Meta
(Facebook)
Challenge
I was invited to deliver a talk and workshop for Facebook’s Ethics, Security, and Privacy (ESP) Standing Group, focusing on security and privacy in the design of smart home devices— a subject central to my PhD research.
Both the talk and the workshop were conducted remotely, with over 20 Facebook staff members participating in the workshop.
Role Designer & Facilitator | Year 2020
My Impact
I translated my research on designing for digital privacy and security into actionable insights and guidelines for Facebook’s designers, engineers, and product managers. My contribution helped them integrate privacy-first and security-conscious design into their work on smart home devices and services.
Structure
Talk
Privacy & Security in Smart Home Devices
The project consisted of two phases, the first being a talk I delivered to Facebook staff on the importance of prioritising digital privacy and security in the design of smart home devices. I walked the audience through my research, highlighting how smart home devices can inadvertently be used as surveillance tools by individuals sharing a household, whether knowingly or unknowingly.
I presented population-level data alongside insights from interviews and co-design workshops I had conducted with vulnerable users of smart home technology. This grounded the talk in real-world scenarios where privacy and security were at risk.
To close the talk, I shared a series of dystopian video provocations, which depicted invasive products masquerading as empathetic and caring. These videos were designed to stimulate critical thinking and set the tone for the workshop that followed.
Videos used as artefacts to provoke critical thinking and discussion
Workshop Facilitation
Crafting Privacy-Conscious Guidelines
After brief introductions and context setting, participants were divided into three groups. Each group was assigned both a primary and secondary persona, representing individuals who either lived together or spent significant time in each other’s homes and shared smart home devices. These personas were based on my research into digital privacy and security concerns related to smart home technology.
The groups were tasked with selecting a smart home device they were currently working on at Facebook and creating scenarios where the personas could compromise each other’s privacy through the devices, apps, and accounts connected to them. Once these scenarios were developed, the next step was to collaboratively create a set of design guidelines that would mitigate the privacy and security risks identified.
By the end of the workshop, Facebook staff had co-created an initial set of guidelines that could be applied to the products and services they were developing, helping to embed privacy-first design into their workflow.
