About This Project

This project is driven by a singular mission: to make online privacy and security understandable and accessible to everyone. By using clear language, engaging metaphors, and vivid metaphorical visual examples, we aim to demystify the complex world of online privacy and provide practical steps and a central hub for anyone seeking to enhance their digital security.

Our goal is to empower individuals with the knowledge and tools necessary to protect their digital presence, ensuring they can navigate the internet safely and confidently.

Who Am I?

My name is Ford Scott, a third-year student at Washington and Lee University majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Digital Culture and Information. This project is a fusion of my academic pursuits and personal passion for online privacy and digital security. I am committed to leveraging my skills and knowledge to contribute positively to the digital world, ensuring that people can protect their online identities and data.

Technical Documentation

To create the metaphorical visual examples that bring this project to life, I utilized OpenAI's DALL-E 4, a cutting-edge AI that generates stunning, bespoke images based on textual descriptions. This technology has allowed us to visually represent the abstract concepts of online privacy and security in an engaging and relatable way, making the content more accessible to non-technical audiences (Doubleday et al., 2021).

For crafting the metaphorical text examples that simplify complex ideas, I turned to Claude Opus 3.0. This powerful language model has been instrumental in translating technical jargon into accessible, easy-to-understand metaphors that resonate with our audience. By using language that is familiar and relatable to the reader, we aim to bridge the gap between technical experts and laypeople, empowering users to make informed decisions about their digital privacy (Wang & Chilana, 2019).

In developing this website, I prioritized security and simplicity by coding everything by hand. This project is built using only raw HTML and CSS, with a deliberate decision to avoid JavaScript. This approach minimizes the site's attack surface and reduces potential vulnerabilities that could compromise user privacy and security (Sharma et al., 2021). I chose not to use any templates or pre-defined HTML and CSS structures. Instead, I embraced the challenge of learning front-end development from the ground up during the course of this project.

My aim was to create a website that is not only informative and user-friendly but also exemplifies the principles of online security it advocates. By providing clear explanations, real-world examples, and practical guidance, I sought to make the content accessible and actionable for users with varying levels of technical expertise (Doubleday et al., 2021; Wang & Chilana, 2019). The site's structure and navigation were designed to guide users through the content in a logical and intuitive manner, with a focus on the most essential information and actionable steps they can take to improve their personal security and privacy online. To create the data visualizations, I used Microsoft Excel and found data from many different relevant sources in security.

Throughout the development process, I consulted sources on technical writing for inexperienced audiences to ensure that the content was presented in a clear, concise, and engaging manner (Doubleday et al., 2021; Wang & Chilana, 2019). This included using everyday language, providing contextual explanations for technical terms, and using analogies and examples to illustrate complex concepts. By breaking down the information into manageable chunks and providing step-by-step instructions, I aimed to make it easy for users to understand and implement the recommended security and privacy measures.

In summary, this project represents a concerted effort to bridge the gap between technical experts and the general public when it comes to understanding and adopting privacy-enhancing technologies. By leveraging cutting-edge AI tools, prioritizing security and simplicity in the website's development, and drawing on best practices in technical writing for non-technical audiences, I have created a resource that empowers users to take control of their digital privacy and security.

References

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  • Auxier, B., Rainie, L., Anderson, M., Perrin, A., Kumar, M., & Turner, E. (2019). Americans and Privacy: Concerned, Confused and Feeling Lack of Control Over Their Personal Information. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/11/15/americans-and-privacy-concerned-confused-and-feeling-lack-of-control-over-their-personal-information/
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