Dr Janis Wong

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Research Associate

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Bio

Janis Wong is a Research Associate in the public policy programme. She has an interdisciplinary PhD in Computer Science from the Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy (CRISP), University of St Andrews. Janis is interested in the legal and technological applications in data protection, privacy, and data ethics, where her PhD research aimed to create a socio-technical data stewardship and governance framework that helps data subjects protect their personal data under existing data protection, privacy, and information regulations. She also holds an MSc in Computing and Information Technology from the University of St Andrews and an LLB Bachelor of Laws fron the London School of Economics.

In 2020-21, Janis was a Research Fellow at the Open Data Institute, focusing on data protection and governance in online teaching, learning analytics, and educational technology. She was a participant in the Fall 2021 Research Sprint on "Alternative Data Futures: Cooperative Principles, Data Trusts, and the Digital Economy" and the Fall 2020 Research Sprint on "Digital Ethics in Times of Crisis: COVID-19 and Access to Education and Learning Spaces" hosted by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

Research interests

Janis' research focuses on data protection, stewardship, and governance as it related to artificial intelligence, ethics, and public policy. She draws on her expertise in data protection and information regulations, data stewardship and data governance, human-computer interaction (HCI), and science and technology studies (STS) to address power imbalances and stakeholder tensions when designing, building, and deploying innovative technologies.

Janis uses both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in her research, where her past research includes topics such as data protection rights, privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs), online learning and educational technologies, the impact of social media on the physical and mental health of young people, research ethics frameworks, and collaborative design.

Achievements and awards

Janis is an active speaker and enjoys communicating artificial intelligence, ethics, and privacy-related topics to both academic and non-academic audiences.

A selected list of invited talks and public appearances include:

- "St Andrews student's fear after being secretly tracked by Apple AirTags" quote. The Courier, February 2022
- "Apple AirTags - ‘A perfect tool for stalking’'. BBC Radio 5 Live, January 2022
- "Data protection and governance in educational spaces" seminar. University of Winchester, November 2021
- "Neighbour wins privacy row over smart doorbell and cameras". BBC Radio 5 Live, October 2021
- "A Conversation on Web Scraping". DataKind UK, September 2021
- "Whither data portability? Obstacles to the GDPR's newest data subject right". British and Irish Law Education and Technology Association (BILETA) Annual Conference 2021
- "Virtual Hack: How can we tackle the spread of 'fake news' and build public knowledge and trust in sound science?". The Royal Society of Edinburgh Post-Covid-19 Futures Commission, March 2021
- "Homeschooling and working from home". STV News at Six, January 2021
- "Data Protection as a Commons". Creative Commons Summit 2020
- "Unconscious Bias: Building data ethics into our tech industry". Codeclan and Lloyds Bank, July 2020
- "The right to data portability in practice". Commission Nationale Informatique & Libertés (CNIL), June 2019
- "The right to data portability in practice". British Computer Society, June 2019
- "Exercising the GDPR Right to Data Portability in context". Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), January 2019

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