Last updated: 30 September 2026
BAI is a research application used by enrolled participants of a study assessed by Sikt — the Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research (reference 196375).
| Project | Design of Technology for Work Life Balance |
| Institution responsible (data controller) | University of Oslo, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Department of Informatics |
| Project leader | Aparecido Fabiano Pinatti de Carvalho |
| Ethics and data protection assessment | Sikt, reference 196375, assessed 4 April 2024 |
| Project period | 2 May 2024 – December 2027 |
Purpose. The project investigates how people use digital technologies to negotiate the boundary between work and life, and what design opportunities exist for technologies that support that negotiation. It is doctoral research towards a PhD in Informatics. Data collected is used for this project only.
Who takes part. Higher-education professionals — professors at all levels, postdoctoral researchers and PhD research fellows. A maximum of 20 participants. Participants are adults; the study does not involve minors.
Recruitment is closed, and consent was given before the app. The project’s participants were recruited and enrolled in earlier phases of the study, and each gave written informed consent to the study team at that time, before BAI existed. No new participants are being recruited, and there is no way to join the study through the app: BAI has no sign-up, and a person who is not already on the participant roster cannot sign in or use any part of it. The roster is how the consent given earlier is enforced in the software.
What taking part in this phase involves. BAI is the artefact built in the project’s design phase, with the participants themselves. In the appropriation phase — the phase this app belongs to — those same participants use it over a period of ordinary working life and then report on how it worked in practice, through an interview. Using the app means letting it read your calendar and, if you choose, your location, so that it can show you your own working patterns. Everything it records stays on your phone; see the sections below.
Risks. The risks are low. BAI keeps everything it records on your own phone and transmits nothing but the sign-in check, so your working patterns, calendar and location never reach the researcher, the University, or anyone else. What remains is ordinary: anyone with your unlocked phone could see what BAI shows, and its notifications may appear on your lock screen — a reminder to prepare names the event it is for — as may BAI’s widget, if you add it to your iPhone’s lock screen. All of this can be limited in your phone’s settings, and deleting the app removes everything it holds. You may also find it uncomfortable to see your own working patterns set out. The interview will ask about your workload and work–life boundaries, which may touch on stress or family; you may decline any question, or ask for anything you have said to be deleted.
Benefits. There is no payment. You get a clearer view of your own workload, which may help you negotiate your boundaries at work. The wider benefit is to knowledge about designing technology for work–life balance.
Taking part is voluntary. You may withdraw your consent at any time, without giving a reason and with no negative consequences. See Deleting your data.
Almost nothing leaves your phone. BAI records how you work — your mode, your broadcast status, your mood check-ins, what your calendar looks like, and the places you mark — and all of it is written to storage on the device and is never uploaded.
The single exception is signing in: your phone number and PIN are sent to the study’s server to check that you are on the participant roster.
If you connect a calendar by its link, BAI downloads that calendar from the address in the link straight to your phone. Nothing about you is sent to the study.
BAI contains no advertising, no analytics, and no third-party tracking of any kind.
Your phone number and PIN, at sign-in only.
There is no sign-up in BAI, and none can be added — recruitment for the study is closed. The study team enrolled each participant’s phone number on a roster in advance, after that participant had consented. When you sign in, the app asks the study’s server two things: whether that number is enrolled, and whether the PIN matches it.
The roster holds nothing but phone numbers and PINs. It carries no names, no job titles, no background and no location — it is a register of who is enrolled, and nothing more. On a successful sign-in the server returns two things: a participant number, and the phone number you just typed. Both are stored on your phone so you do not have to sign in again.
Your phone number is how the study recognises you as an enrolled participant. It is not published, and it is not shared with anyone outside the study team.
