In the RESPECTeD project, we are developing an interdisciplinary, human-centric & enforceable solution which provides a standard mechanism for the communication of end-users’ online privacy and consent decisions with the online service providers, combined by a set of socio-technical and socio-cognitive means (including experts’ supports) that will enable end-users (i.e. humans) to manage and express their online privacy-related decisions, not only in a human-centric manner but also in a legally enforceable way that shifts the current practice of consent-obtaining on the Internet from a “data-controller-centric” approach to a “data-subject-centric” one, in line with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other related regulations and standards.

Unlike previous failed mono-disciplinary attempts—such as the W3C DNT (Do Not Track)—we will empower the end-users to execute and exercise their fundamental digital rights using 1) principles and actions under the GDPR and other related legal frameworks, 2) technical mechanisms based on the already existing Internet infrastructure and protocols, and 3) socio-legal approaches developed on the state-of-the-art research on humans’ privacy-related online decision making.

Considering the potential negative societal, economical, and personal consequences of the invasion of digital privacy—which have become even more important in the age of online “remote-working” and “home-office” caused by Coronavirus pandemic— and the need for novel approaches that are 1) “human-centric”, 2) “legally enforceable”, 3) easy to adopt by both users and SMES, the results of this project will not only empower the heterogeneous end-users to “finally” be able to execute their fundamental digital rights in a user-friendly, easy-to-use, and enforceable manner, but also will support our “even-more online” society to be (and remain) inclusive, fair, sustainable, and democratic.