Data Round Table Online: For Social Housing and Personal Data

The work will respond to the current Covid-19 situation and the abrupt shift to digital interactions between housing associations (HAs) and their tenants. Digital communication systems rely heavily on the use of data. This project aims to run a pilot workshop to explore attitudes around the use of personal data by social HAs. This data is personal and potentially sensitive introducing issues around privacy and consent. These issues are covered by GDPR but are still not well understood by individuals or adequately addressed by the majority of organisations. Housing associations currently have vast pools of data, primarily linked to the buildings and homes they manage. They are beginning to work towards harnessing IoT and chatbot technologies to improve tenants’ lives (and their business operations). However, current data protocols do not take into consideration the future proliferation of personal data generated by IoT devices. HAs must pre-emptively identify how to access, gather, manage and use this data in an ethical way. This pilot we will create an online version of the “Data Round Table” workshop, originally developed within the EPSRC funded Pactman project. This provides a highly structured and safe way to identify, understand and explore issues of privacy and consent around personal data. We will run this online workshop with stakeholders within Cairn HA. This pilot will put us in a good position to secure further funding and use the new online research method with social housing tenants, who will be able to participate from their homes. The intention of this future work is to prepare social HAs for the ethical and safe management of tenants’ personal data, as part of IoT systems and services.