Mozilla is combining product, community and engagement to mobilize around the issue of privacy. We’ve already accomplished a lot in this area with teaching resources, the Lightbeam add-on, and education and advocacy campaigns. Over the next few months, we’ll create additional products and resources, culminating in November with what we’re calling a privacy ‘moment’.
MozRetreat discussions:What does privacy mean?
It immediately became clear that privacy does not mean the same thing across cultures. In North American English, we use it is as an umbrella term to encompass a number of ideas ranging from personal security to big data. In other English-speaking countries, it is not an effective catch-all term, and instead feels limiting, or like a “very narrow piece of the pie”.
Here is what privacy means to some of the MozRetreat participants:
- * staying safe online- * policy- * parental controls (in browser, and using hardware)- * feeling free to explore the web without being watched- * not collecting personal data- * cookies and trackers- * private browsing- * the creation of data profiles- * controlling how your data is linked between different profilers (third parties that collect and share data about you)- * what we hide- * data ethics- * personal security- * ownership of our data
Suggested products to feature or engage at MozFest:
- * Telegram (like an encrypted version of WhatsApp)- * Firefox: Train the browser to learn what you don’t like (e.g. you don’t mind targeted ads, but don’t like pop-ups that show after you’ve already made a purchase)
People to invite or engage at MozFest:
- * commission artists ahead of the festival through mini-residencies to explore privacy - show final projects at MozFest- * Heath Bunting: London-based artist- * Branger-Briz: London-based artist who has a ‘privacy charging station’ that lets you charge your device for the price of a personal photo- * artists making art using wikileaks files- * BBC’s the ‘Ethics of Data’ team- * There’s an upcoming Privacy Awareness Campaign in Indonesia that will have hashtags and Privacy days. We can invite community members who participated/ran events.
Privacy-related activities to explore at MozFest:
- * parenting children in the era of big data- * security on personal devices that don’t have screens (IOT) like plushies, Oystercards, wearables etc.- * Internet archiving: valuable cultural heritage or “your stupid mistakes online forever”?- * Exploring your filter bubble: what do advertisters think you want?- * Going “silent” on the web to maintain privacy - is this even possible?- * Economic models that either charge for privacy, or use privacy as a currency (e.g. the charging station that ‘costs’ one personal photo)
