Engaging with hard-to-reach and potentially vulnerable participants in the AP4L Project
By Dr. Ryan Gibson and Prof. Wendy Moncur Introduction AP4L’s overarching goal is to develop privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) that support people undergoing a significant life transition to be safer online. The first step in building PETs that make a real difference is to understand what these people do online and the subsequent challenges they face. Central to this process is the involvement of participants from the four populations we are exploring in AP4L - Leaving the Armed Forces; LGBTQIA+; Living with Cancer; Relationship Breakdown – who can share their lived experience of transitioning online. These experiences may then be translated into design requirements for the development team to generate PETs that more accurately reflect the transition activities being conducted online and the related privacy risks and harms that people encounter. Nevertheless, designing and recruiting for research involving people who have undergone a life transition is extremely difficult. For