ViziBLUE: Responsibility and Transparency for Personal Data on Campus

Universities provide a stimulating environment for learning, research, work, and life. We also want to be a safe place for our community to develop and excel as individuals and professionals. This can be challenging in a hyper-connected world of ubiquitous technology, often indiscriminate data collection, and seemingly pervasive surveillance. This “new reality” is evolving every day, representing fundamental challenges to how we perceive and approach the gathering, use, and sharing of personal information. Many of our community members are on the forefront of technology adoption and it is increasingly important to help them to understand and question the digital ecosystems so central to their lives. At the University of Michigan, we have set a goal to be more transparent about data practices and put more effort toward educating students, faculty, and staff to recognize the inherent value of privacy. In 2020, we created a first-of-its-kind guide to student personal data, ViziBLUE, and over the last three years have continued to expand and enhance it, recently adding several guides specific to faculty and staff. Our poster will discuss our journey, from inception to the latest release, and walk the audience through the important considerations that informed our design, implementation, and engagement approach. We will share the feedback we have received from students, faculty and staff and pass on what we’ve learned and improve the future of transparency-enhancing technology.