Understanding privacy, consent and data flows in current and future pervasive environments is a complex task! PACTMAN brought together a multidisciplinary team of researchers to work on these issues. However, not everyone has the time and resources to dig so deep into these complex entanglements. How can consent and data flows be more comprehensive? How can we make visible what is normally invisible? And can we use this to help others understand their data and data sharing better?

Building on previous work, we have developed a toolkit for schools to unpack the different dimensions of consent and data flows. What data are you comfortable to share and with whom? For how long? For what reason? The toolkit called Data Round Table works similar to a board game and can be applied to many contexts and situations.

A similar approach to make data flows visible and tangle to a lay audience are interactive, stackable blocks. These blocks are currently build by our partners at the Design Informatics at Edinburg University. Intended as a tool for public engagement events, the idea is that participants can start with a base block and then stack others on top. By using LED lights and connectors that can enable or disable data flows, participants can see how their data flows through the different blocks symbolising complex IT systems.