The Privacy Value Networks project (PVNets) is funded by the Technology Strategy Board as part of the EPAC (Ensuring Privacy And Consent) initiative. PVNets is a major three-year research project that will produce a strong empirical base for developing concepts of privacy across contexts and timeframes. Despite many studies there is still a lack of clarity of what privacy is and what it means to different stakeholders in different scenarios of use. The cost and benefit of collecting and storing data about individuals has not been properly examined, and the value of holding information about individuals for specific purposes is not understood. The goal of the Privacy Value Networks project is to develop and apply new methodologies for the study of privacy and to help government and business to understand the value of personal data, as well as the value and risks for other stakeholders. The project involves collaboration between the Oxford Internet Institute, the University of Bath, UCL, St. Andrew's University and Consult Hyperion.

Researchers from the Information Security Group (ISG) at Royal Holloway, University of London, Salford and Cranfield Universities have undertaken a three year collaborative research project with consent and privacy specialists at Consult Hyperion and Sunderland City Council, to explore how people engage with concepts of information privacy and consent in on-line interactions. The purpose of VOME (Visualisation and Other Methods of Expression) is to explore how user communities engage with concepts of information privacy and consent in on-line interactions. The aim is to develop alternative conceptual models of on-line privacy which enable users to make clearer on-line disclosure choices. These decision making models will facilitate a better dialogue between the designers of privacy and consent functionality and their customers. This project offers benefits to on-line service providers, the manufacturers of technology used to deploy on-line services, as well as the general public. To date there has been considerable interest in this project from each of these communities.