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Hafan

Current projects

Animorph Co-operative – CrossSense

CrossSense is an innovative augmented reality (AR) app designed for smartglasses, empowering people living with dementia to maintain their independence. The app overlays the real world with computer-generated information, creating an enhanced version of reality. CrossSense provides gentle reminders to users about tasks and objects around the house, and it connects information across senses to aid memory retention.

Wearable AR apps like CrossSense can pose privacy concerns because smartglasses can "see" and "hear" everything people do. To mitigate these concerns, CrossSense employs edge computing to process data locally. This approach reduces the risk of data interception and ensures that sensitive information stays within the user's control. However, challenges remain around system updates, accessing performance metrics and potential transitions to cloud processing in the future.

Animorph is pleased to enter the ICO Sandbox to address these emerging privacy and technological challenges. Animorph will benefit from the ICO's expertise in navigating the complexities of processing personal data for people who are at greater risk of harm.

Animorph aims to set a new standard for privacy-conscious AR applications.

Entered: September 2024

Meta Platforms Inc - Privacy Enhancing Technology-powered ad measurement

Meta is pleased to be working with the ICO and entering this Regulatory Sandbox programme which will allow Meta to further develop its Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs). Meta is researching a system, utilising a Secure Multiparty Computation (MPC) system that would enable accurate ad measurement while ensuring user privacy.

The development and deployment of new PETs hold a huge amount of potential for everyone who uses the internet as well as the digital ecosystem. They help deliver legal certainty, increase privacy and encourage increased digital adoption by firms.

This technology is nascent and is being developed in a changing regulatory environment. Meta is looking forward to working with the ICO Sandbox to help unlock the full potential of these technologies, by providing an independent review and analysis of the proposal under UK Data Protection laws, helping pave the way for increased adoption of PETs across the industry.

Entered: July 2024

The Metropolitan Police Service – Investigative Genetic Genealogy

The Metropolitan Police Service and partners, on behalf of the National Police Chief’s Council, are considering the potential use of investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) within the criminal justice system. IGG is a way to identify familial relations using genetic testing and genetic databases. One of the primary ways this technology could be used is in the investigation of unidentified human remains to help bring closure to families of missing people. IGG is currently used in other countries and has been proven to be of investigative value in a number of high-profile missing persons cases and ‘cold’ cases, some of which date back decades. To robustly inform any future policing strategies in England and Wales, the project will:

  • assess the available technologies,
  • explore and understand the potential applications, limitations and ethical impact of IGG in a criminal justice setting,
  • evaluate if this technology is a feasible approach.

As part of the Sandbox project, the Metropolitan Police Service and partners want to assess and record key data protection areas including, identifying relevant data processing regimes, and data protection responsibilities and risks. This will support the Metropolitan Police Service and partners to comply with relevant data protection principles, such as lawfulness, fairness, transparency and accuracy and assess whether the use of this technology is proportionate and feasible.

Entered: July 2024

Eclipse Digital Solutions and Geutebruck (UK) – Visual Intelligence

A major concern for the future of the UK’s healthcare system is the management of falls in hospitals, adult social care and domiciliary settings, where incidents continue to rise in the elderly. Since 2019, Eclipse Digital Solutions and Geutebruck UK have engaged with healthcare professionals to understand how best to support their needs regarding falls and patient wellbeing. They have now entered the Sandbox with their assistive technology innovation called Visual Intelligence.

Visual Intelligence is an AI-driven platform that combines with the placement of sensory devices in bedrooms and common areas to predict and prevent falls. Additionally, Visual Intelligence includes patient wellbeing technology, adding features covering pressure care management and enuresis detection, creating a comprehensive health monitoring system.

It aims to minimise falls, reduce injuries and hospital admittances, and improve patient outcomes. The benefits of reducing falls and the associated costs can easily be measured against current statistics. Industry sources identify that falls increase mortality rates and result in significant yearly costs for the NHS. Eclipse and Geutebruck intend to deploy Visual Intelligence to reduce the misery, anxiety, diminishing quality of life and mortality rates caused by falls here in the UK.

Eclipse and Geutebruck understand that Visual Intelligence may produce concerns amongst users and family members and have entered the Sandbox to pursue a privacy centric approach. They intend to work with the ICO on data protection themes such as roles and responsibilities, necessity and proportionality, and identifying and mitigating risks.

This work will be vital as Eclipse and Geutebruck seek to develop a robust system in readiness for commercialisation and adoption into the NHS, and work towards deployment within domiciliary settings.

Entered: May 2024

Department for Education – Education Credential

The Department for Education is responsible for children’s services and education in England, we intend to use the concepts of decentralised identity and verified credentials to allow post-16 students within the English education system to access, control and use their own personal data when applying and enrolling into further education organisations, via the use of an education credential.

