Spotlight

Abigail McAlpine is undertaking a cross-discipline PhD under the supervision of Simon Parkinson and Rachel Armitage. Abigail‘s PhD is aligned to the Secure Societies Institute cyber theme and she is currently in her first year of study. The core element of Abigail’s PhD centres around studying the perceived values and consequences of the data privacy in digital systems, particularly focusing on individuals who are perceived as vulnerable. Abigail’s research is particularly important as public citizens and businesses are paying more attention to the legalities of personal data, which will be heightened through the introduction of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) early 2018.

Abigail is aiming to gain an increased understanding of people’s perception of privacy for different groups of vulnerable people, beyond children. Most legal frameworks have clear definitions of how personal data should be captured, stored, and processed for children; however, the majority of these frameworks – including GDPR – make no reference to other types of vulnerable people, such as elderly and disabled. Abigail aims to investigate the perceptions to privacy for different vulnerable groups, which in turn will be useful for both policy makers to better define legislation and for business to act more responsible with their end-user’s data.

Abigail is currently creating novel mechanisms for engaging with different user groups to acquire an understanding of their perception, as well as identifying what positively influences users to take an increased duty of care around their personal data.

As well as undertaking her PhD research, Abigail is a frequent blogger on cyber-security and personal data. Abigail’s blog entries can be found at https://www.hiabigail.co.uk/blog and her Twitter account is @abigailmcalpine

Links below are of a few articles on the university blog:

Statement of Support for Supervision of a Scholarship 2023

TNA Toolkit

Higher and Degree Level Apprenticeship Toolkit

Engage Conference Document

HWA Report Internationally Educated Nurses

HWA Stay & Thrive Report

Developing Creative Health Provision

Creative Health in Communities

Value of Creative Health

HWA Safeguarding Policy

HWA Privacy Notice Version 7