investigates individual experiences interacting with and sharing intimate data, privacy perceptions and considerations around data, and data themselves through playful and creative approaches. Alejandra has applied various methods and approaches in her design research journey, including Participatory Design and Research through Design. Alejandra enjoys designing, developing, deploying, and exhibiting provocative artifacts and digital prototypes that enable individuals and communities to experience a specific situation as a starting point for reflection and discussion.

Main supervisor
Airi Lampinen, Associate Professor, Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV), Stockholm University.

Co-supervisor
Madeline Balaam, Professor, Division of Media Technology and Interaction Designs, KTH.