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The circumvention technology space is riddled with complexity due to the social realities of authoritarian countries and the ever-changing technical capabilities of governments to block the internet. As censors evolve, circumvention experts and VPN providers must also evolve. The insights of this research report shed light on the social challenges and technical hurdles encountered by both the people using VPNs and those providing them. Dive in and read the full report!
There's been a dramatic shift in the media environment. With an overwhelming amount of diverse content, people have a choice in what they read, listen to, or watch. Audience-driven content, paired with good journalism, is paramount for success in digital journalism. Persona development brings about new thinking in the newsroom. It's a research process that brings a human-centered approach to developing news products.
Anywhere you go, the Internet is an essential part of our interconnected world and is the reason why governments have been using internet shutdowns as a way to gain control. As designers, developers, and innovators of technology we believe that it’s important to support people through these situations. And specifically for usability practitioners, understanding the reality people face will help teams expand their point of view and create a technology more resilient to these acts of oppression.
Over the course of 8 months, we joined Localization Lab to facilitate the co-creation of materials with citizens of Myanmar. Since the events of February 2021, the country has had interruptions in communications and internet connectivity. Power outages have swept the country. It’s become more difficult to be online and to connect over certain matters. Further, with terrorism as the new normal, violence has taken lives and destroyed hope for many.
Inspired by Dr. Bronner’s approach to inject philosophy into mundane moments of life, we wove together our philosophical ideas about capital surveillance. And how we believe people and data should be treated by tech. Our musings are found on the Insightful Beans coffee label for Clean Insights.
Introducing anything related to tracking your users or measuring behavior can be a very sensitive topic for privacy-centric apps. Integrating a respectful, sophisticated consent user experience is critical for meaningful adoption and a happy community. The models and tips presented in this post showcase the consent UX ideas developed for the Clean Insights methodology.
Think about the last time you gave your consent. Who did you give it to? Why? How did it make you feel? In a growing digital and data age, many consent experiences are easier to bypass than examine. There's room for more imagination. To start, let's stop to consider what people want to share.
Close your eyes and repeat after me, "Minimum Viable Data". Let that sink in for a moment. 🤔The typical school of thought around 'big data' is—'collect everything and we'll figure it out later'. The Clean Insights approach is different. It encourages you to be precise in determining which data you need and what to measure. This activity will warm up your brain on this approach.
In light of launching the Clean Insights Symposium Extraordinaire this month, we are warming up our minds on data! Check out this incredible project by Giorgia and Stefanie. For one year, they sent postcards back and forth. Each with a data set from their week. It became a year long ‘slow data’ transmission. It’s incredible! Today, we’re encouraging you to try such a feat for yourself!
Collaborative co-design methods have been part of our design process since the beginning. However as the world changes and health and finance limit travel, finding interesting, engaging and sustainable approaches to co-design are paramount. As many know, solutions to problems are more successful, relevant and adoptable, if the right people are involved in the process. This means getting the end users and vital stakeholders involved from the start.
A clone can be hard to recognize. It often looks and functions like anything else you would use. In the world of open source apps, clones are copies of apps published by a source other than the original author. While they may not be inherently bad, clones create many challenges and insecurities for the open source community.
I put it on Google Play and the Apple Store and promote it, right? Yes, but there's more to do. As an outcome of the 'Clones' project, we've learned that there are a vast set of use cases for downloading apps. We hope these steps are useful.
In a world full of choice and clones, it can be difficult to know if what you’re getting is the real thing. The landscape for getting and downloading apps is complex. Context and ease play a big role in how and where people get apps. Due to the unique cultural and digital climate in countries, people want what is convenient and easy. We are very casual about getting apps and don’t think much about the source of our security.
To compliment the in-depth testing our friends at Accessibility Lab provide, we wanted to understand the approachability KeePassXC. In addition, we wanted to measure how easy or difficult it was for people to set it up. We tested with a variety of users ranging in age and tech savviness.
Are you a developer, trainer, organization, or tool team? Do you want to inspire participant engagement? Are you interested in gathering feedback on your own tools? Need fun feedback activities for a community event? You've come to the right place!
Want to do something good today? Help protect your community from malicious attacks! Take our 15 min survey. Fake versions of apps can spread malware, spyware and take credibility away from the authentic versions. We need your help understanding why fakes exist, where people get them from, and how to stop them! Participate by completing the survey for the country in which you live.
Inauthentic clones are at the fingertips of activist and human rights defenders across the globe. They are particularly common among VPN, social media and messaging apps. Because of them, citizens fall into malware traps without knowing it. That is one of the most significant risks.
We’re excited to host local friends and acquaintances Friday, January 25th, from 11:30 - 1pm, for a Torchy’s Taco Feast and Feedback lunch! In our work to empower people with information and avenues for free expression, we regularly engage with development teams spearheading new technology. Join us in the process, as we work to uncover important insights for the KeePassXC team.
We set out to explore how Magic Wormhole, a clever way to send files easily and securely, can bring about internet freedom. This post outlines how we determined for which communities the technology is best fit.
The Aadhaar is the largest biometric database in the world, with over 1.3 billion Indian citizens registered. This raises many concerns regarding the physical security of the database as well as its legal security. Within India, data protection and privacy remain to be questioned.
Get started owning your privacy! Follow our simple ’How To Tutorial’ and Share your life and the Signal Security with your family. I love my family, but unfortunately we live all over the country! I want to share my life with them. It's wonderful to see photos of my baby nephews growing up, or a video of my cousin getting married. Like most families, we all have different devices. Some own iPhones, while others use Samsung or Motorola. Because we have different devices, we need a secure way to communicate and share our lives with one another and just us. Our biggest concern is keeping photos out of the hands of large corporate companies who operate with the bottom line in mind.
May 3rd was World Press Freedom Day. The 2018 theme—Keeping Power in Check: Media, Justice and The Rule of Law—focuses on the opportunity we all have to protect and celebrate the lives of journalist all over the world who risk their very lives to bring us the news. This year celebrating World Press Freedom Day may be more important than ever.
For every product or idea, it's critical to connect with the people you seek to serve. At Okthanks, we make it a practice to continually put prototypes and developed projects in front of end users to ensure usefulness and usability, and to discover opportune areas for growth.
Las tarjetas de metodos de Viento estan diseñadas para ayudar a equipos de productos a generar tormentas de ideas y considerar procesos de creacion de aplicaciones mas eficientes en el uso de datos, bateria y almacenamiento. La meta es crear aplicaciones mas ligeras, con un nivel minimo de consumo y que brinden una mejor experiencia a los usuarios con datos limitados y dispositivos de baja calidad.
Estas personas fueron creadas para generar un entendimiento de el contexto Latinoamericano relacionado a la manera en que la poblacion usa sus telefonos para obtener y compartir informacion.
We hosted app testing events for two days over lunch in Lubbock, Texas. Together, 11 people participated.
We took on a challenge to name, create logos and color palettes, and design pitch cards for four companies in four weeks.
Within my process, I often quickly need assets to work with. Here's a list of my favorite places for icons, photography, music and UI mockups.
These personas have been created to generate an understanding of the Latin American context in regards to how people use their phones to get and share information.