Led by Dr Maryam Mehrnezhad (Co-Investigator on AGENCY), the Cyber Security, Privacy, Bias and Trust in FemTech (CyFer) project has explored current and potential cyber threats to women through their growing use of female-oriented technologies.
Women sharing their intimate and personal data through the use of innovative technology opens up new possibilities with the potential to transform lives. Along with this women are, often inadvertently, open to the misuse and abuse of the data collected through apps and connected devices.
The challenges of ethical, safe and secure use of FemTech range from insufficiently robust data security and testing to deliberate abuse of the trust users place in privacy protection. The main findings of the CyFer research project have been interpreted by a collection of six artists with the aim of informing policy makers and end users and strengthening public understanding.
The AGENCY Principal and Investigator and Project Manager visited the CyFer exhibition at Royal Holloway, University of London on 18th August for a tour and discussion with the CyFer research team. The AGENCY team found the exhibition strengthened understanding of the complex challenges of ethical and safe development of FemTech, provoked thought and emotion through the creative responses to the research findings and facilitated public understanding of the research findings.
The findings of the CyFer project will feed in to the FemTech case study on AGENCY, also led by Dr Maryam Mehrnezhad. In time the AGENCY project will disseminate its findings to stakeholders, end users and the public.
Further information can be found about the CyFer project at the following link: https://sites.google.com/view/maryammjd/cyfer-project.
