07/04/2018

Behavioral Insights
ConPolicy contributes to the discourse on the subject of nudging

In 2017, Richard Thaler, one of the two co-authors of the bestseller "Nudge", received the Nobel Prize in Economics. The debate about possible applications but also the limits of nudging has not only been in full swing since then. ConPolicy participates in this debate through research projects, behavioral insights consulting and expert lectures – most recently in the context of three events:

• On June 14th, ConPolicy project manager Dr. Max Vetter informed about the possibilities of initiating sustainable behavior with the help of behavioral insights at the annual congress of the Energy Agency Rhineland-Palatinate. 
• The discussion "Nudging or manipulation?" at the symposium of the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) on June 20th focused on the pros and cons of this approach. Dr. Max Vetter discussed these and the potential of nudges for social transformations and development cooperation with a member of the team “wirksam regieren" from the German Federal Chancellery and GIZ employees. 
• Lately, ConPolicy managing director Prof. Dr. Christian Thorun was on the podium at the "Tagesspiegel Trend Breakfast" on July 4th to address the question "How free is our will?”. Other discussants were Clemens Schneider (Prometheus – Das Freiheitsinstitut) and Dr. Markus Weinmann (University of Liechtenstein).

Behavioral insights in policy making, companies and civil society - we stay on top of things.

07/03/2018

Workshop of the EU Commission in Berlin
ConPolicy discusses the state of the collaborative economy in Germany

Collaborative consumption opportunities open up many new services and offerings for consumers. At the same time, however, they are also under criticism: concentration of power, circumvention of protection standards or a lack of data protection are some of the points of criticism.

Against the background of this debate, the EU Commission has invited to a discussion on the state of the collaborative economy in Germany. Representatives of politics, science and business met here to discuss the current state of affairs and options for action. ConPolicy Managing Director, Prof. Dr. Christian Thorun, introduced the consumer perspective to the discussion.

06/28/2018

Digital Sovereignty
ConPolicy presents at Abida workshop

Almost daily new digital helpers are developed which simplify consumers’ lives. Nevertheless, the progressing digitalization also creates challenges. New technologies increasingly collect personal and even sensitive data to be saved and used by providers. Informational self-determination is a relevant topic to consumers, but in reality there exist obstacles that prevent consumers from exercising it.

At the Abida-expert workshop “Digital Sovereignty” on June 28 2018 in Kassel, Germany, solution approaches to guarantee informational self-determination for new technologies were discussed and recommendations for research, politics and industry were derived.

Project manager Dr. Sara Elisa Kettner gave a presentation on “One-Pagers and Privacy Bots: New approaches for informed consent”. The content of the presentation based on the results of the ConPolicy-report “Big data and smart living” for the BMBF-funded Abida-project, the ConPolicy study “Better informed?” funded by the BMJV and the BMBF-funded PrivacyGuard-Project at Quadriga University of Applied Sciences Berlin.