Presented at Midwest UX, October 2019. As we rapidly approach "The Uncanny Valley" of experience design, what obligation do technology creators have in maintaining an environment of informed consent and ethics with their audience? This session will explore the realities and impact that persuasive design techniques (both intentional and not) play into how participants engage with technology. We will look at examples of efficient, devious, deceptive design, as well as well-intentioned design choices that may have unintended consequences. We will discuss the idea of consent as it relates to the people that interact with our interface, and how we can morally augment their experiences for the greater good without leaving them in the dark.
3. Background.
The idea for this talk was informed by the book Broad
Band by Claire L Evans and the IRL Podcast episode
“What if Women Built The Internet?”
#mwuxconsent
5. Self is Currency
The internet was built off of a model where little to no
monetary funds are exchanged for services. Instead, data
is the currency.
1.
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29. The average person would have to spend
#mwuxconsentSource: The New York Times
76 Working Days
reading all of the digital privacy policies they
agree to in the span of a year.
30. Reading Amazon’s terms and conditions out
loud takes approximately
#mwuxconsentSource: The New York Times
Nine Hours.
32. legal rules coupled with a specific
technological environment can lead us
to behave like...
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Techno-Social
Engineering:
33. perfectly rational, but also perfectly
predictable and ultimately
programmable.
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Stimulus-Response
Machines:
Source: Brett Frischmann (Villanova) Scientific American
34. Hey, who are you
calling a stimulus-
response machine?
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38. It’s not that simple.
Your data can also be collected from other people
without your consent.
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39. All your data are
belong to us.
Facebook users can share contact information with
Facebook from their device contacts.
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40. Shadow Profiles
Shadow Profiles collect data about non-users, as well as
data that current users may not have provided about
themselves.
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42. For example:
“A man donated sperm to a couple, secretly, so they
could have a child—only to have Facebook recommend
the child as a person he should know. ”
source: Kashmir Hill, Gizmodo
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43. For example:
“A woman whose father left her family when she was
six years old—and saw his then-mistress suggested
to her as a Facebook friend 40 years later.”
source: Kashmir Hill, Gizmodo
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44. It’s not just about
consent. It’s about
ethics.
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45. We have an
obligation.
If data (personal information and attention) is currency,
then we are responsible for that transaction.
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46. Consider these
two quotes:
(Imagine that, an academic framing conversation with
quotes from philosophers and social scientists)
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47. A wealth of information creates a
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poverty of attention
and a need to allocate that attention
efficiently.
- Herbert Simon (social scientist, 1971)
48. When you invent the plane, you also
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invent the plane
crash...
49. #mwuxconsent
- Paul Virilio (philosopher, 1999)
Every technology carries its own negativity,
which is invented at the same time as
technical progress.
70. Yes.
With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
in the EU, and the California Consumer Privacy Act
(CCPA), some of these measures are legally required.
#mwuxconsent
