Brendan David-John
Brendan David-John: Policy Scholars program strengthens researcher's work with eye-tracking technology
Brendan David-John has been looking into eye-tracking technology for years, but his time as a +Policy Network Policy Scholar provided a new perspective.
“I saw the Policy Scholar program as a chance to learn what policy is, the role it plays in technology design — especially for emerging technologies — and what solutions it can provide,” said Brendan David-John, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science. “I thought there might be some complementary or augmented approach that takes on this more technical work that I've been doing along with the more policy-informed approach.”
A researcher with funding from the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative, David-John was named a Policy Scholar in 2022. Since then, the program has provided him with seed funding and a policy expert mentor with the aim of expanding his policy knowledge to better navigate privacy and security concerns related to eye-tracking technology.
Supported by Virginia Tech’s Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment, the +Policy Network’s Policy Scholars program is designed to assist researchers who lack policy expertise but who wish to address policy questions or develop a policy focus in their work. The scholars collaborate with a faculty member who serves as a policy coach or mentor.
David-John said his interest in the intersection of policy and emerging technologies drew him to the opportunity.
“A lot of my background and interest in eye tracking came from an interest in human vision, how the eyes work, and how we perceive things,” David-John said. “My research focuses on how I can integrate eye-tracking technology in ways that are beneficial to users while also keeping their privacy in mind.”
Utilizing eye-tracking sensors, he creates representations of users that capture personal characteristics, behavior, and preferences to optimize the user experience when interacting with eye-tracking systems.
“We place little cameras near your eyes and track every little detail that you look at, giving us information we can use to develop the technology further,” David-John said. “However, when people realize these small cameras track everything they see at 60 frames per second or higher, privacy becomes a big issue.”
Through the +Policy Network, David-John connected with Saul Halfon, associate professor and chair of the Department of Science, Technology, and Society. The two exchanged articles and discussed policy on multiple levels, from in-home remote assistance applications to federal or international law, and ways ethics experts and policymakers can address emerging concerns to craft policy and regulations.
“Brendan came into this arrangement with a lot of passion, questions, technical knowledge, and professional networks, but with little knowledge of or experience with policy questions,” Halfon said. “He has really been an ideal person for me to mentor.”
The program tasks the scholar and mentor with working together for up to three years to develop a policy-related product. This could be a grant proposal, workshop, or publication with the ultimate goal of expanding policy-related thinking across disciplines.
For their product, David-John and Halfon zeroed in on a full-day workshop with the goal of gathering perspectives, ideas, and insights from representatives of communities that might be impacted by this emerging technology. Held in March, the attendees responded to policy and security-related scenarios, discussed potential impacts, and learned what eye-tracking allows developers to do and the data it collects. These early-stage conversations provided David-John and Halfon insight into how to explore policy options before this technology is fully developed.
“We took a very collaborative approach, with Brendan leading our direction,” Halfon said. “The program helped us bridge the gap between our disciplines, using our unique perspectives to guide us towards potential ways to implement policies on how new technology is designed and released into the world.”
With the completion of the Policy Scholars program, David-John continues to build his knowledge about the ways in which policy connects to his research, in hopes of better understanding the consent process for eye-tracking access and exploring possible consent interventions, with the long-term goal of raising awareness around technology-related policy.
By: Becca Halm