What attracted SMU Associate Professor of Information Systems Archan Misra to mobile sensing research was the potential for it to help individuals make sense of all the data assailing them on a daily basis. This is especially the case in urban environments where individual behaviour is often a response to complex group dynamics and rapidly changing ambient conditions. The broad implications of Associate Prof Misra’s research have been recognised by industry heavyweights like IBM Research and Xerox Research, who are funding and partnering his team and colleagues on various projects, such as applying mobile sensing to understand shopper behaviour. But preserving individual privacy remains a challenge, and his view is that participation is best achieved via an opt-in feature, so that consumers can decide whether the benefits of turning on their sensing devices to enjoy certain perks and promotions outweigh the costs of sharing data.