IBS and Reversing Works workshop: analysis of data from courier applications and transparency of platform work

Reversing Works combines technical, IT, and social expertise to reveal the invisible business practices of platforms and support trade unions and workers in their fight for transparency, accountability, and fairness in platform work. Their mission is to analyze hidden data flows, identify potential abuses, and provide knowledge that can help workers more effectively assert their rights.

In addition to platform workers, the workshop was attended by Zuzanna Kowalik from IBS, Joanna Bronowicka and Gaetano Priori from Reversing Works, as well as Stanisław Kierwiak, president of the Pyszne.pl workers’ union.

Thanks to the involvement of several courier platform employees who were recruited to participate, the researchers gained temporary access to employee accounts in popular food delivery apps.

Using specially developed reverse engineering tools, the researchers were able to:

• track in real time the information that the app sends to its servers,
• identify what data is collected,
• check with which entities the application shares this information,
• analyze whether the recipients include external third parties, including entities outside the European Union, which could constitute a violation of personal data protection rules.

Reversing Works is currently preparing a report that will summarize the conclusions of the analysis and the possible implications for platform practices and the protection of workers’ rights.

Workshop in the context of the GDPoweR project

At IBS, we also analyzed the use of data in platform work as part of the GDPoweR project, in which we asked platforms directly to share employee data and then conducted a detailed analysis of it.

However, the workshop with Reversing Works had a different goal: not to analyze official data sets, but to verify what information actually “leaks” from the application during the courier’s daily work and whether this data ends up with entities to whom it should not be disclosed.

This event was an important step toward better understanding data processing practices in the platform sector and developing tools that can support both researchers and workers and the organizations that represent them.