Book Review: Queer Privacy - Sarah Jamie Lewis

Queer Privacy is a collection of essays about community, family, coming out, dating, domestic violence, activism, sex work and suicide. We will talk about problems, we won't always have solutions, and not all the stories have happy endings. After all, this is real life and we are building it together - one step at a time.

How do you design an app which protects privacy? Yes, yes, I know "your privacy is important to us" - but that has always been a lie. For most of us a privacy breach means changing your password and dealing with an uptick in spam. For some people, a privacy breach could be personally and professionally devastating.

This short volume doesn't make many concrete suggestions - but it is an excellent starting point in how to consider a marginalised community when designing services.

My favourite quote comes from the introduction:

Privacy is the right to withdraw consent, to only provide information to the people you want to provide it to, when you want to provide it.

I don't know if we can ever achieve pretty good privacy - let alone perfect privacy - but that doesn't mean we can't try.