Real Fictional Entanglements: Using Science Fiction And Design Fiction .

possible futures involving sensing technologies’ potentialprivacy implications. We turned to design workbooks asour method to open this space, and to a privacy frameworkto analyze and map the breadth of our explorations.We follow the design workbook method to create a set ofdesign fiction proposals. Design workbooks are collectionsof design proposals or conceptual designs, drawn togetherto investigate, explore, reflect on, and expand a designspace; they purposely lack implementation details, allowingdesigners and workbook viewers to reflect, speculate, andgenerate multiple stories of possible use [17]. Grounded inour readings of The Circle, we chose a set of sensingtechnologies that might be interesting to explore variationsupon. Our goal was to create a set of proposals to open adesign space of possible futures that would both includeand expand beyond the future described in the book. Wealso wanted to see what new themes might emerge overtime. Designs were primarily brainstormed and created bythe second and first authors, shared among all authorsthrough a blog (Figure 1), and periodically all three authorswould discuss the design ideas to reflect on what questionsand themes arose from the designs. The first author workedon a separate but related project using surveys to explorerespondents’ reactions to technologies from The Circle.Qualitative responses from that project’s pilot survey wereshared with the authors to provide design inspiration.Our designs make use of two design genres: “interfaces,”and “products and services.” Our interface designs imaginewhat these technologies’ user interfaces might look like.Product and service designs play on the genres of Amazonproduct pages, or websites for startups, products, andservices. These genres help us think about the designs aseveryday objects and imagine how they might be situated inthe world. To create the interfaces we used Photoshop,Illustrator, and Sketch. To create the product and servicepages we adapted HTML and CSS from websites includingAmazon.com and getbootstrap.com. We included a varietyof public domain stock images, hand drawn illustrations,and photos that the second author staged and shot as assets.Given our interest in privacy and surveillance concerns, welooked to privacy literature, finding that contemporaryapproaches view privacy as contextual [32]; that is, thesame technologies can preserve or violate privacy indifferent social contexts. Furthermore, Mulligan et al.’sprivacy analytic framework suggests that rather thanattempting to discuss privacy under a single definition(which can be debated endlessly, e.g.[38,39,50]), it is moreproductive to map how various dimensions of privacy arerepresented in particular situations [31]. Their dimensionsinclude: theory (why there should be privacy), protection(who and what is being protected by privacy), harm (actionsand actors who violate privacy), provision (whatmechanisms provide privacy protection), and scope (howbroadly does privacy apply) [31]. This review of theliterature led us to focus on creating variations on ourdesigns by placing them into new contexts and new socialsituations to change the values of these dimensions.We began our first set of designs by trying to visuallyimagine the technologies described in The Circle, staying asclose to the textual descriptions as possible. We thendiscussed privacy themes emerging from the designs. Wedid two more rounds of design iterations to explore newcombinations of privacy dimensions creating variations onour first set of designs. In these iterations, we used newsocial contexts, put the technologies in the hands ofdifferent users, or integrated Eggers’ fictional technologieswith real-world contexts and technologies. After each roundof iteration, we evaluated how our collection of designsmapped onto Mulligan et al.’s dimensions. We ended ouriterations after finding we explored a wide variety ofcombinations of privacy dimensions, suggesting that wehad opened and broadened our design space.USING TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE CIRCLEOur design fiction proposals draw from three technologiespresented in The Circle. While reading the novel, we notedthat the story reminded us of several non-fictionaltechnologies. To diversify and blend our design work withnon-fictional technologies, some proposals are based on afourth real technology currently being developed but couldfit into the novel’s story world. We provide a briefsummary of Eggers’ three technologies from The Circle anda description of the fourth non-fictional technology.2SeeChangeSeeChange is the most prominent technology introduced inthe novel. It is described as a small camera, about the sizeof a lollipop, which wirelessly records and broadcasts livehigh-definition video. Its battery lasts for 2 years withoutrecharging. It can be used indoors or outdoors and can bemounted discreetly. Live video streams from the camerascan be shared with anyone online. The story introduces thecameras as a way to monitor outdoor sports locations, sharevideo streams for entertainment, or monitor spaces toprevent crimes. Later in the story, SeeChange becomesubiquitous: they are placed in Mae’s parents’ house whilethey undergo medical treatment; worn continuously byelected officials to ensure democratic transparency; andeventually worn by Mae to promote The Circle toconsumers through a constant live personal video stream.Below is a short excerpt from the novel which takes placeduring SeeChange’s product launch, in which a leadexecutive from The Circle publicly demos the product.SeeChange Excerpt from The Circle“I set up that camera this morning. I taped it to a stake, stuck thatstake in the sand, in the dunes, with no permit, nothing. In fact, noone knows it’s there. So this morning I turned it on, then I droveback to the office, accessed Camera One, Stinson Beach, and I gotthis image. Actually, I was pretty busy this morning. I drove2Spoiler alert: Several descriptions of these technologies includementions of major plot points from the novel.

