What if data protection embraced foresight and speculative design?

in DRS2022: Bilbao (2022)

Due to rapid technological advancements and the growing “datafication” of our societies, individuals’ privacy constitutes an increasingly explored speculative space for regulators, researchers ... [more ▼]

Due to rapid technological advancements and the growing “datafication” of our societies, individuals’ privacy constitutes an increasingly explored speculative space for regulators, researchers, practitioners, designers and artists. This article reports two experiences at a national and an international data protection authority (i.e., the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés - CNIL - and the European Data Protection Supervisor - EDPS - respectively), where foresight methods and speculative design are employed in policy-making with the goal of anticipating technological trends, their implications for society and their impact on regulations, as well as the effects of existing and upcoming laws on emerging technologies. Such initiatives can enhance strategic proactive abilities, raise public awareness of privacy issues and engender a participatory approach to the design of policies. They can also inspire the research, education and practice of legal design. [less ▲]

When Design Met Law: Design Patterns for Information Transparency

in Droit de la Consommation (2019), (1),

The problems of online disclosures, notices, and terms are well-known and documented. Research and experience tell us that consumers dislike and do not read them. Much less has been said and done about ... [more ▼]

The problems of online disclosures, notices, and terms are well-known and documented. Research and experience tell us that consumers dislike and do not read them. Much less has been said and done about the solutions. Building on Proactive Law and Legal Design, this research-based, practice-oriented article introduces proactive legal design patterns as a possible way forward. The article illustrates, with examples, how design patterns can help implement the principle of transparency in consumer-facing communication and elaborates, in an innovative manner, the ways in which legal design patterns can help solve recurring problems. [less ▲]