There are an increasing number of tools and interventions that seek to protect and support women to have a safer experience online. Typically, these applications request information like location, contact details, and sometimes private images or other evidence of violence or abuse, to ensure the well-being of women in all their diversity. These safety apps must ensure personal data maintains women’s rights to privacy and safety, and that tools and initiatives can be assessed on this.
When safety and privacy are not put front and centre, this poses risks to women’s right to privacy and their safety more broadly. In order to ensure tools and interventions prioritise and ensure women’s right to privacy and safety, we need a robust evaluation approach to assess current gaps, identify opportunities for improvements and hold safety tech companies to account.
We have identified the development of an evaluation framework to assess the data safety of existing tools and interventions as one of the building blocks on the way towards more inclusive technologies and tools and interventions that consider the specific privacy concerns of women. A standardized, structured and systematic approach will allow the sector to assess effectiveness, make evidence-based decisions, allocate resources effectively, identify best practices, increase accountability and transparency and champion user-centered design.
Our first workshop brought together a diverse group of stakeholders from across civil society, representing multiple regions and areas of specialization. We explored the complexities and nuances of ensuring digital safety, particularly for women and marginalized communities. Conversations highlighted multifaceted aspects pivotal to evaluating safety tech from a gendered privacy lens.
Participants discussed the significance of understanding local contexts and deploying regional support, especially in regions where reporting offices for online abuse might not be available. The diversity of users also surfaced in discussions around intersectionality, diverse experiences and digital literacy levels, and ensuring the assessment considers various user perspectives. Participants also noted the challenge of integrating support features while mitigating potential risks, particularly concerning data privacy and transparency.
The second workshop made progress towards developing a framework for assessment, including the key elements which should be considered and some key design principles which take a broad range of contexts into account.
Our third workshop aimed at developing a clear methodology for assessing the effectiveness of safety applications in protecting women’s privacy online.
For more information please send us an email - team@womensrightsonline.net
