Nudge Better Quantified-Self with Context-Aware and Proactive Services

Abstract—The concept of quantified-self has drawn great attention along with fast developments of smartphones and wearable sensor technologies. Much work has been focused on life data collection and visualization to help with better self-understanding. However, we argue that although (self-awareness/knowledge discovery is an important aspect of quantified-self, knowledge maintenance is more, or at least equally, important. In this paper, we propose a proactive approach that uses the knowledge mined from people’s activity data to nudge them towards a good lifestyle. The trial study is focused on good sleep maintenance. We first use smartphone as an activity detector to collect various features in a non-intrusive manner. We then use those data to learn various activity patterns, including bedding time, wakeup time and sleep duration. Finally, we analyse correlations that may lead to sufficient or insufficient sleeps and provide customised advices through using proactive services at the right time in order to give them better chances to be turned into action

Implementing data-driven systems for work and health: The role of incentives in the use of physiolytics

Following the recent success of health wearable devices (smartwatches, activity trackers) for personal and leisure activities, organizations have started to build digital occupational health programs and data-driven health insurance around these systems. In this way, firms or health insurance companies seek to both support a new form of health promotion for their workforce/clients and to take advantage of large amounts of collected data for organizational purposes. Still, the success in the implementation of wearable health devices (also known as physiolytics) in organizational settings is entirely dependent on the individual motivation to adopt and use physiolytics over time (since organizations cannot establish a mandated use). Therefore, organizations often use incentives to encourage individuals to participate in such data-driven programs. Yet, little is known about these mechanisms that serve to align the interests of an organization with the interests of a group of individuals. This is an important challenge because these incentives may blunder the frontiers between what is voluntary and what is not. Against this background, this thesis aims, from a critical realist perspective, to build general knowledge regarding incentives in physiolytics-centered organizational programs. By doing so, individuals may be able to recognize challenges linked to participation in such programs; organizations may create sensible incentives; policymakers may identify new social issues that appear with this form of digitalization in organizations; and, finally, researchers may investigate new practical and social challenges regarding digitalization in organizations. In concrete terms, the first explorative phase of the thesis shows that feedback, gamification features and financial incentives are the most implemented incentives in physiolytics-centered organizational programs. There is also an overrepresentation of financial incentives for data-health plans, indicating that health insurance companies are building their strategy on external motivators. A second, more explanatory phase serves to further explore these types of incentives and specify recommendations by taking a higher perspective than normative views, so that it is possible to create more alternative managerial strategies or develop other policy perspectives. This part principally shows that the most influential incentives on user behavior are the ones that are transparent, that stimulate individual empowerment, and that propose defined benefits. In terms of contributions, this thesis allows individuals to evaluate how their autonomy and integrity is impacted by incentives in such data-driven programs. This thesis also outlines the necessity for organizations to invest time and resources to know their audience. Organizations additionally need to develop several strategies, by mixing incentives or gradually introducing them. Policymakers must ensure that regulations permit the clear consent of participants; guarantee a proportionality of incentives, and involve entities that can guide individuals through data-sharing. Finally, this thesis enables researchers to further investigate how organizations can develop appropriate and desirable environments regarding data-driven technology, so that individuals may enhance their decision-making processes and organizations may succeed in their implementation

Corruption studies for the twenty-first century: paradigm shifts and innovative approaches

The key question currently driving innovations in corruption studies is why anti-corruption reforms do not work. The explanatory factors for the disappointing outcomes of anti-corruption interventions over the last twenty-five years include those associated with: 1) understanding and modelling of corrupt practices; 2) measurement and monitoring; and 3) policy design and implementation

From libertarian paternalism to liberalism: behavioural science and policy in an age of new technology

Behavioural science has been effectively used by policy makers in various domains, from health to savings. However, interventions that behavioural scientists typically employ to change behaviour have been at the centre of an ethical debate, given that they include elements of paternalism that have implications for people’s freedom of choice. In the present article, we argue that this ethical debate could be resolved in the future through implementation and advancement of new technologies. We propose that several technologies which are currently available and are rapidly evolving (i.e., virtual and augmented reality, social robotics, gamification, self-quantification, and behavioural informatics) have a potential to be integrated with various behavioural interventions in a non-paternalistic way. More specifically, people would decide themselves which behaviours they want to change and select the technologies they want to use for this purpose, and the role of policy makers would be to develop transparent behavioural interventions for these technologies. In that sense, behavioural science would move from libertarian paternalism to liberalism, given that people would freely choose how they want to change, and policy makers would create technological interventions that make this change possible