The Department for Education has carried out research that demonstrates that the process of applying for and enrolling upon a course is not as simple as it can be, for the individual students themselves, as well as for the further education organisations. The use of an education credential should make the transition and enrolment process easier for both parties in a number of different ways.

The Department for Education is entering the ICO sandbox in order to ensure that the concept of privacy by design is applied to the development of the education credential, to understand and consider a number of challenges posed by the use of such a credential, and to demonstrate its commitment to placing data protection and privacy at the heart of its use of a novel and emerging technology.

Taking part in the regulatory sandbox will allow the Department for Education to approach and explore some key data protection and privacy areas with the support and engagement of the ICOs expertise and advice, to ensure that the privacy of users of the education credential is maintained at all times. Whilst clearly defining the roles and responsibilities of the number of different parties involved in the credential’s lifecycle.

The Department for Education believes that participation in the sandbox will significantly contribute to the development of a service that will be of real value to the public.

Entered: November 2023

West Yorkshire Police – Domestic Abuse Assessment Tool

West Yorkshire Police is pleased to be entering the Sandbox as we are in the process of developing a Domestic Abuse Assessment Tool that explores the feasibility of using emerging supervised machine learning technology to enhance the completion of risk assessments at domestic abuse incidents by Police Officers and to help them make the best decisions.  We are trying to identify if this tool will help us to reduce the number of domestic abuse offences that are committed as well as trying to predict whether or not any serious harm offences may occur in the next 12 months. The intention is for Police Officers and frontline staff to be able to use this technology to identify cases where escalation may occur so that working with partner organisations an early wrap around service can be put in place to support families and prevent the situation from getting worse. 

This is a groundbreaking idea and way of working and West Yorkshire Police want to ensure that they comply with any data protection requirements and that they can identify any potential concerns at an early stage and rectify them in a transparent and fair way.  It is hoped that being involved in the Sandbox will allow West Yorkshire Police to be as transparent as possible about this process and involve people in the consultation who may have concerns about it.  It is hoped that the ICO will support West Yorkshire Police in achieving this by offering advice, support and assistance along with an independent view to ensure that they work within the law and in an open way that is explainable to the wider public.

West Yorkshire Police believe that there is the possibility of enormous public benefit from this work.  They believe that the number of domestic murders could be reduced, and that the number of domestic abuse incidents that escalate to serious levels can be reduced, whilst providing targeted support to victims, offenders and their families by identifying those that are in most need.  West Yorkshire Police also believe that this could have a knock-on effect to other services, for example the NHS who would not be required to treat as many people who are injured in this way, and also schools who support children who may have witnessed or been involved in the domestic abuse.

Entered: March 2024

Cancer Awareness Trust – Cancer Platform

Cancer Awareness Trust have entered the Sandbox to build ‘Cancer Platform’. A free-to-use digital tool, Cancer Platform will enable everyone to navigate cancer empowered with expert knowledge and truth. It will support anyone impacted by cancer from prevention, through to diagnosis and treatment, transforming cancer outcomes for all. Data is fundamental to Cancer Platform’s impact and central to delivering genuine change that deepens connections and collaboration across the cancer sector’s leaders and organisations. Working with the ICO Sandbox, Cancer Awareness Trust will explore the data protection challenges underlying data sharing, including genomic information, and processing by artificial intelligence.

Entered: April 2024

Kestrix - mass thermal image capture and AI

Kestrix is a technology SME on a mission to unlock energy retrofits of existing buildings at scale. Kestrix uses mass thermal image capture and AI to construct real-world, 3D energy performance models of homes at city-scale – helping housing providers, contractors, energy retailers and financial institutions, as well as their customers, plan and price retrofits faster – ultimately accelerating decarbonisation.

To build the world’s largest and most comprehensive data set of heat loss data, Kestrix must use drones to capture aerial visible spectrum and thermal imagery at neighbourhood scale. Although Kestrix only intends to survey the buildings, human activity and personal data is inevitably captured.

If imagery is effectively depersonalised and resident expectations about mass-scale drone surveillance are effectively managed, Kestrix’s approach can be scaled – entire neighbourhoods and cities can be mapped for heat loss data with minimal negative public perception, and hundreds of thousands more energy retrofits can be planned, prioritised, financed, and verified.

Entering the ICO Sandbox enables Kestrix to better navigate privacy, data protection compliance and perception-related complexities of drone use. With support from the Sandbox, Kestrix will consider how much personal data is captured from the mapping, data minimisation safeguards and how transparency may be operationalised within the project.

Entered: April 2024