TransparencyVis offers social media players a clear competitive advantage

Users of social networks typically want both transparency and security. But amidst negative publicity, providers can struggle to convince an often skeptical public that their offering is trustworthy. TransparencyVis from Fraunhofer IGD offers tangible competitive differentiation by making it easier to analyze and implement data exports. The tool gives users full visibility into the data collected on them by the network.

Visualization enables better analysis

TransparencyVis from Fraunhofer IGD allows users to better understand their own online activities. There are two visualization functions available. The first is a treemap that uses color-coded boxes to highlight stored data and activities. The bigger the boxes, the greater the volume of data.

The second visualization feature employs a colored circle to depict individual user activity over time. The horizontal axis represents development across multiple years, while the vertical axis symbolizes the time of day the activity took place. The various colors are employed to indicate categories, such as messages or contacts, and each category can be viewed individually. Users are therefore able to recognize and critically review their own patterns of behavior.

A win-win situation

Competition among social networks is growing ever fiercer, making differentiation more and more important. A key method is customer centricity. When a provider can present data that are captured from users’ activities in an easy-to-understand form, the focus is placed squarely on users’ needs, and builds trust. In other words, both provider and user stand to gain from the introduction of TransparencyVis.