Why Digital Design Needs a Privacy-Centered Ethical Framework

This paper is part of a PhD project in design, ethics and privacy; it discusses the need for a data protection and privacy-centred ethical framework for digital design. Assuming that contemporary design involves the processing of increasing amounts of people’s information and that a lack of, and loopholes within, adequate regulations leads to privacy violations and abuses, this paper shows why privacy must be embedded into Human-Centred Design thinking and processes. This need is particularly urgent because it concerns the protection of human dignity and identity in the face of “surveillance capitalism”. The outcome should be a universally acceptable ethical framework to embrace privacy concerns into digital design. The ultimate goal is to create better products that genuinely enhance human beings’ privacy, irrespective of the legal, business or political climate and priorities.