REPHRAIN
REPHRAIN, the UK’s National Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction, and Adversarial Influence Online, is headquartered at the University of Bristol, with partners including University College London, King’s College London, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Bath. Announced by UKRI in October 2020, REPHRAIN unites experts from fields such as computer science, law, public policy, and psychology to explore how to keep people safe online while enabling full participation in digital technologies.
Mission and Vision
Our missions are:
- Deliver privacy at scale while mitigating its misuse to inflict harms
- Minimise harms while maximising benefits from a sharing-driven digital economy
- Balance individual agency vs. social good
Ultimately, REPHRAIN aims to protect citizens online, balancing safety with digital empowerment. Our work addresses issues like online harms, privacy, and ethical technology, aiming to foster an inclusive, innovative digital society.
Policy Engagement and Impact
REPHRAIN actively collaborates with policymakers to shape evidence-based, ethical digital policy. Our work has informed UK government initiatives, such as contributions to the Online Safety Bill and the Safety Tech Challenge Fund. In the latter, we undertook the independent evaluation of proposed tools for end-to-end encrypted environments, highlighting the issues and impacts on privacy rights and freedoms, and proposed an evaluation framework against which any protection measures should be tested.
We have also actively contributed to policy development by responding to various consultations and calls for evidence on topics such as online misinformation, app security and privacy, and child protection in digital spaces. These contributions have informed UK government bodies, such as the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Home Office, as well as organisations like Ofcom.
Such collaborations ensure our research directly supports the development of effective, privacy-conscious digital policies.
Research and Public Engagement
Through extensive interdisciplinary research, REPHRAIN investigates digital risks and resilience strategies, particularly for vulnerable groups. Some of our core research areas include:
- Privacy and data protection: Developing frameworks and tools to protect individual privacy online, including privacy-by-design principles and ethical data-sharing practices.
- Online harms and safety: Addressing issues like child sexual abuse material (CSAM), misinformation, and online exploitation through tools and strategies that enhance safety without infringing on user privacy.
- Adversarial influence and misinformation: Researching the spread of misinformation and adversarial behaviour on social media, including the implications for public health, political discourse, and social cohesion.
- Ethical and responsible AI: Developing ethical frameworks for AI that prioritise fairness, accountability, and transparency.
- Digital literacy and community engagement: Collaborating with community organisations through our Privacy Clinics to enhance digital literacy and empower vulnerable groups. These efforts aim to translate research into practical guidance that helps individuals protect their privacy and security online.
Since its founding, REPHRAIN has grown to encompass over 150 researchers across 23 institutions, with a portfolio of 50+ projects addressing the most pressing digital issues. Learn more about our work at REPHRAIN’s website.