Drumbeat/Challenges/Privacy Icons

Privacy Icons

Background

Those interested in the idea are encouraged to read Aza Razkin's blog post Making Privacy Policies not Suck which got this idea rolling within the Drumbeat community.

The Challenge:

Design a simple set of icons that can educate users of the privacy policies of websites. (Think of something as simple as the Fair Trade Coffee label on food or creative commons logos for copyright)

Objective:

• Create a simple standard to explain privacy policies (make privacy policies not suck) and terms of service
• Enable web users to make better choices when picking and using web services
• Enable web users to have more control over their privacy
• Increase internet users awareness about privacy issues
• Educate internet users on privacy policies of websites
• Establish, and move the online service industry to adopt, a standard around privacy and terms of service

Strategy:

Launch a design challenge that involves experts and the community to create icons that can summarize privacy policies.

Program Outline:

Already completed:

• Commissioned a Japanese design company to do some initial design work

Key Questions/Criteria:

1. Assess what aspects of privacy we want/can visualize
   
2. Determine what, if any online privacy related legal text can be modularized
   
3. Draft the legal orthogonal statements: a) a list of privacy “settings” we are trying to visualize; and b) an outline of the “on” and “off” states of these privacy “settings”
   

Timeline

1. Have a class of law students draft the legal orthogonal statements
2. Have a group of lawyers/students poke holes/test the orthogonal statements and assess how to make them binding/link to standard language in terms of use contracts
3. Design challenge – (crowdsource) for each orthogonal statement have people submit visual themes or ideas that might convey the essence of that statement
4. Design challenge - run a competition to design the "look and feel" of the icons
5. Crowdsource challenge – Ask community members to test the logic of the icons. Where do the icons work and when to they break (e.g. works in a business setting, not in personal setting or a given icon does not work on website "x")
6. Crowdsource consumer reviews of websites (like all the social networking sites) using the icons
7. Determine who will be the curator of this project? (e.g. What will the governance be? (Mozilla, a spin-off, other?)
   
   

Immediate Next Steps

• Schedule time on talk to Zitrain and Ryan to talk about their offers to use their classes to tackle some of these issues
  

Design Criteria:

• Concept is explainable – icons need to be as simple as creative commons
• Each privacy issue must have an  “on” or “off” (Safe or unsafe) state
  

Other Resources:

• Privacy Choice has a web site that achieves some of the functionality Aza envisioned.
• Ryan Calo is working with a German designer and some Google 20%ers on a symbol system for email (Link?)
• The Future of Privacy Forum is creating a behavioral advertising brand