Privacy Preserving Social Norm Nudges

Nudges comprise a key component of the regulatory toolbox. Both the public and private sectors use nudges extensively in various domains, ranging from environmental regulation to health, food and financial regulation. This article focuses on a particular type of nudge: social norm nudges. It discusses, for the first time, the privacy risks of such nudges. Social norm nudges induce behavioral change by capitalizing on people’s desire to fit in with others, on their predisposition to social conformity, and on their susceptibility to the way information is framed. In order to design effective social norm nudges, personal information about individuals and their behavior must be collected, processed, and later disseminated (usually in some aggregated form). Thus, the use of social norm nudges opens up the possibility for privacy threats. Despite the significant privacy concerns raised by social norm nudges, research on the topic has been scarce. This article makes two contributions to the understanding of the privacy risks underlying the use of social norm nudges. The first contribution is analytic: it demonstrates that using social norm nudges can pose a threat to individuals’ privacy through re-identification of anonymized data. This risk was demonstrated in other contexts (e.g. Netflix recommendation contest). The second contribution is policy oriented: it argues that the strategy of differential privacy can be used to mitigate these privacy risks and offer a way to employ social norms nudges while protecting individuals’ privacy

The observing self as a catalyst for behaviour change and wellbeing: Effective personal informatics system design to promote behaviour change in the changing health paradigm

The current study is a user-centred enquiry into how wellness-related personal informatics (PI) systems can be more effectively designed to better promote lasting behaviour change and sustained wellbeing in the context of the changing health paradigm. Until recently, the Western biomedical model with its disease focus has been effective in delivering health care; however, this paradigm does not efficiently support a system in crises - the contemporary health care system which is confronted with complex challenges of modern lifestyle diseases and behavioural disorders. Enabled by the technological revolution, a Systems Medicine model - a preventative, personalised, predictive and participatory (P4) approach - is emerging and PI systems play a significant role in realising this pre-clinical, patient-centric, behaviour-focussed shift in health care. This viewpoint paper argues that design strategies applied in PI systems to promote behaviour change play a vital role in supporting health outcomes, specifically, persuasive and mindful user experience (UX) strategies. By applying a phenomenographic research methodology, a user-centred approach is taken to understand qualitatively different ways in which PI systems (and their inherent design strategies) are experienced by users, to inform more intuitive design of PI systems that balance behaviour change strategies to support more lasting shifts and sustainable states of wellbeing. Drawing together ideas from systems medicine, complexity theory, persuasive and mindful design approaches in conjunction with phenomenography, this study aims to understand experiential nuances to offer implications for the future design of health care through PI systems. The theory built through the research process is applied in a prototype design, which is presented as an example of a PI system design that balances persuasive and mindful strategies and aims to promote lasting behaviour change and enduring states of wellbeing more effectively

The limits of empowerment: how to reframe the role of mHealth tools in the healthcare ecosystem

This article highlights the limitations of the tendency to frame health- and wellbeing-related digital tools (mHealth technologies) as empowering devices, especially as they play an increasingly important role in the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. It argues that mHealth technologies should instead be framed as digital companions. This shift from empowerment to companionship is advocated by showing the conceptual, ethical, and methodological issues challenging the narrative of empowerment, and by arguing that such challenges, as well as the risk of medical paternalism, can be overcome by focusing on the potential for mHealth tools to mediate the relationship between recipients of clinical advice and givers of clinical advice, in ways that allow for contextual flexibility in the balance between patiency and agency. The article concludes by stressing that reframing the narrative cannot be the only means for avoiding harm caused to the NHS as a healthcare system by the introduction of mHealth tools. Future discussion will be needed on the overarching role of responsible design

From Data Disclosure to Privacy Nudges: A Privacy-aware and User-centric Personal Data Management Framework

Although there are privacy-enhancing tools designed to protect users' online privacy, it is surprising to see a lack of user-centric solutions allowing privacy control based on the joint assessment of privacy risks and benefits, due to data disclosure to \emph{multiple} platforms. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework to fill the gap: aiming at the user-centric privacy protection, we show the framework can not only assess privacy risks in using online services but also the added values earned from data disclosure. Through following a human-in-the-loop approach, it is expected the framework provides a personalized solution via preference learning, continuous privacy assessment, behavior monitoring and nudging. Finally, we describe a case study towards "leisure travelers" and several future areas to be studied in the ongoing project

