Your data can improve people’s lives in many ways

Every day, we leave behind a trail of information when we interact with technology, i.e., digital footprints. This could be the steps tracked on your smartwatch, how you spend your money, or even posts you share online.

When people donate their data, they voluntarily share this information with researchers to help answer important questions about health. By contributing your data, you can help researchers spot patterns, identify risk factors for disease, and develop strategies that improve public health for everyone.

One key example of digital footprints is shopping data, collected by supermarket loyalty cards.

Shopping data can tell us what you buy, when you bought it, how much it cost, and more. Using this information, we can answer important questions about health and wellbeing. For example, what medicines people are buying to treat the common cold, or how people’s dietary preferences change with the seasons.

Why this matters

Sharing your data helps make research better and public health stronger. By donating your shopping data, you:

✔ Contribute to public health knowledge: your data helps inform health strategies that benefit everyone.

✔ Help researchers to spot patterns in health and behaviour: using data from lots of people means that researchers can see overall trends.

✔ Improve evidence-based policy and interventions: findings can help the government to make better decisions for communities.

You can also read more about the measures we take to protect your data here.