CreepyLeaks: Participatory Speculation Through Demos

Data leakage and privacy are well known but abstract terms for most people. To grant people a real-time and on-body experience of data leakage as it happens, we constructed CreepyLeaks. CreepyLeaks turns data leakage into a visceral embodied experience that augments visual information about what data are leaked, where and via which application. Conducting evaluations of CreepyLeaks we learned the value of the public demonstrations over individual encounters with privacy technologies. Rather than inspiring the audience to think positively about a design or functionality, the demo became an opportunity to develop collective ideas of concepts and problems that are difficult to grasp individually. By conducting privacy technology demos in public and semi-public events, we demonstrate how demos can create conditions for participatory speculation – a practice involving a confluence of human and non-human actors in speculative experiences, acknowledging the politics inherent in technology design and collectively considering possible futures.