When I use a free service, I want to know where my information goes, so I am not trading away something I never priced.

Job context

Who

Someone using free services

When

Each time they sign up for something

Trigger

Seeing an advertisement uncomfortably well aimed

Situation

Data passes through parties the user cannot name

Constraints

Not consenting means losing the service

5 Pains

• No idea who holds their information

  High

  It passes through parties never heard of.

  Root cause: The data-sharing chain is displayed nowhere to the user

• Terms are long and unreadable

  Medium

  Reading them all would take hours every week.

  Root cause: Terms are written for legal tightness rather than for reading

• Refusing means losing the service

  High

  So consent is not really a choice.

  Root cause: Consent is bundled as a condition of use

• Deleting an account does not recall shared data

  Medium

  It has been elsewhere for a long time.

  Root cause: Copied data cannot be recalled

• Advertisements aimed uncomfortably well

  Medium

  With no idea what they inferred it from.

  Root cause: The user cannot see the inference that produced it

5 Desired Outcomes

• Know who holds their information

  Functional

• Understand what they are agreeing to

  Functional

• Use a service without agreeing to everything

  Functional

• Withdraw data already shared

  Functional

• Stop feeling watched

  Emotional

5 Existing Solutions

A solution is not the same thing as a product, a customer can hire a behaviour or a workaround too.

• Decline non-essential cookies

  Behaviour

  The only step available, in an interface built so refusing is harder than accepting.

• Use a tracking-blocking browser

  Product

  Cuts most tracking and never touches what was volunteered.

• Read the privacy policy

  Behaviour

  The only way to know, at hours per service.

• Use a separate email for sign-ups

  Workaround

  Bounds the damage and does not stop profiles being joined.

• Accept and stop thinking about it

  Behaviour

  What most people choose, and a rational response when no alternative exists.

2 Opportunity Gaps

• There is nowhere displaying the chain a piece of data travels, who received it, who sold it on, though that is the only thing the user needs to know.

  Why existing solutions fail: Each party knows only its immediate neighbours, so nobody, not even the original collector, can assemble the whole picture; the opacity is less concealment than the absence of anyone holding the full view.

  Potential opportunity: Requiring a record at each transfer, so the chain exists somewhere before anyone speaks of displaying it.

• The user pays with their data while the service is described as free, so there is no price to weigh and no comparison to make.

  Why existing solutions fail: There is no paid version to choose instead, so a user cannot express a willingness to pay in money rather than in data, and the absence of that option is read as consent to the present model.

  Potential opportunity: A paid version that collects nothing, offered level with the free one rather than hidden in a corner.