I love Charger8232’s idea of a Privacy Flag. However, I don’t love the design they proposed. In their post, I explain my disagreements.
As a form of vexillographical discussion, I would like to propose another design as the flag under which we anonymously toil in secret (I wish).
First off, nods to Charger8232’s design - 1400x900 dimensions, and use of EU’s Dark Power Blue (#003399) color. Love it.
Where we differ:
Designs
A shield, representing how we must actively guard our privacy. A lock, obviously, to show we want security with our privacy, and a dove showing that we just want to be left the F alone and peacefully not be subject to a mass surveillance state. We’re not trying to be sketchy or do illegal stuff, we just want to be peacefully left the F alone.
Colors
Again, same use of Dark Power Blue, representing freedom and a nod to the GDPR. White representing peace. Black representing how I don’t want people to see me. Color of field: Redacted.
Extras
Stripes to make it a bit more visually interesting. A lack of EXIF and meta data as the subtle fait accompli.
The color scheme is similar to that of Estonia. While Estonia is a leader in the EU’s digital governance space, this is unintentional. As much as I liked Espresso Macchiato in EuroVision this year, there’s no direct nod to Estonia.
I didn’t want to just say “uh, I don’t like it” and complain without doing something. So here you go.
Still think you/we should go for the Human Rights logo…
Article 8 is about the right to privacy.
I like that this alternately looks like a dove, or an open hand coming forward to slap some sense into me.
Then you have five symbols:
. Freedom/ independence (darkblue)
. Peace/ harmony (white and dove)
. Active defence (shield)
. Security (lock)
. Privacy/ unseenedness (black)
I personally associate freedom with white because its like a piece of unpainted paper. I associate peace with green because it is the color of plants which symbolizes nature.
If I understand security, it is a contrast to the active defence in that it is passive defence. If so, you could possibly play around with how these symbolically relate to each other. For deem looking at them as a two sided unity.
I’d like to commend your attempt here, and not sound discouraging or anything like that. Personally though, I like the other design a little bit better. Like another commenter suggested, this design seems to evoke security more than privacy. The shield and lock seem to be pretty commonly associated with those other meanings already. The dove being inside the lock definitely seems to overcomplicate things a bit too.
That being said, I do think your coloration and black undertones look better though and overall there’s a bit more visual interest.
I appreciate it, and I threw this together in about 10 minutes, so it’s just a spitball idea. Rather than seeming purely disparaging to the other person and their design by saying I don’t like it and not offering anything else constructive.
Hey, I saw your comment in the other thread. Thank you for your engagement, this really shows that people care about their digital presence. However, in my opinion, your proposal is more related to data security than data privacy. I see how the two are interlinked but I really like the symbol of active resistance, symbolized by the hand, towards the big surveillance apparatus, depicted by the eye for a flag that represents privacy.
From a practical perspective, the other flag is also a bit simpler, if we replace the high-res hand with a simpler vector drawing.
I propose something like this:
The hand eye makes it look very Illuminati and a bit intrusive. The flag should give people warm feelings.
I do like this version better than the other one with the detailed hand. That being said, to your point about data security, it’s more so that we’re sort of splitting a finite set of motifs. Even the icon for this community is a shield and an eye. The eye being the threat, not the community represented by the flag, IMO means minimizing the eye, though I can see how you would feel the “stop” hand in the eye does the same thing. I just don’t agree with that.
Also, just me personally, the all-blue just seems boring to me. This blue is slightly bluer, so it doesn’t give me the BSOD vibe at least, but this just seem closer to a logo for a data removal subscription service than a flag. Not that mine isn’t exactly far from that either, but still.
EU’s Dark Power Blue (#003399) color.
Is this because you like the color or you think using an EU color is appropriate here? Cause if its the latter, EU is a privacy nightmare so hard disagree.
to be fair, and playing a bit of a devils advocate, but i think privacy is a nightmare on most places on the planet with enough tech infrastructure to make surveillance happen.
While that is true, EU is leading the world in some privacy invasions. Be it age verification or various initiatives to try and break E2EE. Those kind of efforts do not yet exist at even countries we would all agree are oppressive.
