LeakIn is an active learning demonstration of the process of how personal data will be collected and used, by “deceiving” users into seemingly normal job-seeking experience. During the overall experience, users will be informed about the deception and the main topic which is the understanding of data privacy. We expect the demonstration to produce users’ attitudinal change in the end.
Learning experience designer, UX/UI designer
On the internet, the personal data users give away for free is transformed into a precious commodity. For example, companies collect data from sensitive data like medical records, social security numbers, banking details, credit card to social media posts, likes, purchases, and even every click. These data are all being captured, datafied, aggregated, stored and used, or even being sold by companies like data brokers.
While people start to realize the importance of data privacy and try to protect their privacy and personal information from tech companies, people’s attitudes toward data surveillance are still passive.
In addition to a passive attitude toward data privacy, people know little about how and how much their information is collected, where it’s used, what it is worth and what are the negative consequences.
In order to find solutions to help people understand more about the process of personal data collection, we developed LeakIn, an interactive web-based experience which aims at adults aged 20 to 49, as most identity theft cases are reported by people within this age group.
There are four major design elements in this simulation.
In order to find solutions to help people understand more about the process of personal data collection, we developed LeakIn, an interactive web-based experience which aims at adults aged 20 to 49, as most identity theft cases are reported by people within this age group.
There are four major design elements in this simulation.
In order to prevent our users from noticing the intention of this experience, we embedded the learning content into a job-seeking website. The features of LeakIn are designed based on other job-seeking websites, so that users feel like they are going through an everyday experience.
Since this type of website inherently requires a great amount of users’ personal information, it becomes a great fit for the context of this learning experience.
When users proceed to the last page, which is the data broker website, they see the information they have entered during the sign-up process, as well as information they have not provided on the page.
Before they have seen this page, they may not have realized the consequences of providing personal information on the Internet. This information is categorized and listed out with the corresponding value, as indicated with the dollar ($) sign, and a list of potential usage of the information.
They realize that by simply filling out a form or linking their social media account to a new website, their personal information is collectively gathered and might be potentially sold to companies through data brokers.
As the goal of LeakIn is to improve people’s awareness on potential usage of personal information provided on the Internet, we eliminated other minor features of a website which might not be necessary to achieve this goal.
By keeping the interface simple with only features that are related to data privacy, users are less likely to be distracted by irrelevant content on the website. This guarantees that our users go through the experience exactly how we expect them to, and come to realization at the end without having to rethink what they have experienced, in order to achieve the goal.
Next to each of the listed personal information on the data broker page is a little exclamation mark icon, which provides users additional information of how and where the corresponding information might be collected.
After users realize the significance of data privacy protection, it is likely that they would like to know more about the information so that they know how to protect their data from being gathered or what aspects to pay attention to in the future.
By giving users an option to read more about data privacy, they are no longer passively receiving information from a formal curriculum, but actively deciding to learn more about information that is relevant to their behaviors in their everyday life.
We plan to improve the prototype of LeakIn by adding more interactive elements and providing authentic tasks in which people can actively participate at their own pace. We also plan to add more customized scenarios for users aged in different groups to choose their own experiences.
In terms of lower level knowledge, we plan to expand the scope of knowledge about data privacy. For example, we will introduce the privacy protection legal mechanism and include active approaches to protect their own personal data.
Finally, if this experience is implemented in school settings, we also want to add reflective practices for students to describe how their reactions and views have evolved.