With the digitization of healthcare, there has been an increase in self-tracking technologies for health. One group of self-tracking technologies is FMTs, fertility- and menstruation technologies. By gathering information on users’ menstruation and fertility, these technologies have access to intimate and sensitive data that requires secure protection. Previous research has criticized FMTs for lacking in data security and several risks with this data being shared have been identified. Risks of lacking data security include discrimination against the user in the workplace, and being targeted by cyber-criminals. This thesis explores how users perceive trust and data privacy in fertility- and menstruation technologies by conducting a user study. Participants (n=18) were interviewed in pairs about their experiences of FMTs, data privacy, and trust. Based on the interview findings, seven design guidelines were created to enhance user trust and ensure data privacy. Additionally, an Android application was developed as a high-fidelity prototype to visualize and discuss the guidelines. The research contributes to the field by identifying design aspects that can be used by creators of FMTs to improve their privacy practices and generate trust among their users. / Med digitalisering har det skett en ökning av självspårande teknologier inom hälsa. En typ av självspårande teknologier är FMT:er, fertilitet- och menstruationsteknologier. Genom att samla information om användares menstruation och fertilitet har de här teknologierna tillgång till intim och känslig data som kräver ordentligt skydd. Risker med bristande datasäkerhet inkluderar att användaren diskrimineras på sin arbetsplats, blir offer för cyberbrottslingar, och blir kontrollerad av en familjemedlem eller partner. Tidigare forskning har kritiserat FMT:er för bristande datasäkerhet och har identifierat flera risker med detta. Den här uppsatsen utforskar hur användare uppfattar tillit och datasäkerhet till fertilitet- och menstruationsteknologier genom en användarstudie. Deltagare (n=18) intervjuades parvis om deras erfarenhet av FMT:er, datasäkerhet och tillit. Utifrån intervjuresultaten har sju riktlinjer för design av FMT:er för ökad tillit och datasäkerhet tagits fram. Dessutom utvecklades en Android applikation som prototyp för att visualisera riktlinjerna. Denna uppsats bidrar till forskningsområdet genom att identifiera designaspekter som kan användas av FMT utvecklare för att förbättra deras sekretesspraxis och påverka deras användares tillit till deras produkt.

In the global West, electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets have become ubiquitous tools for daily life. They facilitate communication, navigation, and commerce, among other online activities that generate unprecedented amounts of user data. This licentiate thesis examines the perspectives of scholars employing feminist approaches towards understanding and conceptualizing emergent technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, machine learning, and algorithms, which utilize data as a representation of realities and lived experiences. Grounding their perspectives in the feminist tradition of critiquing power structures and hegemonies, scholars offer valuable insights into envisioning technologically supported futurities that transcend mere inclusion and instead prioritize diversity. This text examines how scholars with feminist approaches understand the datafied present and envision futurities. This thesis also explores how potential risks and benefits of datafication, the translation of action into data, are expressed in data feminist texts.  In the first article, Feminist Data Studies and the Emergence of a New Data Feminist Knowledge Domain, a series of searches were conducted in databases and search engines, followed by citation chaining to collect relevant scholarly texts. Data collection was followed by visualization and close reading, while employing sociotechnical imaginaries as a conceptual lens. This approach facilitated an exploration of how scholars with feminist perspectives envision, interpret, and reimagine data-driven technologies. The second article, Utopian and Dystopian Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Big Data in a portion of the corpus, compared framings and perceptions of big data to those identified in the policies of the European Commission.  The summary essay underscores several key findings. Firstly, the nuanced implications of visibility and representation in the context of datafication. Particularly, the tension and the contrasting imperatives, to amplify the visibility of marginalized groups and to safeguard their privacy and mitigate potential harm. Secondly, the centrality of power dynamics and minority group vulnerability in discussions surrounding control over data flows. Finally, corrective approaches and feminist refusal were found to be the ways in which scholars are attempting to contribute to shaping more equitable and inclusive technological futures. These findings contribute to making visible the hegemonies and power imbalances in datafied systems from the perspectives of scholars with feminist approaches as well as to understanding how they are pushing back against them.

This thesis investigates how body mapping can externalize pregnancy experiences and guide design for supporting individuals during and after pregnancy. I have employed a qualitative research approach to collect and analyze data about pregnancy experiences from 24 individuals having pregnancy experience, including migrants, across the Global North and Global South. As body maps have been used in workshop setup in previous studies for visually representing and orally narrating their experiences, I have conducted workshops in individual and group settings, both online and offline, to explore potential differences in participant engagement and respon ses and analyzed the data through inductive thematic analysis. The findings of this research underscore the insights of pregnancy experiences that highlights themes like love and responsibility towards the unborn child, identity transformation, physical challenges and food cravings, loneliness, bodies not being their own and inner strength. In addition, the study also revealed participants’ reactions to using body mapping as a tool for self-reflection which highlighted feelings of liberation and sometimes revealed aspects that were unknown to them. In response to all the above findings, I present design implications in three parts to support the pregnancy journey. Firstly, I contributed knowledge on how the qualitative embodied data of pregnancy should be collected, analyzed and represented. Secondly, I presented design implications for pregnant individuals; and thirdly, I designed a self-reflective tool that can be used during postpartum as a support. / Controlling the Uncontrollable: The Impact of Reproductive Health Apps on Experiences of Pregnancy, Healthcare Professionals’ Work, and Data Governance. Funded by the Swedish Research Council. Project period, 2021-2024

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The topic of this thesis is AI recruitment chatbots, digital discrimination, and data feminism (D´Ignazio and F.Klein 2020), where I aim to critically analyze issues of bias in these types of human-machine interaction technologies. Coming from a professional background of theatre, performance art, and drama, I am curious to analyze how using AI and social robots as hiring tools entails a new type of “stage” (actor’s space), with a special emphasis on social acting. Humans are now required to adjust their performance and facial expressions in the search for, and approval of, a new job. I will use my “theatrical glasses” with an intersectional lens, and through a methodology of cultural analysis, reflect on various examples of conversational AI used in recruitment processes. The silver bullet syndrome is a term that points to a tendency to believe in a miraculous new technological tool that will “magically” solve human-related problems in a company or an organization. The captivating marketing message of the Swedish recruitment conversational AI tool – Tengai Unbiased – is the promise of a scientifically proven objective hiring tool, to solve the diversity problem for company management. But is it really free from bias? According to Karen Barad, agency is not an attribute, but the ongoing reconfiguration of the world influenced by what she terms intra-actions, a mutual constitution of entanglement between human and non-human agencies (2003:818). However, tech developers often disregard their entanglement of human-to-machine interferences which unfortunately generates unconscious bias. The thesis raises ethical questions of how algorithmic measurement of social competence risks holding unconscious biases, benefiting those already privileged or those acting within a normative spectrum.