MUMBAI: News Corp‘s business newspaper The Wall Street Journal has announced plans to hold its first Data Transparency Weekend, an outgrowth of the Journal‘s ‘What They Know‘ investigative series, which documents the tracking of data online.

To be held from 13-15 April in New York, the event will bring together approximately 100 programmers who will form teams to work on free Web tools that promote data transparency. At the end of the weekend, the best tools will be
publicly recognised.

Led by Wall Street Journal senior technology editor Julia Angwin, who directs the Journal‘s award-winning ‘What They Know‘ team, the weekend will be divided into three main tracks: Scanning, Education and Control. Scanning will focus on enhancing technology that scans the Web to reveal tracking; Education will concentrate on how to help people see how much information they share; and Control will focus on improving software that helps people control sensitive information.

Speakers who will also serve as judges will include Alessandro Acquisti, professor of information technology and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University; Sid Stamm, Web security and privacy strategist at Mozilla; and independent security researcher Dan Kaminsky. Closing remarks and prizes will be delivered by Daniel Weitzner, deputy chief technology officer for Internet policy at the White House.

The Wall Street Journal Digital Network Managing Editor Raju Narisetti said, "Our research for ‘What They Know‘ shows that people underestimate the amount of personal data being shared about them online. We are excited about helping developers build tools that could eventually help readers understand what is happening."

The event is open to qualified participants – those with engineering, product-development or technical research backgrounds. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and will be accepted until the event is full.