around and set up one at Rodeo Beach, too. And Montara. [ ]”With each beach Bailey mentioned, another live image appeared,each of them live, visible, with perfect clarity and brilliant color.[ ] “Now imagine the human rights implications. Protestors onthe streets of Egypt no longer have to hold up a camera, hoping tocatch a human rights violation or a murder and then somehow getthe footage out of the streets and online. Now it’s as easy asgluing a camera to a wall. Actually, we’ve done just that.”[ ] “imagine any city with this kind of coverage. Who wouldcommit a crime knowing they might be watched any time?”[ ] Live shots from all over the world filled the screen, and thecrowd erupted again. Now Bailey cleared the screen again, andnew words dropped onto the screen:ALL THAT HAPPENS MUST BE KNOWN. [15]ChildTrackIn the novel, ChildTrack is introduced as an ongoing projectat The Circle. It is a small chip that can be implanted intothe bone of a child’s body, allowing parents to know theirchild’s location at all times. In the story, ChildTrack startsas a pilot program involving the insertion of location chipsinto children’s wrists to prevent kidnapping. This leads tothe problem of criminals knowing where the chips arelocated, and removing them from children. The solution isto embed the chips into children’s bones, making it harderfor criminals to extract. Later in the story, The Circle usesthe same chips to store data about a child’s educationalrecords which parents can access “in one place.” It isspeculated that there eventually would be a complete recordof a student’s every academic activity, including everyword ever read and every math problem ever completed.NeighborWatchNeighborWatch is introduced as a product pitch to TheCircle within the novel. It is a neighborhood watch serviceutilizing SeeChange cameras placed throughout aneighborhood, so that residents can identify suspiciouspersons. People in the neighborhood register their data andbiometrics with NeighborWatch to identify them asresidents. Via a screen-based interface users can see anoutlined-version of the inside and outside of nearby homes.Residents of the neighborhood or known visitors aredisplayed as blue figures. Unknown people are displayed asred figures, triggering a notification to residents. It isspeculated in the story that other sources of data, such ascriminal records, can be further used to color-code people.Vital-RadioVital-Radio is a real life prototype developed at MIT whichuses radio waves to wirelessly detect a user’s breathing andheart rate. It can monitor users up to 8 meters away and inseparate rooms [1]. Adib et al. note that Vital-Radio islimited to monitoring users who stay in-place and can onlymonitor three people simultaneously. We imagined a futureversion of Vital-Radio that could monitor more than threepeople simultaneously while moving. We also imaginedthat users could see and interact with their heart rate data aswell as their stress levels, emotional states, and otherextrapolated information. In order to imagine how Vital-Radio might exist in the world of The Circle, we composeda short fiction passage in the style of Eggers depicting alaunch and demo event for Vital-Radio by Victor, our ownmade up executive at The Circle.Our Vital-Radio Fan FictionMae watched as Victor held a sleek black box, about the size of asmall DVD player. He turned to the audience and smiled.“My grandma’s eighty-seven. Last year she broke her hip and I’vebeen concerned about her. Last week, while she was napping-“A wave of laughter rippled through the audience.“Forgive me! Forgive me!” he said, “I had no choice. Shewouldn’t have let me do it otherwise. So I snuck in, and I installedVital-Radio in her bedroom and the living room. It can seethrough walls up to twenty five feet, so with just two of these boxesI can cover her whole house. She won’t notice it.”“And of course,” Victor continued “all that data is stored in thecloud, and in your tablet, anywhere you want it. It’s alwaysaccessible, and is constantly updated. So if you fall, hit your head,you’re in the ambulance, the EMTs can access everything aboutyour vitals history in seconds. And it’s not just healthcare.Imagine your home adapting music and lighting based on yourvital signs and your mood. Or getting customized assistance basedon your stress level at a Vital-Radio kiosk in an unfamiliarairport. Imagine the possibilities!”DESIGNSWe present a sample of our design workbook proposals thatshow the progression of our design explorations, thebreadth of design ideas inspired by the four technologies,the