• Introduction

Privacy

The strategic control over what information is visible to different actors across contexts.

Privacy enables selective disclosure—the ability to reveal information to intended audiences whilst concealing it from others. It operates on a gradient rather than as binary state, creating zones of visibility that range from completely private through semi-public to fully shared.

Privacy interacts with agency (who controls visibility), collaboration (balancing individual privacy with group transparency), and shareability (what happens when state becomes public).

Privacy gradient

Rather than treating visibility as binary (public/private), privacy operates across a spectrum:

  • Private: Information controlled by and visible only to a single actor. Others cannot perceive it.

  • Semi-public: Information peripherally available to others for awareness and coordination, whilst remaining under individual control. Others can monitor it but cannot manipulate it.

  • Public: Information fully shared and available to all actors within a context. Control may be distributed or transferred.

This gradient mirrors how people naturally manage visibility in physical spaces—through spatial proximity, screen orientation, voice modulation, and body language. Digital systems should support similarly fluid transitions between privacy levels.

Forces

  • Individual control vs collaborative transparency: People need autonomous private work whilst participating in shared activities; hiding everything prevents coordination, revealing everything prevents autonomy
  • Contextual revelation vs persistent visibility: Some information should be private in one context but public in another; static privacy states cannot accommodate dynamic social situations
  • Spatial privacy vs technological privacy: Physical separation and device ownership create natural privacy gradients; access control systems create technological boundaries; both approaches have different affordances
  • Privacy as user need vs privacy as compliance: Users control visibility for functional and social reasons (politeness, focus, autonomy); organisations must enforce privacy for regulatory and ethical reasons; these motivations create different design requirements
  • Extemporaneity vs planning: Face-to-face dialogue is spontaneous—previously private information may suddenly become relevant for joint work; privacy controls must support serendipitous sharing without requiring advance planning

Managing these tensions requires understanding the specific contexts in which privacy operates.

Contexts for privacy

Privacy manifests differently depending on physical, technological, and social arrangements.

Co-located contexts

People working in shared physical spaces need to manage what others can see:

  • Screen orientation and viewing angle create natural visibility zones
  • Tilting a device towards someone invites them into semi-public viewing
  • Moving to a different room creates completely private space
  • Spatial arrangement of desks and surfaces provides opportunities for different privacy levels

Multi-device contexts

When work spans personal and shared devices, device ownership creates privacy boundaries:

  • Personal devices hold private information under individual control
  • Shared displays provide public workspace for joint activities
  • Moving information between devices shifts it between privacy levels
  • Micro-mobility (tilting, showing) enables temporary privacy level changes

Organisational contexts

Team and company boundaries define visibility zones:

  • Personal workspaces hold individual work in progress
  • Team workspaces share information within group boundaries
  • Organisational workspaces make information broadly available
  • Access control and permissions enforce these boundaries technologically

Temporal contexts

Privacy requirements change over time:

  • Ephemeral visibility for temporary collaboration or exploration
  • Persistent visibility for durable shared knowledge
  • Progressive disclosure as work moves from private ideation to public sharing
  • Conversational flow determines when private information becomes relevant to share

Resources & references

  • Arvola, M. (2005). Interaction design patterns for computers in sociable use. International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology. Describes privacy gradients in co-located collaboration and workspace design patterns.
  • Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior. Chicago: Aldine. Foundation for understanding face management and privacy as social concern.
  • Apple HIG