Title Panel
Text: Why Should I Care About Privacy?
Panel 1
(RH approaches Guy, who is looking at a phone.)
Guy: Ugh.
RH: What’s up?
Panel 2
(Guy shows RH what’s displayed on the phone.)
Guy: Have you seen what people put on social media these days? Nude pictures, what they eat for breakfast every day, posts about their periods – privacy is dead!
RH: Not only is privacy not dead, but it’s more important than ever! And it’s an important social justice issue!
Panel 3
(Guy is nude, with chest and genitals concealed by black censor boxes.)
Text: A lot of people think privacy means “keeping certain things to yourself.”
Text: These are usually what we consider very personal things like details about our sex, certain body parts, and medical conditions.
Panel 4
(A tablet displays a dating website.)
Text: One of the problems with thinking that specific things should be private is that it penalizes people who deviate from those norms –
(On the tablet, we see the following conversation between two members:
Left Side of Screen: “I’ll pick you up at your place!”
Right Side of Screen: “No, how about we meet downtown?”
Left Side of Screen: “I just think it’s hypocritical to make blog posts about having threesomes, but then suddenly clam up anytime someone asks where you live.”
Text indicates that the last comment is an actual message from a dating website.)
Panel 5
Text: There’s also a sense privacy is earned – that you have it, or you don’t, or that you don’t deserve it! Which leads to saying things like –
(Jordan, with arms crossed, is angry.)
Jordan: I don’t see how someone who has done as much nude modelling as her can get all bent out of shape when a sex tape gets released!
Text: Translation: She violated a common privacy norm by making her naked body public, so she doesn’t have any right to complain when someone else makes it public without her consent.
Panel 6
(RH is talking.)
RH: A better way of thinking about privacy is that it’s really about –
RH: (emphatic text bubble) consent and autonomy.
RH: Privacy is the ability to control what you share with other people, for whatever reason.
Panel 7
Text: This is easy to show when you contrast what sharing feels okay versus what feels invasive.
(In the left frame, Cara is leaning out around a partly open door, talking to Jamie.)
Cara: I just painted the bedroom, want to see?
(“Versus” is abbreviated between frames.)
(In the right frame, Jamie is outside the window, looking in, like a Peeping Tom.))
Panel 8
(In the left frame, Leif is showing a phone to Iggy, who is giggling.)
Leif: Check out this joke that Karia just sent me!
(“Versus” is abbreviated between frames.)
(In the right frame, Leif is holding a phone and Iggy is angry.)
Iggy: (angrily) Are you going through my phone?
Panel 9
(In the left frame, Chris is speaking to her manager, Elaine.)
Chris: Hey boss, I thought you should know, I’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer, so I’ll need to take some time off for treatment.
(“Versus” is abbreviated between frames.)
(In the right frame, Elaine is leading the office meeting. Chris, at the table, is surprised and embarrassed.)
Elaine: And finally, Chris has told me that due to her breast cancer treatments she’ll be taking some time off, so be sure to communicate to her what you need before she leaves.
Panel 10
(RH is talking.)
RH: This is why “made a career out of publishing sexual and erotic photography and videos” and “doesn’t want a personal sex tape released” isn’t a contradiction!
A person should be able to choose what kind of information they make public (and to what audiences), and what they make private!
Panel 11
(At the top of the panel, we can see, through the windows of a house, several people at a party. Someone is coming out to greet RH.)
Text: Having a well-known address is pretty normal in my community, but for me it’s a very private matter.
RH: A lot of my friends frequently host guests and have parties where a lot of people come to their homes.
(At the bottom of the frame, RH is leaning out from behind a partially opened door.)
RH: A few people know where I live, but if they ever shared that location with someone else, I’d feel pretty violated. Neither approach is wrong or unreasonable!
Panel 12
(Guy and RH are talking.)
Guy: Okay, but why is this a social justice issue?
RH: People from oppressed populations often have less privacy! People, communities, and governments are more intrusive about the details of the lives of marginalized populations –
Panel 13
Text: The genitals of trans people are often considered public knowledge.
(Chad, while talking to Alicia, is making air quotes.)
Chad: So, have you had the “surgery” yet? What bathroom are you allowed to use?
Panel 14
Text: Racist policing places increased state scrutiny on the bodies and lives of people of color.
(A police officer has stopped a car and is talking to a Black drive, Martin, through the open window.)
Police Officer: I’m going to need you to step out of the car and put both hands on the hood.
Martin: Over a broken tail-light?
Panel 15
Text: Women and femmes who violate social norms, who are outspoken, or who are otherwise non-compliant are often punished by having their private details published.
(A screen displays the website www.16chan.org on which we see that someone has been doxxed.)
Message on the Screen: Guys, I found the bitch’s name, her parents name, and their address. Have fun.
Panel 16
Text: Disabled folks get asked intrusive questions about every aspect of their bodies…
(Leyla is talking to Donya, who is in a wheelchair.)
Leyla: So what happened? Can you still have sex?
Panel 17
Text: This is really concerning when you look at government surveillance into private lives, which targets minorities, and then uses that information against them.
Text: (Direct quote by Keith Guzik in “Discrimination by Design.”) “Predictive data mining discriminates by design, designating certain groups as threats relative to others. Thus, persons with Middle Eastern and North African backgrounds will disproportionately bear the burden of this surveillance technique and the innumerable mistakes it produces.”
Panel 18
(Guy and RH are talking.)
Guy: So, I’m basically the most normative guy in the world. The fact that I don’t worry about privacy very much could be an expression of privilege – my identities don’t make me vulnerable to social or institutional risk.
RH: That’s right! Even if you don’t think privacy and surveillance effect you personally, they may be much more important to the safety and autonomy of your loved ones!
Panel 19
(An image of the screen on a phone.)
Text: You can be a good ally by engaging with some basic privacy and information security activism.
Text: Try these easy things!
Text: Use secure messaging tools like Signal – this helps to normalize people exercising their right to keep their messages private.
Panel 20
(An image of a text box with hidden password displayed by asterisks.)
Text: Use a password manager like LastPass, and enable two factor authentication on your accounts where possible – this makes it much harder to access your information, which helps to protect you and your friends from information leaks and doxxing.
Panel 21
(Guy is speaking to Kavan.)
Text: Speak up when people suggest that certain people can’t expect privacy because of their identities or actions. Push back against equating the right to privacy with moral purity.
Guy: I don’t see how those have anything to do with each other. Just because she’s a porn actress doesn’t mean she’s public property.
Panel 22
(Vinu is signing to Sal.)
Text: Treat information-sharing the same way you treat consent! Ask first before sharing someone else’s information, and avoid sharing information that could non-consensually “out” queer and trans people.
Vinu: Hey, my friend thinks you’re pretty cool and wanted to know if she could get in touch. Can I share your email address with her?
Panel 23
(RH is speaking in front of a wall covered in words: “Doxxing, Snowden, Crypto, Surveillance, and so on.)
RH: There’s a lot of complicated conversations about privacy and information security, but the first steps are easy: Don’t share information you don’t own without permission, fight back against intrusive systems that gather information, and speak out against normalizing privacy violations as punishment.
Panel 24
(Guy and RH are talking.)
Guy: You’re right, privacy isn’t dead!
RH: That’s right! And by normalizing consent and autonomy in privacy, you can help keep your community safer and healthier.
