MITRA: A method for inspecting and classifying Personal Data Transparency

• Thiago Adriano Coleti State University of Northern Paraná (UENP) http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1078-4334
• Maria Luisa Moreira Souza State University of Northern Paraná (UENP) https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9098-1597
• Renato Balancieri State University of Maringá (UEM) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8532-2011
• André Luís Menolli State University of Northern Paraná (UENP) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4755-8031
• Michel Marialva Yvano University of São Paulo (USP) / Federal Institute of Pará (IFPA) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5090-0267
• Wellington Aparecido Della Mura State University of Northern Paraná (UENP) / University of São Paulo (USP) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9249-8544
• Marcelo Morandini University of São Paulo (USP) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5402-9544

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/ihc.2025.10803

Abstract

Introduction: Transparency in the processing of personal data has become essential in privacy regulations and the growing awareness of users. However, there is still a lack of strategies that enable its inspection and classifcation from a user-centered perspective. Objective: This paper presents MITRA, a method composed of a checklist and a web application that supports developers and data subjects in identifying critical transparency issues in software applications. Methods: MITRA was developed considering TR-Model and Six Usable Privacy Heuristics. Results: An initial evaluation indicated good acceptance of the tool, providing valuable insights for its improvement and validation in broader contexts.

Keywords: Transparency, Personal Data, Usable Privacy

References

Carvalho, C., Mattos, J., e Aguiar, M. (2024). Interpretabilidade e justiça algorítmica: Avançando na transparência de modelos preditivos de evasão escolar. In Anais do XXXV Simpósio Brasileiro de Informática na Educação, pages 1658–1673, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC.

Carvalho, L. P., Oliveira, J., Santoro, F. M., e Cappelli, C. (2021). Social network analysis, ethics and lgpd, considerations in research. iSys - Brazilian Journal of Information Systems, 14(2):28–52.

Coleti, T., Amaral, M., Gobbo, M., Morandini, M., e Boscarioli, C. (2024a). Avaliação ergonômica de interfaces gráficas para aplicações mobile: Limites e reflexões. In Anais do XXVII Congresso Ibero-Americano em Engenharia de Software, pages 196–210, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC.

Coleti, T., Corrêa, P., Morandini, M., e Filgueiras, L. (2022). Desafios e propostas para transparência de dados pessoais com foco nos titulares dos dados. In Anais do I Workshop Investigações em Interação Humano-Dados, pages 1–6, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC.

Coleti, T. A., Corrêa, P. L. P., Filgueiras, L. V. L., e Morandini, M. (2020). TR-Model. A Metadata Profile Application for Personal Data Transparency. IEEE Access, 8(1):75184–75209.

Coleti, T. A., Divino, S. B. S., Salgado, A. d. L., Zacarias, R. O., Saraiva, J. d. A. G., Gonçalves, D. A., Morandini, M., e Santos, R. P. d. (2024b). Grandihc-br 2025-2035 - gc5 - human-data interaction data literacy and usable privacy. In Proceedings of the XXIII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, IHC ’24, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery.

Filgueiras, L. V. L., da Silva Ferreira Leal, A., Coleti, T. A., Morandini, M., Corrêa, P. L. P., e Alves-Souza, S. N. (2019). Keep system status visible: Impact of notifications on the perception of personal data transparency. In Human-Computer Interaction. Perspectives on Design, pages 513–529. Springer, Cham.

Finn, E. (2024). Envisioning artificial intelligence. Science, 383(6679):156–156.

Haddadi, H., Mortier, R., McAuley, D., e Crowcroft, J. (2013). Human-data interaction. Technical Report UCAM-CL-TR-837, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Mathis, F., Vaniea, K., e Khamis, M. (2022). Prototyping usable privacy and security systems: Insights from experts. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 38:468–490.

Mortier, R., Zhao, J., Crowcroft, J., Wang, L., Li, Q., Haddadi, H., Amar, Y., Crabtree, A., Colley, J., Lodge, T., et al. (2016). Personal data management with the databox: What’s inside the box? In Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Workshop on Cloud-Assisted Networking, pages 49–54.

Murmann, P. e Fischer-Hübner, S. (2017). Tools for achieving usable ex post transparency: a survey. IEEE Access, 5:22965–22991.

Salgado, A. e Fortes, R. (2023). Usable privacy: from grounded models to new guidelines and heuristics. In Anais Estendidos do XXIX Simpósio Brasileiro de Sistemas Multimídia e Web, pages 35–40, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC.

Salgado, A. d. L., Hung, P. C. K., e Fortes, R. P. M. (2024). Six usable privacy heuristics. In Proceedings of the XXII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, IHC ’23, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery.

Scapin, D. L. e Bastien, J. M. (1997). Ergonomic criteria for evaluating the ergonomic quality of interactive systems. Behaviour and Information Technology, 16:220–231.

Spagnuelo, D., Bartolini, C., e Lenzini, G. (2016). Metrics for transparency. In Proceedings of the 24th International Requirements Engineering Conference Workshops (REW), Luxembourg. Springer.