Data, Privacy, and Identity Card Game

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Connect w/ the creators on Twitter: @saberikhan @jeannieccrowley @kennyegraves

Audience

This card game was created for students in either computer science courses or liberal arts courses to help them think about the relationship between data, privacy, and identity.

Learning Goals

• Gain awareness of the different types of data collected and stored during online and assumed-to-be offline activities
• Reflect on the ways different types of data, and combinations of data, can reveal more about our identity than we might be aware or be comfortable with revealing
• Consider how the perception of harmless data collection changes when viewed through the lens of different identities
• Talk about the types of data users have no control over and are “essential” to the functioning of the tools
• For CS students: discuss the protection of identities and privacy when determining “essential” data for software and services

Identities and Topics

The identities you discuss with students will drastically change the focus of the conversation. We used the game to discuss data collection as a form of systematic racism (details here). The identities can be used to discuss privacy in general, intersectionality, international human rights, journalism, dissent, etc. depending upon your course focus.

Gameplay

• Ask students to note privately on a piece of paper their response 1 prompt appropriate for their prior knowledge and particular focus of your activity:

• Is privacy important? Why or why not? 
• Is there a relationship between data collection and systemic racism?
• Who gets to view my messages?
• How do I know if my communication is private?
• What type of activity need to be private?

• Round 1, in pairs/small groups, ask students to sort data cards into different privacy levels:

• Not collected/stored
• Collected/stored but I can’t control sharing preferences
• Collected/stored but remains private to me and the company/organization
• Collected/stored and I choose who sees this information
• Collected/stored and totally public

• Debrief with group

• Were there any data cards that surprised you?
• Were there any disagreements in your group about where to put the different data cards? If you are comfortable, please share why you had different privacy preferences.
• How do you feel about data being collected about you, but not under your control?
• Would you change your answers if it impacted your ability to use some of the tools? (For example, Amazon giving you recommendations, Netflix sharing new content, Twitter listing posts/people you might like, etc.)
• Are you comfortable with some of the data being collected by a company more than the government? Why or why not? This is a chance to talk about data sharing between government and corporations.

• Round 2, in pairs or small groups, give each group an identity card found on page 2 of this doc or use an identity suggested by your students. Replay Round 1, but through the lens of the assigned identity. Round 2 can be played several times and revisited frequently as it relates to current events.
• Debrief with group

• Did any of your privacy selections for the data change significantly from Round 1 to Round 2?
• How does identity impact your decision to share or not share data?
• Would you consider privacy a right or a privilege?
• For those willing to share, has your view on privacy changed from what you wrote on your paper?