Institutional development · Research, innovation and assessment · Germany
DFG funds SCREEN project to study smartphone use with on-device data processing
The German Research Foundation is funding SCREEN, a project involving Hochschule Düsseldorf, the University of Bremen and GESIS that is building infrastructure to analyse smartphone activity without storing sensitive screen content centrally.
Why it matters: Researchers at Hochschule Düsseldorf, the University of Bremen and GESIS are developing infrastructure that processes smartphone data directly on the device.
SCREEN, a research project funded by the DFG (German Research Foundation), examines how people use their smartphones and which digital content reaches them, according to Hochschule Düsseldorf.
Prof. Dr. Philipp Krieter of Hochschule Düsseldorf is involved in the project and is working with the University of Bremen and GESIS on a technical infrastructure for scientific analysis of smartphone activity.
The infrastructure processes data directly on the device rather than storing sensitive screen content centrally, the announcement said.
According to the announcement, the aim is to gain new insights into digital media use while ensuring data protection.
Editor’s view
Scott James, Research and Innovation Editor
For the researchers at Hochschule Düsseldorf, the University of Bremen and GESIS, the DFG funding supports building a system in which smartphone data are analysed on the device itself, so that sensitive screen content is not held centrally.
