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introduction

For most of this program, the projects we've been given have lived within the realm of school. Senior year is our first real opportunity to put everything together and use it to communicate something that actually matters. That shift means a lot to me, because at the core of my design philosophy is a simple idea: design is a very powerful tool. Used intentionally, it can completely change the way someone understands a subject.


Working on this project has only deepened that belief. At its core, this isn't just about surveillance or data or government contracts, it's about people. It's about the communities that bear the weight of these systems quietly, and a world that moves too fast to notice. I care about people being treated fairly. I care about the divisions that are pulling us apart. And I think design has a role to play in closing some of those gaps.


I'm not asking you to distrust the world around you. I just think there's value in slowing down, doing the reading, and forming your own opinion rather than taking everything at face value. That's what this project is an attempt to do.

the problem

As technology becomes more and more integrated into our daily lives, we are willfully giving away our data to private companies. The issue lies in the fact that most users don't actually know where this data is going, and how it is being used.


Most people would assume that their data lives only within the app they gave it to, but unfortunately it does not. Private companies collect, aggregate, and sell your data, often to other private companies to push targeted ads and products to you, but also government agencies. And because most of this data is being bought and not subpoenaed, the legal protections that would normally apply to private data don't here.


Before the rise of AI, these massive amounts of data would be impossible to comb through with only humans, which is why surveillance was usually only a targeted operation. But now, AI has given us the capability to sort all this data into a detailed profile of who you are, where you go, and what you believe in. What seemed not too long ago like a dystopian concept, is now being used inside the US, by agencies and contractors most people have never even heard the name of.


And the consequences extend beyond those being directly monitored. Research has shown that simply knowing surveillance exists is enough to change how people behave — what they search, what they say, whether they speak up. You don't have to be a target for these systems to affect you. That's what makes this a social problem, not just a legal one.