Emma Wilkins¹, Cathy Arnold¹, Marta Cantijoch², Anya Skatova³, Michelle A Morris¹

1: University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

2: University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

3: University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

The fourth Digital Footprints Conference was held on 19^th-21^st May 2026 at the University of York. The conference attracted 150 delegates from diverse fields. Approximately 40% of attendees were in academic research roles, 20% were in research support roles (e.g. from data services and funding bodies) and the remainder were from national and local authorities, charities and industry. The conference continues to grow an international presence, attracting attendees from countries including Austria, Denmark, Russia and Finland.

This year, the conference was extended from two to three days, with the first day hosted by Smart Data Research UK (SDRUK); the UK’s national programme for smart data research, funded by the UKRI, with the goal of unlocking the power of data to improve lives. The day began with an introduction from SDRUK’s Director Joe Cuddeford, followed by talks, case studies and even a live data donation, from each of SDRUK’s six data services. Professor Amy Orben (University of Cambridge) delivered a plenary talk on the impact of the digital environment on children, and how research in this area had been hampered by lack of data sharing by industry.

The subsequent two days followed the now-traditional format for the main conference, with plenary and flash talks, posters and workshops. Workshops included practical demonstrations of tools for improving data quality, working with supermarket transaction data, and identifying areas in need for food support using open digital footprint data, or fostered discussion around data donation, public engagement, and data challenges.

Plenary talks covered topics such as using novel street view imagery to improve data on outdoor advertising of less-healthy foods (Professor Mark Green, University of Liverpool), the ethics of working with industry (Professor Heather Wardle, University of Glasgow), novel data linkages to understand the impact of NHS health events on the labour market (Dr Vahé Nafilyan, ONS), and how crowdsourced community data, such as from the Strava Metro for Academic Researchers program, can be used for public good  (Tom Knights, Strava). The conference continues to support early careers researchers (ECRs), with a dedicated ECR plenary talk; this year delivered by Dr Fran Pontin (University of Leeds) on her work utilising open data to make parks safer for women and girls.

Conferences can be intimidating for new ECRs, and many others, so to further support this community, we introduced a new ‘speed dating’ networking event, which involved short, structured ‘dates’. This session was a huge (noisy and chaotic) success, and was enjoyed by ECRs and other attendees alike!

The conference again presented several awards, primarily aimed at ECRs:

Flash talk prizes

• Early Career Researcher Winner - Raphael Derecki
• Highly commended Early Career Researcher- Piyush Mohan

Poster Prizes

• Early Career Researcher Winner - Roberto Mansilla
• High commended Early Career Researcher- Yuanxuan Yang
• As voted by delegates - Molly Sargent

Some cross-cutting themes from the three days were evident. First was around data linkage, especially between digital footprint data and traditional data sources. Linkage was highlighted on day 1 as the ‘future for digital footprint research’, with potential to provide extremely rich and contextual information for public good. We heard various approaches to the linkage challenge, including work by the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration to link survey data and digital footprint data, and by data services like Imago and Geographic Data Service to make data available at scales that are spatially linkable at common administrative scales. We also heard how data donation could be used alongside traditional data collection methods to provide rich, linked datasets.

Another theme was around making digital footprint data more readily available. Contributors described how the lack of open commercial data is hampering research and policy across important areas as diverse as child safety and fuel poverty. Unlocking this data is a slow-moving process that may be causing real harm to the public. Data donation could help address this challenge in the shorter term, and in the longer term, there was discussion about the use of targeted lobbying from the research community to unlock access to these data from industry.

A final theme was risk. Last year’s conversations around commercial, public and ethical risks were expanded to also consider risks to researchers. We heard repeatedly about the need for better guidance and safeguards for researchers working at the cutting edge of digital footprints research. For example, there is little clarity on the ethical and legal position for researchers engaging in web scraping, and policies vary widely across academic institutions. Balancing these discussions, we also heard about the risks of not sharing and using digital footprints data. This should always be balanced alongside the risk of data use.

Overall, the conference was a great success and we look forward to seeing how the field continues to evolve. All attendees of the conference have now joined the International Society for the Study of Digital Footprints (issdfs.org), which will continue to support and advance this field of research through events, training, webinars, and newsletters.

The next conference will take place in Bristol in 2027, with further details to follow.