The KURAMi Project, funded by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR) in relation to the PRIN 2022 Call (https://prin.mur.gov.it/Pages/Index/181), stems from observing recent dynamics in considering the protection of users' data and privacy, and users’ access to potential misinformation, through EU regulations and guidelines. A key aspect is the balance between the rights to confidentiality, autonomous decision-making, free access to information, and freedom of expression. 

Aims

KURAMi aims to develop knowledge-based and explainable solutions for empowering users in addressing different issues in this scenario.

• The first issue concerns the lack of control users may experience over their personal and/or sensitive data upon their release to online environments. This can be exacerbated when users are not sufficiently literate w.r.t. privacy issues, not least in view of the fact that many online platforms encourage people to provide data in a not entirely transparent way in exchange for services.

• A second issue concerns the possibility of incurring misinformation in accessing online content. This can impact the decision-making process of users, who again may not have sufficient cognitive skills and may not be sufficiently literate to discern information from misinformation. In most cases, they do not even have the ability to understand whether the content they receive has been previously generated and/or verified by automated or pseudo-automated tools.

• A third issue ties the release of data to access to potential misinformation. Privacy-sensitive information can be employed for micro-targeting, in which users, rather than human beings, are considered “temporary agglomerations of data” to be analyzed to provide products, services, and information. In this context, the generation of highly homogeneous and polarized environments (i.e., echo chambers), makes them more easily targetable for misinformation campaigns.

Outcomes