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We are working along with our partners, Tech Hive Advisory, World Web Foundation, and the Tech Policy Design Lab on our deceptive design policy hackathon. The goal of the hackathon is to bring together key players and stakeholders in the tech sector to jointly develop a workable policy response to address deceptive design in Africa.
The hackathon adopts a multi-stakeholder approach for regulators and policy experts to interact and exchange insights with product owners, product designers, engineers, and end users who are often at the receiving end of deceptive designs.
The policy hackathon is a two-day virtual event slated for August 18th – 19th, 2022. Day 1(one) of the event would host experts in the space who would be sharing their insights and expert knowledge on the theme for the event. We would also be engaging consumer protection regulators from Nigeria and Kenya.
Day 2(two) of the competition would have a total of 5(five) teams battling for a combined grand prize of $3,000 USD. Each team would have the task to co-create a policy solution that could tackle deceptive design in Africa. The outcome aims to promote safe, responsible, and ethical design across the African continent. Finally, after producing these documents, we will engage consumer protection regulators in different African countries to raise awareness as their interest in digital services increases.
We have speakers drawn from different backgrounds, sectors, and organiZations. We are excited to have representation from the consumer protection authorities from Kenya and Nigeria, World Wide Web Foundation, the Tech Policy Design Lab, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and Aapti Institute.
You can register to attend the policy hackathon here.
With the ongoing development of ICT and digital technologies in the digital sphere, our partner organizations and we think there has never been a better time. There is a greater desire and need to protect customers' rights and autonomy in the digital domain because the harm connected with deceptive designs and their varied forms is not fully understood. We're most anxious about the prospects of elevating global awareness of the impact of deceptive design on users’ freedom of choice.