New £8.6m research centre to keep people safe online

UCL is a key partner in a new centre drawing together experts from computer science, psychology, law and criminology that aims to protect citizens from a range of harms online. REPHRAIN -  Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial Influence Online - will be led by experts from UCL and the Universities of Bristol, Bath and Edinburgh, as well as King's College London. It is majority funded by a £7m grant from UK Research and Innovation's (UKRI) Strategic Priorities Fund. Our increasingly digital lives have thrown up challenges including privacy violations, micro-targeting of individuals, online abuse/victimisation, fraud and disinformation. With the emergence of smart cities, the Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile connectivity, there is an urgent need to protect citizens online and ensure the benefits far outweigh the risks. Researchers will explore the differing online harms to which diverse groups of people can be exposed, the effectiveness of privacy and online safety measures, and how to balance risks while improving citizens' ability to participate fully in the growing digital economy. Professor Madeline Carr (UCL STEaPP), Deputy Director of REPHRAIN, said: "We see this as the challenge of our generation and getting it right will have huge implications for the digital economy, for human rights online, and for the future potential of utilising data to solve some of the world's most pressing problems.