Beyond Privacy – the need for value sensitive design in social media
I’ve written previously about the need for a simple volume know-like control panel for controlling information we choose to share via various social platforms on the internet. The basic idea behind this approach is that notions of privacy vary and continue to evolve as personal and social norms and attitudes change. Therefore, it’s important to let individuals manage their own expectations of privacy. Responsible use of data is an empty promise if your users don’t feel confident about the ability to control the flow of their information in an easy and efficient manner. But privacy and control of data is not the only issue that’s causing consumer confusion and drawing the ire of advocates and lawmakers. It’s part of a much bigger issue that’s the source of a lot of the widespread concern about social media.
This core issue is the development and release of social platforms and new features that have the potential of impacting millions of individuals across the world with what appears to be little or no consideration paid to human values. Yes, new technologies are not necessarily value neutral. Batya Friedman and Peter H. Kahn, Jr. first shed light on this important issue in The human-computer interaction handbook.
According to Friedman and Kahn, there are three basic theories about biases in technology:
- The Embodied Theory — technologies reflect the biases of their inventors.
- The Exogenous Theory — biases emerge because of the way society shapes the use of such technologies (beyond the influence or control of the original designer).
- The Interactional Theory — biases in technology are partly caused by the original design (embodied theory) and the social impact (exogenous theory). Therefore, according this theory, biases in technology emerge because of the biases of the designer and those of the people using it. In addition, technologies themselves have the ability to shape individual and social behavior.
Value Sensitive design uses the Interactional theory, a tripartite methodology, and emphasis on direct and indirect stakeholders as an approach to designing technology that accounts for human values in a principled and comprehensive manner.
I’m not advocating a detailed research project before developing and launching every new social media system or feature, but here’s an illustrative list of 10 basic questions that should be asked:
- What is the intended business purpose of the system/ feature?
- What is the intended user-focused purpose of the system/feature?
- Are the current and potential business purposes made clear to the user?
- What are the potential uses of the system/feature?
- What is the potential impact (negative and positive) on direct stakeholders (the users) ?
- What is the potential impact (negative and positive) on indirect stakeholders (other parties that may be affected by the use of the system or feature)?
- What are the key issues involved? In other words, what human values are impacted (e.g. ownership and property, physical welfare, freedom from bias, universal usability, autonomy, privacy, security, etc.)?
- How can the system/feature balance competing values (e.g. cooperation vs. privacy)?
- How do users behave when using the system/feature?
- What information is provided by design and performance tests?
If you’re not prepared to ask and answer the above questions before finalizing the design of a social media system or feature (or for that matter any consumer-facing Internet-based product), you better at least have a good communications plan to deal with the PR backlash that will inevitably follow.
