Your file stays on your device
The export is opened in your browser. Parts the study never collects are dropped before you even see them.
DataDonate · a short tour
Donate your app activity to research, on your own terms
People download their own data from apps like TikTok or YouTube, open it privately on their own device, pick what to share, and see exactly what will be sent before anything leaves. Research teams set the rules in advance and cannot change them quietly.
- Your raw file never leaves your device
- You see exactly what is sent
- The rules are locked before you start
- No names, no emails
One donation, step by step
5 steps · about 20 minutes
On your device
Get your data fileThe app's own "download my data" file, unchanged
You
Your browser opens it privatelyOnly the parts this study allows are kept. The rest is dropped
Device
Choose and reviewPick groups, dates and details. Then see the exact list that will be sent
You
On the research server
Checks before acceptingIs this study allowed to collect this? Is the file exactly what you reviewed?
Server
Locked away, encryptedStored under a code, not your name. You get a receipt
Storage
What the platform promises
Each promise is built into the software, not just written in a form.
You see exactly what is sent
The list you review is the same data that is uploaded. The server double-checks that nothing changed on the way.
Study rules are locked
What a study may collect, how long it keeps data and how it deletes it are published once. Changing them means asking you again.
Studies are walled off
One study can never see another study's participants or data, even on the same website.
No names, no emails
You take part through a private link and a code. If you give an email for reminders, it is kept apart and never becomes research data.
Deleting takes two people
Withdrawing cuts off access at once. Erasing the data needs one staff member to propose it and a different one to approve it.
Three layers, each one only narrower
The software can only read certain things. Each study may allow only some of those. You may share only some of what the study allows. Pick a service to see it.
Ready
Only services the team has checked accept uploads. Some show instructions only. This study uses three of them.
Who it is for
Participants
- Plain steps, one decision at a time
- Never asked for a name
- See counts first; details only if you want
- Withdraw any time; earned payment stays
Research teams
- Run several studies in one place
- Set services, rounds and consent per study
- See progress without seeing raw data
- Every download is logged
Ethics boards
- Every promise to participants is published and locked
- An incomplete setup cannot go live
- Data is kept and deleted on schedule
- A full record of who did what, per study
Next: try it as a participant
Continue
Five screens, a sample data file, and a live check that shows when anything changes.
2 · As a participant
Five screens, start to finish
The real screens with a sample data file made on this page. Nothing is uploaded anywhere. Change a choice and watch the fingerprint update.
datadonate.example/p/screen-exposure-2026/join
Next: what happens after you press Donate
Continue
Follow the same donation through the server's checks until it is locked away and you get a receipt.
3 · After you donate
The server checks everything before it keeps anything
Your device sends only a summary sheet and the exact list you reviewed. The server re-checks the rules and the data itself, then locks the file away and sends back a receipt. Press Play to watch.
For technical readers: server log
What the server checks
Next: the research team's side
Continue
Progress at a glance, an emergency pause switch, and publishing a new version of a study.
4 · Research team
One place to run every study
You are signed in as a study owner. Try System: pausing a service changes what participants see right away. Try Review & publish: changing what is collected means asking participants again.
Next: where the data goes
Continue
The three places data can be, and what happens from invitation to deletion.
5 · Where data goes
Three places, one direction
The same rules run on your device and on the research server, so nothing slips through in either place. Your raw file has no route to the server at all.
Three rules that never bend
Studies are walled off
- Every record is tagged with its study. The database refuses links between studies.
- A private link only works for the study it was made for.
- A wrong link and an expired link get the same plain error, so nothing leaks.
Rules cannot change quietly
- What a study collects, how long it keeps data, how it deletes it and how it pays are published together as one locked version.
- Every request re-checks that the version is still the same one.
- Changing any of those terms creates a new version and asks participants again.
A code, not a name
- Participants join through a private link. No account, no password.
- Sessions are short-lived and checked on every request.
- An optional email for reminders is stored apart and never becomes research data.
One participant, start to finish
Every date comes from the study's published rules.
- 1InvitedA private link, shown once to the research team and sent to the participant
- 2ConsentedRead, answer, sign. Tied to this version of the study
- 3Ready to donateOne donation per service, per round
- 4DonatedChecked, locked away, receipt issued
- 5Withdrawn (optional)Access ends at once; the deletion clock starts
- 6Time to deleteThe schedule in the study's rules comes due
- 7DeletedProposed by one person, approved by another, recorded
That is the tour.
Go back and try a different service as a participant, or publish a new study version as the research team. DataDonate is built by OASIS Lab.