varying genres we used, and different ways we wereinspired by the novel. (See supplementary materials foradditional detail on these proposals.)Design Round 1: Adapting The CircleOur first designs adapt the technologies from the novel’stextual descriptions. As there are no illustrations in thenovel, these designs realize our interpretation of the novel’sworld, in which these technologies were sold as consumerproducts by a large technology company.SeeChange Beach (Figure 2) interprets SeeChange’sinterface based on its introduction in The Circle, whenBailey, one of the company’s executives, reveals liveSeeChange footage. This design highlights the features ofthe fictional camera by juxtaposing two languages—glossystock photos, and a security camera overlay that usuallyaccompanies grainy, low resolution footage. This designfelt surprisingly believable after we made it, and slightlycreepy as it put us in the position of feeling like we weresurveilling people when looking at the design.ChildTrack UI (Figure 3) interprets the book’s descriptionas an interface. Since ChildTrack is a complicated systemthat tracks children’s location and academic records, itslook is borrowed from Facebook’s design patterns to makethe concept easier to consume. A contrast is presentedbetween presumably benign, user-friendly design, and thereality that The Circle has an extensive knowledge of theirusers that goes beyond individual posts and photos.

ChildTrack builds more ‘meaningful’ profiles byaggregating feed data over time, which is represented in the“overview” tab. This design puts the viewer in the positionof a parent, able to see all of their child’s information.Grandma’s Data (Figure 4) is an interface for Vital-Radiowhich realizes the description from our own Circle-likeFigure 2. SeeChange Beach camerasfiction passage. This design focuses on the presentation ofthe device’s data and the visual design is kept to awireframe stage. The data present a narrative of grandma’sday and raise questions about how the data are related andhow “emotion” and “stress” are classified and quantified.Figure 4. Grandma’s Data in Vital-RadioDesign Round 2: The Circle in New ContextsAfter our initial set of designs adapting technologies fromtheir descriptions in The Circle (and our Vital-Radio fictionpassage), we discussed how our first set of designs reflectedpotential privacy concerns. We began thinking about howthe same set of technologies might be used in othersituations within the world of the novel, but not depicted inEggers’ story, and how that might lead to new types ofprivacy concerns [31,32]. This second set of designs goesbeyond the textual descriptions in the novel by taking thesame technologies and re-imagining them for new sets ofusers or for use in new social contexts, but could still existand be sold in the fictional world presented in The Circle.Figure 3. ChildTrack UIThe SeeChange Amazon pages present the SeeChangecamera being sold as three different products to user groupsnot discussed in The Circle. First is SeeChange as a policebody camera (Figure 5a). Second is SeeChange framed asa small, hidden, wearable camera for activists groups likePETA (Figure 5b). Third is SeeChange marketed “ForIndependence, Freedom, and Survival,” to be used bypeople suspicious of the government who may want tomonitor government movements (Figure 5c). The latter wasinspired by a pilot survey respondent’s worry thatSeeChange could be used by “right-wing activists harassingliberal groups” in the U.S. Our design frames SeeChange asa product that might seem valuable and useful to a person

who might want to hide the camera with the desire to watchgovernment employees for perceived abuses of power. Thisset of designs interrogates which surveillance concernsstem from SeeChange’s technical capabilities and whichcome from concerns about who SeeChange’s users orsubjects are. We play on this question by writing in thebody camera’s product description “Provides OBJECTIVEevidence of wrongdoing,” leaving ambiguity about whetherit is recording the police officer’s or citizen’s wrongdoing.(a)NeighborWatch Pro (Figure 6) uses a product website tomarket a version of NeighborWatch. While presented in thebook as a service that any community could use, a pilotsurvey participant expressed concerns that only “wealthyclosed communities” would use it. Our design imagines an“enhanced” automated version of NeighborWatch whichintentionally caters to those communities, raising questionsabout racial and socioeconomic biases reflected by users,datasets, and algorithms utilized by the system.