Nudging lifestyles for better health outcomes: crowdsourced data and persuasive technologies for behavioural change

For at least three decades, a Tsunami of preventable poor health has continued to threaten the future prosperity of our nations. Despite its effective destructive power, our collective predictive and preventive capacity remains remarkably under-developed This Tsunami is almost entirely mediated through the passive and unintended consequences of modernisation. The malignant spread of obesity in genetically stable populations dictates that gene disposition is not a significant contributor as populations, crowds or cohorts are all incapable of experiencing a new shipment of genes in only 2-3 decades. The authors elaborate on why a supply-side approach: advancing health care delivery cannot be expected to impact health outcomes effectively. Better care sets the stage for more care yet remains largely impotent in returning individuals to disease-free states. The authors urge an expedited paradigmatic shift in policy selection criterion towards using data intensive crowd-based evidence integrating insights from system thinking, networks and nudging. Collectively these will support emerging potentialities of ICT used in proactive policy modelling. Against this background the authors proposes a solution that stated in a most compact form consists of: the provision of mundane yet high yield data through light instrumentation of crowds enabling participative sensing, real time living epidemiology separating the per unit co-occurrences which are health promoting from those which are not, nudging through persuasive technologies, serious gaming to sustain individual health behaviour change and intuitive visualisation with reliable simulation to evaluate and direct public health investments and policies in evidence-based waysJRC.DDG.J.4-Information Societ

