Communication Design Quarterly Sep 2024 Open Access

(Re)Designing Privacy Literacy in the Age of Generative AI

Charles Woods ; Gavin P. Johnson Texas A&M University – Commerce

Abstract

In this article, we propose (re)designing privacy literacy as an essential component of our digital lives in an age of Generative Artificial Intelligence (genAI). Our study emphasizes the layered digital, technical, rhetorical, and algorithmic literacies associated with design thinking and genAI to support theorizing privacy literacy. We introduce Design as an analytical element complementary to Woods and Wason's (2021) multi-pronged framework for analyzing Terms of Service (ToS) documents. Using a cluster of Adobe Generative AI ToS, we illustrate the necessity of including Design , which allows those invested in Communication Design (CD) and Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) to interrogate how or if design supports or undermines values related to user privacy, data ownership, and informed consent. We conclude by detailing how collective surveillance apathy regarding emergent data infrastructures signal a Post-Surveillance era in our global society and digital lives.

Journal
Communication Design Quarterly
Published
2024-09-01
DOI
10.1145/3563890.3713052
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Topics
rhetorical criticism professional writing artificial intelligence literacy studies
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