Surveillance State: NSA Spying and more. In the article an analogy was given by Cory Doctorow (writing in The Guardian) as a response to why you should care and why the statement 'if you have nothing to hide then you should not worry about an invasion of privacy' isn't true. Below is what he said:
You should care about privacy because privacy isn’t secrecy. I know what you do in the toilet, but that doesn’t mean you don’t want to close the door when you go in the stall.
You should care about privacy because if the data says you’ve done something wrong, then the person reading the data will interpret everything else you do through that light.
You should care about surveillance because you know people who can be compromised through disclosure: people who are gay and in the closet; people with terminal illnesses; people who are related to someone infamous for some awful crime. Those people are your friends, your neighbors, maybe your kids: they deserve a life that’s as free from hassle as you are with your lucky, skeleton-free closet.
You should care about surveillance because once the system for surveillance is built into the networks and the phones, bad guys (or dirty cops) can use it to attack you.
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As for Hague: if the innocent have nothing to fear from disclosure, then why did his own government demand an unprecedented system of secret courts in which evidence of UK intelligence complicity in illegal kidnapping and torture can be heard? Privacy, it appears, is totally essential for the powerful and completely worthless for the rest of us.
The point he makes about privacy not being secrecy I think is really noteworthy. People often act defensive saying that they haven't got anything to hide so they aren't afraid. Its not about being afraid its about wanting privacy. His analogy of the bathroom works really well to illustrate this as there is no big secret to what you do in the bathroom, everyone does it! But it doesn't mean you're not entitled to privacy.
From this point I really want to create a piece of design that really shows the difference between privacy and secrecy. Maybe then people will think about their privacy and realise that wanting privacy doesn't mean they are doing anything wrong or being secretive.
Design Idea
I knew that I wanted to create a poster using that statement and that having it written out would be the most powerful way of showing the message. I adjusted the sizes of the type so that it would make the viewer read it in a set order. Also the first statement is quite odd if not in context, it makes the viewer think "what is this about?" and then when they read the following statement and the bottom blurb about privacy not being secrecy it all makes sense. If it doesn't make sense to them at least its weird enough for them to go away thinking about it.
I decided to use the NSA backing of stripes as I thought it would throw in a bit of controversy. The statement is strong however I don't know if it works alone or if in needs a background.
I wasn't quite sure what caption I wanted in the bottom part.
I found a quote from Pro Publica which said: The NSA intercepts huge amounts of raw data, and stores billions of communication records per day in its databases. Analysts can see “nearly everything a user does on the Internet” including emails, social media posts, web sites you visit, addresses typed into Google Maps, files sent, and more. I think this has a strong impact and reinforces why we need our privacy. It is a scary thought to think people are watching everything you do. I also added the statement "Just because you have nothing to hide doesn’t mean you’re not entitled to your privacy." This just helps to confirm the analogy and the facts.
I initially tried having the quote on the other side but the it didn't look right against the plain backing. The font was also too big as it took away from the impact of the analogy. The text needed to be smaller as thats what pulls people in to find out more.
I then tried moving it to the other side and aligning it down the right. I separated out the analogy and had the statement below to act as a conclusion to everything said. However it wasn't the right way round. It looked weird having a clearer bit of text under a paragraph. By flipping them round it changed the way it was read and perhaps the fact being last makes people think more.
I decided to use the eye collage which I had previously made for a book cover for my information in Product, Range and Distribution. I changed the colour to black and white so that I could use coloured text on to of it.
First off it is very hard to read the text just over the image. This is because of different textures in the background which jumble up the letters making it hard to distinguish between the white text and the lighter parts of the images.
The black helps to section of the important information which explain the analogy at the bottom. The eyes have also been shrunk to allow room for more on the page.
Yellow against black provides a strong contrast. The black separates the words from the background by providing a flat solid colour. The black also represents when the government redacts files so that things cannot be seen.
Black again has the same problem as white on the images.
Yellow alone is just too jumbled.
The separation of the bottom text and the decrease in font size allows it to follow on from the first statement and not take up too much room.
I decided that the colour should be red as this symbolises taking action or being alert!
Red alone clashed too the extent that it became illegible.
This now works a lot better however when I showed a friend he pointed out that the bottom part is a bit wordy and hard to say. It could be shorter and punchier.
Changing it to wanting the door to be open still gives the wrong message. It is not about wanting the the door to be open or closed its that the door should be closed.
Saying that it doesn't mean the door should be open is the best way of saying it. However the positioning of type needs to be changed so that the word open is not just by itself.
Having it stepped down looks better however the spaces between the lines looks odd in comparison to the above statement where the gap is smaller.
By making the gap smaller it follows suit from the previous statement. Here the eyes are bigger, the background looks better with more eyes.
I think the poster still needs a lot of work but its definitely on the right tracks. I didn't like the word open alone but having the text in three lines just looks clumpy. The positioning of the eyes means that there is a larger pair in between the two statements.
This is the final poster, when I printed the last one as a draft I noticed that the blurry pair of eyes to the right of the text really stood out and took the attention away from the message. I replaced them with a smaller collection of eyes. Now the attention is back on the message. The poster looks a lot better printed compared to on screen, the red is rich and creates an impacting statement. The collage of eyes add an interesting and busy background which compliments the bold text. The eyes being cut out and stuck down by hand links to the ransom style of lettering where the aim is to keep anonymity. The amount of different eyes used really helps to show the sheer number of people that are affected by the surveillance.
The paragraph at the bottom is necessary to explain to the viewer what the shocking analogy is saying. The type has been placed in a hierarchy so that from a distance you can clearly make out 'privacy isn't secrecy'. This gives an overview to what the point of the poster is, when you get closer the statement is explained and then further evidence is given to support the argument.
This is the beginning of a campaign aiming to raise awareness about online surveillance and why it is not okay! I want to create other posters with bold statements that are easy to remember and have a strong underlying message. I know that any designs I create aren't going to stop the NSA or any other organisation or government so instead I am going to target the general public who perhaps believe that surveillance is okay and that their aim is to protect us.
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