Abstract
Regulators and privacy advocates increasingly demand that privacy be protected through the technical design of products and services, as well as through organizational procedures and policies. Privacy research by computer scientists and engineers are producing insights and techniques that empower a new professional in the technology sector---the privacy engineer. Despite great enthusiasm for this approach, there has been little effort to explore if and how this new direction in privacy protection is influencing the design of products. Understanding how design is being used to protect privacy requires analysis of sociotechnical systems, not de-contextualized technical artifacts. We analyze how privacy concerns in public policy debates about drones are raised and addressed in two concept videos from 2013 and 2015 developed by Amazon that depict fictional scenarios involving its future automated drone package delivery service. Drawing on design and communications methods we find that the concept videos reveal increased attention over time to privacy concerns. Our findings offer some evidence that privacy concerns are influencing Amazon's product and service design. Representations about the service offered in the 2015 video shape consumer expectations about how it addresses privacy concerns. While the videos reviewed do not represent an existing product, we discuss the shifting role such concept videos might play when Amazon's drone delivery service comes to market. As consumer facing representations of product functionality, concept videos, like other public statements, if misleading could form the basis of a deceptive statements claim by the Federal Trade Commission or state consumer protection agency. Finally, reflecting on our review, we suggest that concept videos are a useful tool for engaging regulators and other stakeholders in contextually specific considerations of when and how to enlist product and system design to protect privacy.
Highlights
In December 2013, Amazon announced its desire to deliver packages to customers by automated drone through a service called Amazon Prime Air and released a concept video of footage showing what such a service might look like
The concept videos we reviewed represent a fictional product; when Amazon’s automated drone delivery service is available to the public, the videos take on new legal significance as representations of the product’s functionality, including privacy-related functions
In our analysis of Amazon’s concept videos for its future autonomous drone delivery service, Amazon Prime Air, we have found that their concept videos acknowledge and address some of the privacy concerns raised in policy debates
Summary
In December 2013, Amazon announced its desire to deliver packages to customers by automated drone through a service called Amazon Prime Air and released a concept video of footage showing what such a service might look like. Wong and Mulligan, These Aren’t The Autonomous Drones You’re Looking For such as surreptitious surveillance of individuals, and the Department of Commerce convened a multi-stakeholder working group to develop voluntary drone operator best practices to address privacy concerns. These piecemeal regulatory activities to address drone privacy issues occurred during a period when regulators globally were calling on companies to systematically integrate privacy into the design, engineering, and deployment of products, systems, and services. Efforts to push privacy into design will only succeed if privacy protective designs are acknowledged and accounted for in public debates about privacy protection
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