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Privacy Icons:

A Risk-Based Approach to Visualisation of Data Processing

open-access


Zohar Efroni, Jakob Metzger, Lena Mischau, Marie Schirmbeck

DOI https://doi.org/10.21552/edpl/2019/3/9

This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Licence Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

Keywords: Privacy Icons, Consent, Risk-Based Approach, Private Autonomy, Legal Design


Although the institution of consent within the General Data Protection Regulation intends to facilitate the exercise of personal autonomy, reality paints a different picture. Due to a host of structural and psychological deficits, the process of giving consent is often neither informed nor does it foster self-determination. One key element in addressing this shortcoming is the visualisation of relevant information through icons. This article outlines a risk-based methodology for the selection, design and implementation of such privacy icons. It lays the groundwork for identifying risky data processing aspects as a first step in a larger project of creating a privacy icons set to accompany privacy policies. The ultimate goal of the privacy icons is to assist users in making better informed consent decisions through the visualisation of data processing aspects based on their inherent risks.
Keywords: Privacy Icons, Consent, Risk-Based Approach, Private Autonomy, Legal Design

Dr Zohar Efroni, LLM, Research Group Lead at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society in Berlin; Humboldt University Law Faculty, Berlin. Jakob Metzger, Research Associate at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society in Berlin; Doctoral Candidate, Humboldt University Law Faculty, Berlin. Lena Mischau, Research Associate at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society in Berlin; Doctoral Candidate, Humboldt University Law Faculty, Berlin. Marie Schirmbeck, MSc Psychology, Research Associate at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society in Berlin; Humboldt University Law Faculty, Berlin. This work has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) under grant no 16DII111 ('Deutsches Internet-Institut'). For correspondence: <mailto:zohar.efroni@rewi.hu-berlin.de>.

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