Introduction
Digital footprint data have opened up a new era in population health and wellbeing research. The ubiquity of technology means that information is continually being generated about us as we traverse our daily lives; this touches on behaviours from financial wellbeing (e.g. banking data), to eating habits (e.g. shopping records), to physical activity (e.g., smartwatches).
While standalone digital footprint data can tell us a lot about individual behaviour, linkages to other datasets are necessary if we want to gain more context on health, well-being, or other factors. You can read this blog for further info about our research.
Explaining the science
Traditionally, digital footprint data has been used by private companies for marketing purposes. With recent changes in UK Data Protection law (GDPR), the public can now donate their data for academic research. This means data can be collected ethically and with consent from the public.
For instance, shopping data from loyalty cards offers valuable, granular insights into real-world choices and behaviours, which are often hard to capture in health research. Unlike self-reported data, which can be biased, digital footprint data can provide ground truth information. This data can significantly advance our understanding of how everyday behaviours impact health on both individual and aggregated levels, such as how ready meal consumption may impact obesity, or how high calorie purchases vary by region.
Activities
Events
We meet regularly to further the aims of the group, both in-person and hybrid. The meetings are a mix of round-tables, technical presentations and workshops, and we actively identify opportunities for collaborative outputs (e.g., papers, policy briefings).
Upcoming
Digital Footprints ‘25 Conference, 14-15 May 2025, University of Leeds
The upcoming Digital Footprints conference is set to take place at the University of Leeds, showcasing multidisciplinary research in the field of digital footprints. The conference will bring together a multi-sector audience – academics, policy-makers, government representatives, industry – to share insights and frameworks for working with this data. Further information and registration details are available here.
Past events
Private data for public good: how data sharing benefits business and society, 20 November 2024, The Alan Turing Institute, London
Bringing together industry stakeholders and academics, this session explored the balance between leveraging private data and maintaining privacy, showcasing successful case studies from industry partners who have effectively shared data to drive societal benefits. A summary of the event can be found here
Digital Footprints ‘24 Conference 8-9 May 2024, University of Bristol
Digital Footprints 2024 focused on social impact. It was attended in-person by over 80 experts from a variety of interdisciplinary and multisector backgrounds, with 25% of participants from non-academic sectors, including industry, policymakers, funders and charities. Highlights included address from Clive Humby (ex-Dunnhumby/Tesco), and talks from professionals at UK-LLC, ONS Data Science Campus, Statens Serum Institute, and the University of Bristol. The event also featured a range of workshops, an Early Career Researcher (ECR) panel, and a poster session. For the full proceedings, visit here.
Consumer data applications: Causal research in novel linked datasets 21 March 2024, University of Leeds
This workshop was organised jointly by two Turing Interest groups – Novel data linkages for health and wellbeing and Causal inference – and predominantly focused on how linked digital footprint data within longitudinal studies can help us to analyse a variety of biases. More about the event can be found here.
AI UK ’24 Fringe Webinar: Digital Footprints for Social Impact 14 March, Online
This webinar was carried out in collaboration with AI UK Fringe, inviting two experts to discuss how Digital Footprints data can be leveraged for social impact. More about the event can be found here.
How can digital footprint data be used for public benefit? 30 November 2023, Alan Turing Institute, London
This event focused on the opportunities and challenges of linking digital footprint data to health outcomes, featuring talks on data sharing, NHS data access, and the importance of collaboration. Discussion groups explored practical solutions for enhancing partnerships between diverse stakeholders. This event culminated in two key outputs: a discussion paper and a policy briefing. For more details about the event, read here.
Inaugural Digital Footprints ‘23 Conference 11 May 2023, University of Bristol
The inaugural Digital Footprints conference brought together over 60 in-person multisector attendees to share experiences, knowledge, and methods in this growing multidisciplinary field. We hosted presentations, flash talks, posters, and an insightful panel discussion on the future of Digital Footprints research, and invited keynote speakers from ADR UK, ESRC and the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. For more details about the conference visit here, or view the conference proceedings here.
Inaugural Novel Data Linkages for Health and Wellbeing event 26 Oct 2022, Alan Turing Institute, London
The inaugural meeting of the Interest Group featured a presentation from Bruce Jackson (ESRC/UKRI), followed by a panel discussion led by Professor Michelle Morris, where experts from companies like We The Curious, Our Future Health and BT shared their insights on the opportunities and challenges of using digital footprint data in health and wellbeing research. Breakout groups focused on the future direction of the group. Read more about the event here.
Aims
Our group addresses the following aims:
- To bring together multi sector communities to explore opportunities for linking novel digital footprint data to health and wellbeing.
- To create a community of practice that brings together researchers in data science, artificial intelligence, social & medical sciences and other relevant disciplines from the UK and beyond to work on digital footprint linkages.
How to get involved
Click here to request sign-up and join
Contributors
- Academia (e.g., Leeds Institute for Data Analytics, University of Leeds; Digital Footprints Lab, University of Bristol; N/Lab, University of Nottingham)
- Industry (e.g., Lloyds Banking Group, Ocado, British Telecom)
- Government (e.g., Office for National Statistics, Public Health Wales, Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
- Funding bodies (e.g., ESRC, Wellcome Trust)
- Think tanks and charities (e.g., We the Curious, UK LLC, Our Future Health)
- Research organisations (e.g., Smart Data Foundry, Smart Data Research UK, Administrative Data Research UK, HDR UK)
Talking points
We are excited to announce our new Ecosystem Portal, designed to facilitate ongoing collaboration, connections, and project planning among our group members on data-sharing initiatives that benefit all parties involved.
The portal will be available for sign-up in the coming weeks - stay tuned for further details in our upcoming events or newsletter.
Organisers
Dr Romana Burgess
Senior Research Associate, University of Bristol
