Digital privacy: visible and delusional

A larger discussion about implications of gendered experiences in designed digital privacy, unintended exposure, and digital security divide.

TLDR

There’s been an increasing gender disparity in digital behaviors and perceived Internet privacy because of disproportionate gendered experiences. This affects women more than men, indicating a much larger implication of reproduction of social inequality and structural discrimination in digital contexts. We should only expect the rise of such experiences with end-to-end encryption platforms, bad design choices, and constantly changing privacy regulations.

A terrible Capitol riot has triggered a series of challenging questions around technological objectivity and neutrality: the socio-technical meaning of blocking Trump from platforms like Facebook and Twitter, a mass migration of far-right and QAnon groups to end-to-end encryption messaging apps like Telegram & Signal, the impact of disinformation and conspiracy theories spread on provoking physical violence, etc etc. And all of this is happening during the century’s largest pandemic, an economic fallout that has left millions jobless, a historic cry for racial justice, and a presidential election that exposed a deep divide in American society.

But, I think we should be hopeful as we are entering the age for what it’s called “post-truth,” or of the various attempts to end the lies, lying, and liars. The bigger question we have to ask is how can we narrate the “truth” without rigid recourse to the dictates of objectivity? I should say more, that’s how disinformation exactly originates and spreads instantly. It is, therefore, so crucial to holistically understand, design digital privacy on an equal basis and regulate it in such a way, so that none of us will lose the ground truth anymore. Because mistaken or blatantly shared data will only amplify our feeds on just one particular content — partial truth or a lie.

The concept of privacy is usually thought in the context of having private shelter or the autonomy of human bodies in physical space from the public. Staying private in the physical world is not the same in the digital world because it doesn’t mean that…