Disconnecting: Towards a Semiotic Framework for Personal Data Trails

Data collection from users' interactions with ubiquitous computing is a wicked problem for design. Despite legislation increasingly requiring "informed" consent, the apathy born from a constant bombardment of consent notifications means many users remain largely uninformed about the collection, manipulation and dissemination of their personal information. We explore existing semiotics as signposts that inform individual decisions, and report from a design activity where participants mapped out their daily personal data trails. Using these as inspiration we explore how to engage users with new or emergent data trails. This pictorial provides a visual argument for ( 1) engaging users with whole data trails, which may yield greater benefit than the optimisation of individual notifications, and (2) how a whole data trail perspective may be valuable in the development of semiotic conventions for acquainting users with emergent (future) data trails.