Downloading a calendar you connect. If you add a calendar by its link (Controls → Calendar → Connected calendars), BAI fetches the calendar file from the address in that link — Outlook, Google, iCloud, Proton or whichever service you copied it from — over an encrypted connection, and refreshes it from time to time. The request goes only to that service, and carries nothing beyond what any web request does, such as your phone’s internet address. The calendar comes to your phone; nothing goes to the study’s server or to anyone else. Some services let you share busy times only, without event titles; BAI works with that too.
Apart from that, BAI transmits nothing else — not once, not in the background, not in summary form.
All of the following is read and stored locally, and is never sent anywhere:
If you have marked a place, BAI compares your position to it on the phone, and no map service or geocoder is used. Where that comparison happens depends on the phone. On an iPhone it is done by iOS itself. On Android it is done by Google Play services’ location and geofencing, which are part of the phone’s own system software and are governed by Google’s privacy policy. In both cases BAI itself sends your location nowhere.
On Android, BAI’s data is also excluded from Google’s cloud backup and from phone-to-phone transfer, so it is not copied to a Google account or to a new phone.
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Location | To switch modes when you reach a place you marked |
| Location, “all the time” | To notice that you have arrived at a place you marked while BAI is closed. Without it, arrival is noticed only when you open BAI |
| Calendar | To measure how booked a day is, from the calendars on your phone. Only asked for if you choose Calendars on this phone; calendars you connect by link need no permission |
| Notifications | To tell you when a day is booked past what it holds, when your work hours start or end, when you arrive at a place you marked, and when a Work session you timed is over; to deliver the reminders you ask for, such as a reminder to prepare for an event; and to remind you occasionally to check in with your mood, that you are still in Work mode, or to finish a setting |
| Focus (iPhone) | Nothing to grant. You add BAI to a Focus in iOS Settings, so that turning that Focus on or off switches Work and Life |
| Do Not Disturb access (Android) | To read whether Do Not Disturb is on, and to turn it on or off when you press BAI’s button, so that it can switch Work and Life |
| Alarms & reminders (Android) | To deliver your work-hours alerts on the minute when the screen is off |
| Run at start-up (Android) | To set your alerts again after the phone restarts |
Every one of these can be refused, and BAI continues to work without them — with the corresponding feature switched off.
Deleting the app from your phone removes everything BAI has stored: your history, your mood record, your places, and your signed-in session. On Android you can also clear BAI’s storage in the phone’s settings, which does the same without removing the app.
Your entry on the participant roster is held by the study team. Taking part in the study is voluntary, on the same terms as the consent you gave when you enrolled — you may withdraw at any time and do not have to give a reason.
To withdraw, email daviasam@uio.no.
Data controller: the University of Oslo, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Department of Informatics. The project leader is Aparecido Fabiano Pinatti de Carvalho.
Legal basis: processing is carried out in the public interest, under Article 6(1)(e) of the General Data Protection Regulation, as assessed by Sikt under reference 196375.
Retention: the participant roster is kept until the end of the project in December 2027, and deleted afterwards.
Nothing is exported from participants’ devices — not during the study, and not at the end of it. What BAI records about how you work stays on your phone for as long as the app is installed, and goes when you delete it. The roster described above is the only data the study holds centrally.
So long as you can be identified in the data held, you have the right to:
To exercise any of these, email daviasam@uio.no.
BAI is not directed at children and is used only by enrolled adult study participants — professors, postdoctoral researchers and PhD research fellows.
Material changes will be published here and, where the study requires it, communicated to participants directly.
Questions about the project, or about exercising your rights:
David Sampah — PhD Research Fellow Department of Informatics, University of Oslo Email: daviasam@uio.no https://www.mn.uio.no/ifi/english/people/aca/daviasam/
Supervisor and project leader: Dr Aparecido Fabiano Pinatti de Carvalho — fabiano.pinatti@ifi.uio.no
Data controller: University of Oslo, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Department of Informatics.
Questions about how data protection has been assessed in this project: Sikt — personverntjenester@sikt.no, +47 73 98 40 40