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Hafan

Current projects

 

Truzy Limited – Open Banking-Powered Review Verification 

Truzy is an innovative verification platform designed to combat the global issue of fake reviews by using open banking to confirm genuine customer experiences. The platform allows consumers to verify a transaction after submitting a review, ensuring that online feedback is authentic and based on real-world activity. By providing a transparent alternative to unverified or closed review systems, Truzy aims to restore consumer trust and address widespread concerns regarding the authenticity of online reviews. 

By entering the ICO Sandbox, Truzy seeks guidance on how data protection principles such as data minimisation, transparency and meaningful user consent apply when using open banking data for verification purposes. The project will focus on developing robust mechanisms such as privacy enhancing technologies and anonymisation techniques  to process   verification data securely and privately. 

Truzy aims to demonstrate that review platforms can move beyond self-reported feedback by introducing transaction-based verification. By combining open banking with privacy-by-design, Truzy seeks to create a more transparent, verifiable and trustworthy economy. 

Entered: March 2026

Zebbingo – Exploring Child‑Centred AI by Design 

Zebbingo is developing a screen free audio platform for children and is participating in the ICO Regulatory Sandbox to enhance its approach to data protection and child safety during product refinement. The platform combines high quality figurines with original stories and music, and moderated conversational AI, designed to support learning and creativity in a safe environment. 

Through the Sandbox, Zebbingo is seeking guidance on a range of data protection considerations relevant to the development of its product. This includes exploring risks associated with its AI conversational system and moderation processes; refining its approach to lawful bases for processing personal data; assessing special category processing; and designing clear, age appropriate transparency and explainability materials. The engagement will support Zebbingo in aligning its approach with UK GDPR and the Children’s Code, and in developing materials that meaningfully support parents and children in understanding how the product works and how personal data is used. 

The Sandbox will provide Zebbingo with regulatory support to explore and address data protection considerations relevant to its operating model. 

Entered: February 2026

Tribela – User-centric Social Media Platform for young people  

Tribela is a new social media platform committed to building a digital space that is safe, meaningful and has well-being at its core. Tribela is rethinking the way that young people connect online by moving from engagement-maximizing algorithms to user-controlled feeds and AI-powered moderation that can block harmful content in real time. Tribela is looking at how they will introduce user verification to their platform in order to reduce the risks of bots, harassment, and misinformation, giving people more control over their online experience. 

Social media harms such as exposure to violence, addiction, and bullying disproportionately affect younger users, especially when they receive their first device. Tribela’s approach is to embed safety-by-design principles from the ground up, ensuring privacy and well-being are foundational features. 

By entering the ICO Sandbox, Tribela seeks guidance on applying UK data protection and privacy laws to innovative areas such as AI moderation, age estimation, and verified identity systems. This will ensure transparency, proportionality, and compliance as the platform moves from beta launch into public rollout. 

Tribela aims to demonstrate that social networks can thrive while prioritizing user safety and privacy, setting a new standard for ethical digital platforms. 

Entered: September 2025

IDUN Technologies – IDUN Guardian platform 

IDUN Technologies is pleased to enter the ICO Regulatory Sandbox with its IDUN Guardian platform, powered by next-generation brain-sensing earbuds. The company aims to explore how real-world EEG data can be used responsibly to provide individuals and organisations with meaningful insights into cognitive states and impactful interventions that enhance wellbeing, improve performance, and reduce risks in everyday and professional contexts. 

By participating in the Sandbox, IDUN seeks guidance on ensuring data protection and transparency in neurotechnology applications that operate at the intersection of health, wellbeing, and human performance. The project will focus on developing robust mechanisms for consent, fairness, and accountability when interpreting brain data outside of clinical settings. 

The Sandbox will support IDUN in validating its approach to privacy, ethics, and user empowerment, enabling the responsible use of neurotechnology to promote mental wellbeing in daily life and in settings where focus, fatigue, and cognitive health play a critical role. 

Entered: August 2025

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

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), also known as forensic investigative genetic genealogy (FIGG), 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