Opening our eyes to the Panopticon
Project team
Dr Katharina Burger
Principal Investigator
Associate Professor in Major Infrastructure Delivery, University College London
Prof Tom Buchanan
Co-Investigator
Professor of Psychology, University of Westminster
Prof Frédéric Tomas
Co-Investigator
Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication and Cognition, Tilburg University
Dr Neera Jeyamohan
Co-Investigator
Assistant Professor in Networks and Cybersecurity, Northumbria University
Summary
Every day, young adults interact with smart devices, such as phones, watches, and apps, without fully realising how much data they are giving away and what the risks are for behavioural influence and surveillance from this data. As AI-powered assistants like Microsoft Copilot or Google's Gemini become part of everyday life, our personal information flows faster and more widely than ever before.
This project helps 18–21-year-olds spot these hidden risks by putting them in the driver's seat of a digital story, where their choices expose the tradeoffs between convenience and control. We will test how exposure may help boost awareness, and then turn our findings into guidance for ethical tech design, relevant to educators, regulators, and tech designers.