(b)(c)Figure 5. Amazon wireframe pages. Swapping out the productname and image, we show SeeChange as (a) a “live streampolicy body camera”, (b) a small wearable version for activists,and (c) SeeChange “For Independence, Freedom, andSurvival”, small enough to hide and monitor the government.SeeChange Angles (Figure 7) was inspired by our thinkingabout the implications of ubiquitous SeeChange camerasalways recording and broadcasting. On one hand, it mightbe nice to be able to automatically (re)watch sports andspecial events from multiple angles. Conversely, it might becreepy to use many multiple angles to watch a person doingdaily activities. To explore this use case, the second authortook photos of a subject from multiple angles inside andoutside a room, and added a security camera overlay. Thehigh quality and large quantity of photos suggest what maybe possible with many high-definition SeeChange cameras.Design Round 3: New Fictions and New RealitiesAfter our second round of designs and thinking through theprivacy analytic, we began thinking about privacy concernsthat were not particularly present in The Circle or ourexisting designs, such as government surveillance (insteadof surveillance by web companies), or how advertisers orother third parties might benefit from this expandedcollection of data. We also began to realize that many of thedesign ideas we were thinking about reflected non-fictionalproducts being researched or developed. We wanted tomore tightly integrate fictional and real emergingtechnologies through our proposals. The following designs,while inspired by The Circle, are imagined to exist inworlds beyond the novel’s.Figure 6. NeighborWatch Pro websiteAirport Security (Figure 8) depicts an imagined use ofNeighborWatch and SeeChange, where an airportsurveillance system automatically assigns threat statuses topeople by color-coding them. Rather than focusing onconsumer technologies like in the novel, we re-imaginethese as government technologies. The user interface isomitted in this design in order to invite questions about howthe system classifies people, and what each of the colorsmean. One interpretation is that it uses computer vision ormachine learning techniques to classify people (instead ofthe manual database entry technique in the novel).The License Plate Tracker (Figure 9) also puts SeeChangein the hands of the police or government intelligenceagencies. It is presented in a low fidelity mockup where theFigure 7. SeeChange Angles

Figure 10. TruWork website, inspired by ChildTrackFigure 8. Airport Security, inspired by NeighborWatch.Images adapted from [35,51] under CC BY-SA 2.0Figure 9. License Plate Tracker, inspired by SeeChangeUI elements help describe system’s context and capabilities.For instance, the imagined user is a government officialwho can easily see anybody’s location history and trafficcamera images using the search feature, without restriction.TruWork (Figure 10) re-imagines ChildTrack as animplantable tracking device for employees that employersuse to keep track of their whereabouts and work activities,as employer surveillance is not critically addressed in thenovel. Our design presents a product website targetingemployers, using language like “Know the truth” aboutyour employees. While presented positively, the lack ofemployee viewpoints raises questions about power, andhow employees may try to resist or game these systems.The next set of designs employs the visual language ofstartup companies and their products and services. Forexample, onboarding tutorials or advertising often includecute, simple cartoons explaining the use of a product. VitalRadio Match (Figure 11a) extends the real-world VitalRadio to be used as an online dating service by matchingpeople’s “compatible” heart rates. The visual languagedraws comparisons to other dating applications, andprovokes questions about the persuasive power ofalgorithmically generated results. CoupleTrack (Figure11b), based on ChildTrack, allows adult couples to useimplanted chips to continuously track each other’s locationand activities. ChildTrack for Advertisers (Figure 11c)allows advertisers, who are never discussed in The Circle,to leverage a child’s location data to individually

privacy. Instead of using science fiction media as objects of analysis, we use a science fiction text as a starting point to create our own design fiction artifacts. Our work builds on past connections drawn among design, research, fiction, and public imagination [29]. For researchers and designers, science fiction has helped shape