Our data outlives us, but the systems in place trying to get our consent are not transparent enough to instill trust*
We often find ourselves using products and services that make us feel like passive entities, excluded from decision-making processes while our valuable metadata is harvested. It is essential for us to develop a more critical perspective regarding the exploitative and obsessive relationships we form with our health data and devices.
Aura imagines a future where consent is no longer misconstrued by dark patterns and people are empowered through tangible processes that enable us to have full control over the data our own bodies generate.
“The Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust had failed to comply with the UK's Data Protection Act by providing;
to Google's DeepMind. There were several shortcomings in how the data was handled, including that patients weren’t properly informed that their data would be used as input in further research and testing.”
Aura’s network attached storage unit gives user the reigns of the data their own bodies generate by making things visible. The stored data can be read in the form of an ‘aura’ :a living, breathing flow of our health information that grows and transforms with us.
This helps us form more organic and less obsessive ways of tracking our health - as the human condition is quite fluid and hard to quantify as well.
The consent is always ours to give or revoke, by simply pushing the sphere in or out. Aura lets us navigate other nuances of our data such as the sensitivity of the information or the frequency in which we sync.
self-reliant wellbeing
The quantitative data is only shown to the medical professionals who are equipped to deal with information of such nature. What, when and to which quantity will be shared is in the hands of the patient who is at all times, the administrator of their digital consent and privacy center. The systematic approach facilitates healthcare and medical research via distance and reduces contact from non-urgent conditions.
Aura uses a non federated cryptographic protocol that provides end-to-end encryption of all medical data, ensuring authentication of healthcare providers. The data is stored locally on a personal storage device and controlled through a tangible interface, connecting or disconnecting without any abstraction or intermediary.
