They are watching us: Designing for behavioral tracking awareness.

Abstract

Surveillance Capitalism permeates every aspect of our lives. Our behavior is getting recorded, analyzed and used to influence our choices. How can we raise people’s awareness in regards to Behavioral Tracking and the implication that it can have in their lives, allowing them to steer towards a more conscious interaction with digital media? And again, how can all of this be achieved on mobile devices, without disrupting the user freedom and offering a meaningful experience?”

Through User Experience and Behavioral design method,this Master thesis tries to give an answer to those two questions. Research has been conducted through different methods such as semi-structured interviews, user testing, observation, literature review,and desktop research.The resulting product is PanOp,a mobile app which, as in a "who will watch the watchers?" situation, tracks the activity of behavioral tracking apps, providing useful data to the user, who can become more aware of what behavioral tracking is, how it affects his life, and decide to take steps to regain his freedom.