[Freedombox-discuss] FBX Privacy Enabled UX

[Fifty Four]

Hi,

 

AFAIK, there is no mailing list for UX. So I hope it's alright to post to
this mailing list.

 

On a separate thread (girl intimated by school) there was a conclusion on my
part that social networks (Facebook/Google+) are nothing more than a
security wall. There is no such thing as a privacy wall because there are no
legal (only moral) deterrents against informants.  An informant can easily
take a print-out or screenshot of content they deem "offending" - I am not
referring to public comments.

 

I was thinking maybe the FBX could have a privacy enabled UX. 

 

All comments in  a reading/writing pane would be posted by a pseudonymous
name. If an informant wanted to print/screenshot the content there would
only be a pseudonymous name i.e. real name separated from content. In most
conversations, it doesn't really matter who said what, but clicking on an
FBX pseudonymous name would still take you to your friends/contacts real
name. Clicking on a pseudonymous name would only be allowed with the users
digital certificate present. The contact page would not list the
pseudonymous name of the contact, protecting you from another
printout/screenshot.  Over time you would learn the pseudonymous names of
your friends.

 

A further protection would be that each FBX automatically generates the same
pseudonymous names for new contacts. That way, "blue" (example only) on my
account could be by Mum, but on partners account "blue" could be her
brother.  An informants printout would say "blue" made the offending
comment, while the accused printout would say "red" made the comment. The
informant would have to give full access to their computer to confirm the
accused identity thereby giving up their own privacy, which I guess an
informant would not be prepared to do on a trivial matter.

 

If the informant felt they were being victimized, then they could click an
Report Abuse button, which would forward the comment to the FBX Owner.  In
the case of a minor this would be their parent. An FBX Owner could contact
the FBX Owner of the accused. Alternatively, the informant could simply
block the user. As a parent I would want to know of blocked accounts, but it
probably is a invasion of privacy. What do you think?

 

An additional measure would be to mark the sensitivity of content. "Private"
- me only.  "Secret" - share with named recipients' only i.e. cannot
forward/print, but can report abuse. "Confidential" - share with discretion
i.e. friends of friends would see a pseudonymous name, but they could not
link to a real name because direct connections can only link to real names.
"Public" - share with Everybody i.e. a Public comment would link to your own
public pseudonymous name,  i.e. not a name generated by FBX. 

 

Just a thought, but in the future "sensitivity labels" could be used as a
basis for a Privacy License, similar to the Creative Commons Labels.

 

I am not a developer, but to me these proposals seem minor changes. For
years, Wordpress comments have been able to track the comments of the same
external identity. Generating a reasonably memorable pseudonymous name is
the biggie, but it will be reusing/abusing display name fields. AFAIK,
sensitivity labels are well defined. 

 

What do you think? Would these proposals be effective? Are there any other
Privacy enhanced UX measures we could use?

 

-          Fiftyfour -

 

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