USEMP (User Empowerment for Enhanced Online Management): The large majority of Europeans now use Online Social Networks (OSNs). These enable their users to easily share information, however the control of what happens to shared data is still very limited. The core idea of USEMP is to create easy-to-understand interfaces that make the results of user profiling technologies visible. In this sense the project is unique in sharing what can be inferred from users’ behavioral data and from shared content. To this end, the project has built DataBait, a tool that empowers users in their interactions with online social networks. A multidisciplinary approach is employed that includes multimodal and social media data mining, visualization and design aspects but close attention is also paid to the legal, social, and ethical constraints of such a tool.

Role of MKLab:

MKLab builds a number of analysis algorithms that enable the inference of personal and potentially sensitive information from a variety of data that OSN users share. Such inferred information could range from demographics (e.g. gender, age, country) and employment status, and expand to more sensitive information such as income and health condition. Furthermore, MKLab develops a framework for storing, accessing and presenting the conducted inferences to the user in an easy-to-grasp way.