Communications of the ACM
Lessons From the Loo
Credit: Andrij Borys Associates, Africa Studio
In 2014, I began the Privacy Illustrated project in which I asked people to draw pictures of what privacy meant to them. I visited schools and community events and entreated people to draw something, even if they had no artistic skills. I paid crowd workers for drawings of privacy and collected drawings from students in my classes and people attending my talks. I now have a large collection of colorful drawings that includes many elements that do not come of much surprise: locks, doors, windows, eyes, blinds, shields, houses, and cameras.4 And I have more than two dozen drawings featuring what is perhaps the most quintessential example of a private space: the bathroom.
I first noticed the bathroom drawings among the contributions from children: Simply drawn toilets, some with stick figures perched upon them, some with doors and siblings depicted waiting on the other side, others with heads sticking out from shower curtains or hovering above bath water. Accidental intrusions on bathroom privacy are depicted with cartoon bubble screams.
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