The Datafied Customer Relationship in Behavioural Life Insurance

Tarkastelen tässä artikkeliväitöskirjassa asiakkaiden käyttäytymisdataa sekä erilaisia digitaalisia hyvinvointipalveluita hyödyntäviä interaktiivisia henkivakuutuksia. Näiden uusien vakuutustuotteiden tavoitteena on tarkentaa riskien ennustettavuutta ja vakuutuksen hinnoittelua, luoda uusia riskienhallinnan muotoja sekä tehdä vakuutuksesta personoidumpi ja kiinnostavampi kulutushyödyke. Interaktiivisia vakuutuksia on käytetty esimerkkinä datafikaation disruptoivista vaikutuksista: niitä on sekä juhlittu että kritisoitu niiden potentiaalista mullistaa vakuutusalan vallitsevat käytännöt. Tässä polarisoituneessa keskustelussa on kuitenkin kiinnitetty vain vähän huomiota siihen, miten dataohjautuvan personoinnin lupaukset toteutuvat oikeissa vakuutuskäytännöissä. Väitöskirjassani tarkastelen sekä interaktiivisten henkivakuutustuotteiden kehittämistä että vakuutusasiakkaiden näkemyksiä ja kokemuksia uusista palveluista. Tutkimus sijoittuu kolmen eri käytäntöorientoituneen ja tieteen- ja teknologiantutkimuksesta ammentavan lähestymistavan rajapinnoille: se nojaa vakuutussosiologian ja markkinoiden sosiologian näkökulmiin sekä tutkimuksiin, jotka tarkastelevat ihmisten jokapäiväisiä kokemuksia algoritmisista teknologioista. Tutkimuksessa tarkastelen 1. minkälaiset ideat ja tavoitteet ohjaavat uusien vakuutustuotteiden kehittämistä ja miten vakuuttajat hyödyntävät digitaalisia teknologioita ja käyttäytymisdataa kokeellisissa käytännöissään, 2. miten asiakkaat sovittavat interaktiiviset vakuutukset arkielämäänsä ja miten he kokevat tuotteisiin liittyvät hyvinvointipalvelut ja interventiot, 4. millaisia suhteita uudet vakuutuskäytännöt luovat sekä 4. miten interaktiiviset henkivakuutukset, niiden markkinat ja dataohjautuva asiakassuhde tuottavat toisiaan uudenlaisissa vakuutuskäytännöissä. Väitöskirja perustuu empiiriseen kenttätyöhön, jonka toteutin kahdessa suomalaisessa henkivakuutusyhtiössä vuosina 2017–2019. Tutkimuksen aineisto koostuu 16 vakuutusammattilaisten asiantuntijahaastattelusta, vakuuttajien käytäntöjen osallistuvasta havainnoinnista sekä 11 vakuutusasiakkaiden kanssa toteutetusta fokusryhmäkeskustelusta. Tämän lisäksi hyödynnän dokumenttiaineistoa sekä omia reflektointejani vakuutuksiin kuuluvien palveluiden käyttämisestä. Toteutin tutkimuksen analyysin rinnastamalla näitä erilaisia empiirisiä materiaaleja ja analysoimalla niitä temaattisesti. Tutkimus osoittaa, että tässä tuotekehitysvaiheessa suomalaiset vakuuttajat pyrkivät käyttämään interaktiivisia vakuutuksia ensisijaisesti riskienhallinnan ja asiakassuhteiden lähentämisen välineinä. Vakuutusyhtiöiden tavoitteiden ja asiakkaiden halujen yhteensovittaminen on kuitenkin haastavaa. Vakuutuksissa käytettävät dataohjautuvat teknologiat eivät aina pysty huomioimaan asiakkaiden muuttuvia tarpeita ja erilaisia elämäntilanteita. Interventiot, jotka asiakkaat kokevat yhdessä hetkessä hyödyllisiksi voivat tuntua toisessa hetkessä tungettelevilta ja ärsyttäviltä. Näin uudet vakuutuspalvelut tekevät algoritmisen hallinnoimisen häiritsevät puolet näkyviksi ja voivat herättää epäluottamusta. Tutkimus osoittaa puutteita niin teknoutopistisissa kuin -dystopisissa näkökulmissa, jotka nojaavat ajatukseen suoraviivaisesta digitaalisesta disruptiosta. Interaktiiviset vakuutukset eivät automaattisesti voimaannuta asiakasta hallinnoimaan hyvinvointiaan paremmin eivätkä ne myöskään ole yksisuuntaisen kontrollin välineitä. Sen sijaan tutkimus osoittaa, että uuden teknologian syntyminen vaatii paljon käytännön työtä, jossa erilaisia ajatus- ja toimintamalleja sovitetaan yhteen. Tämän lisäksi teknologian ja markkinan menestys nojaa niiden kykyyn luoda suhteita kuluttajiin. Interaktiivisen henkivakuutuksen tapauksessa nämä uudet (data)suhteet näyttäisivät katkeavan helposti, koska ne eivät onnistu huomioimaan asiakkaiden tunteita ja arvoja tyydyttävillä tavoilla.This article-based dissertation examines ‘behavioural life insurance’, a novel insurance technology that implements self-tracked data and digital health services to improve risk prediction, pricing and management. As a widely circulated example of the possible effects of datafication, behavioural insurance policies have been both celebrated and criticized for their potential to disrupt the insurance industry. However, in this polarized debate, little attention has been paid to how the promises of personalization materialize in situated practices of developing the products and in policyholders’ experiences. This research scrutinizes these aspects of novel insurance technologies by examining two Finnish behavioural life insurance products. Following the practice-oriented literature streams of sociology of insurance, sociology of markets and research focusing on people’s everyday engagements with algorithmic technologies, this study analyses Finnish insurers’ experimentation with behavioural life insurance products and the aims and ideas behind the development work. Furthermore, it examines the ways in which policyholders weave new insurance products into their everyday lives and experience the health interventions that they perform. By combining these perspectives, this dissertation analyses how behavioural life insurance (market) is co-constituted with the new (data) relations between insurers and policyholders. The study is based on fieldwork that was conducted in 2017−2019 in two Finnish insurance companies. The data consist of 16 interviews with insurance professionals, 11 focus group discussions with real and potential policyholders and participant observations in the insurance professionals’ meetings. Furthermore, these data were supplemented with publicly available document data and reflections on testing the services. The analysis was conducted by juxtaposing and thematically analysing these varied empirical materials. The study shows that instead of risk and premium personalization, Finnish insurers focus more on the promises of datafication to enable effective risk management and more intimate customer relationships. Seamless alignment between company and policyholder goals is, however, difficult to achieve. The data-driven technologies do not readily encompass customers’ lives; interventions experienced as helpful in one situation might feel intrusive and annoying in another. Thus, these technologies can fail to enhance customers’ autonomy and enact trustworthy data relations, rendering the disturbing sides of algorithmic control visible. The study shows that instead of a straightforward story of digital disruption, the emergence and success of a new insurance technology depends on human labour and the connections that are created in the process. However, these new data relations are prone to breakages and do not stabilize if behavioural policies fail to consider customers’ feelings and values in a satisfying way