AGENCY Toolbox
Assuring Citizen Agency in a World with Complex Online Harms
Digital Safety Playbook
Our playbook equips policymakers and industry leaders with strategies to address complex online harms and ensure responsible technology development. As digital innovations shape our daily lives, they also introduce risks such as disinformation, privacy concerns in FemTech, and security vulnerabilities in smart homes. This playbook provides practical tools, clear guidance, and real-world use cases to help safeguard citizens while maintaining public trust in digital services.
Case Study 1:
FemTech
The FemTech case study focused on the intersection of cybersecurity, privacy, trust, and bias in female-oriented technologies (FemTech). FemTech encompasses a range of technologies, including mobile applications, websites, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, designed to address women’s health and wellness needs, such as fertility tracking, period management, and pregnancy monitoring.
Case Study 2:
Smart Homes
The AGENCY’s smart home case study investigates the risks and harms linked to connected smart devices in homes. Whilst smart technologies aid wellbeing and offer convenience and independence, they also pose security and privacy threats—like tech abuse.
Case Study 3:
Online Disinformation
The (mis)information case study within the Agency project aims to explore the complex online harms arising from people’s encounters with information of questionable veracity, from sources with potentially dubious intentions.
Case Study 4:
Cornerstone
Countering Mis- And Disinformation in Digitalised Energy Systems Towards Net Zero (CORNERSTONE for short) focuses specifically on digitalisation and digital energy technologies as key components of decarbonised energy systems.
