Frequently Asked Questions
These common questions and their short answers are taken from Robert Stribley’s book Design for Privacy: Keeping Personal Information Private (2025). You can find longer answers to each in your copy of the book, either printed or digital version.
- Why should I care about privacy? I have nothing to hide.
Like freedom of speech, a right to privacy is often something we may not give much consideration—until we need to. As you’ll see, you never know what sudden changes to company policies or ownership or even regional or national politics and law will have upon your privacy. This book argues that in considering people’s specific needs for privacy, we will inevitably create better experiences for us all. And, more broadly, we’ll help to create a world where privacy is valued and treated as a right for us humans, not just a hurdle for companies and organizations to overcome. Chapters 1 and 3 cover the ground that emphasizes most concretely why we should be concerned about privacy both as individuals and designers. - What motivation do companies have to resolve privacy issues if they’re profiting from them?
Realistically, given the profit motive, some companies may not find ethical reasons for practicing privacy by design terribly compelling. However, such organizations should consider these additional reasons for maintaining privacy-respecting experiences, too: damage to their reputations, experience abandonment, loss of user base, and the penalties and fines that may be leveraged against them if they don’t adhere to emerging privacy regulations. Chapter 4 offers much more in the way of anecdotes and data to clarify the implications of these different factors. - Is privacy policy really doing anything to impact how companies approach privacy issues within their experiences?
As privacy policy evolves globally, it becomes increasingly more impactful. In Europe, for example, increasingly large fines are being leveraged against companies that don’t adhere to privacy regulations. Further, regulations in many parts of the world place an increasing emphasis upon privacy as a right for individuals that outweighs the needs of business. Many countries, however, including the United States, still lag behind in this area. To co-opt a line from William Gibson, then, the future of privacy is here, but that future is not evenly distributed. Chapter 11 covers this topic in detail. - How much help can designers really be with privacy issues?
It’s true that some privacy issues are rooted in key business goals that designers play little or no role in formulating. It’s also true that the language of privacy is almost always governed by a company’s legal department. However, designers are still perfectly placed to argue and design for privacy-friendly solutions to business requirements, to imagine tools that help users maintain control of their personal information, and to introduce and frame privacy-oriented content, so that it’s better understood by people accessing these experiences. Chapter 3 is dedicated to explaining how well-situated designers really are to make a difference. - If you had to boil the resolution of privacy issues down to one word, what would it be?
“Consent.” Most of the problems arising around privacy online come down to a lack of consent. People either lack the ability to consent how their data is used, or they’re not clearly informed as to what they’re consenting to. Further, they often have no way of fine-tuning their consent or withdrawing their consent if they decide they no longer wish to share their information. Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8 each provide a lot of super specific guidance on how to properly inform people about what they’re consenting to and how to design features which enable their consent transparently and honestly.
