Incorporating an Ethical Lens to a Privacy-Centred Proposition of Airbnb
Using the Ethical Explorers framework by IDEO
Ethical Design
Ethical Explorers
Manipulative Design
As part of the Manipualtive Design and Ethical UX course, this was an analysis of another team's project which focused on generating ideas that would potentially lead to a more privacy centered and oriented user experience.
CONTEXT 🔍
I was invited to serve as an independent ethics consultant to review a redesigned Airbnb concept presented by a peer team. Their vision focused on enhancing user safety, privacy, and trust by introducing new features and addressing known pain points within the Airbnb experience.
My task: to identify hidden ethical tensions, surface blind spots, and guide more intentional design decisions using the Ethical Explorer framework.
THE PROBLEM 🚨
Privacy-first solutions solve part of the puzzle — but often overlook their unintended consequences.
Airbnb's design has historically struggled to balance personalization and privacy. As the platform expands its ecosystem, users face increasing exposure to surveillance, bias, and data misuse—often without their informed consent.
The team's proposed redesign tackled these concerns through features like in-app surveillance detection and physical device instructions, but lacked a critical lens on deeper systemic implications.
APPROACH 🛠
To evaluate the redesign, I applied the Ethical Explorer framework — created by IDEO and the Omidyar Network — which outlines eight risk zones for emerging technologies:
Surveillance
Data Control
Addiction
Outsized Power
Exclusion
Bad Actors
Algorithmic Bias
Disinformation
EVALUATION PROCESS
The Airbnb team had come up with over 25 concepts that promoted either safety or privacy within the app as well as the overall Airbnb stay experience.
Going through these 25 concepts using the ethical explorer lens I focused on four intersecting zones most relevant to Airbnb’s use case:
Bad Actors × Surveillance
Data Control
Exclusion
Algorithmic Bias × Data Control
For each, I examined the proposed concept, identified critical tensions, and recommended design directions that also consider the value in question
Ethical Explorer Cards
🔍 ETHICAL ASSESSMENT AND KEY INSIGHTS
1. Who’s Watching Whom? (Bad Actor × Surveillance)
Introducing surveillance detection may enhance guest safety, but risks eroding trust by positioning every host as a potential threat.
Proposal: An in-app feature that detects hidden surveillance devices (e.g., cameras).
Tension: The team’s idea to include a surveillance-detecting feature within the Airbnb app (e.g., detecting hidden cameras placed by hosts) addresses a real and growing concern around guest safety. However, this shifts the focus exclusively onto host behavior, raising ethical concerns about fairness and protection for hosts, especially in cases where guests themselves act in bad faith. This would open up an avenue for the guests to try to get refunds on their lavish and expensive stays.
Questions Raised:
How is breach detection verified—by Airbnb, guests, or a third-party?
How can hosts be protected from false accusations?
What protocols are followed post-breach?
Value to Center: Trust-building. A human-centered resolution could involve third-party audits or neutral agents, balancing the need for safety with due process for both parties.
The proposed idea and wireframe
2. Off-the-Record: Who Owns Guest Data? (Data Control)
Introducing surveillance detection may enhance guest safety, but risks eroding trust by positioning every host as a potential threat.
Proposal: A disclaimer letting users know that hosts may use 3rd party apps for storing the guest data
Tension: The team brought forward a critical concern around data ownership—many hosts use third-party services like StayFi and Uplisting to collect and store guest data, often without the guest’s explicit knowledge. This undermines Airbnb’s position as a central, accountable platform and raises serious questions around transparency, consent, and legal exposure.
Although the issue clearly falls under data control, simply notifying guests through the Airbnb platform that a host uses external data tools does little to address the core breach – it acknowledges the problem without actually resolving it.
Questions Raised:
Do hosts have the right to store guest data outside Airbnb?
What constitutes legitimate data collection, and what crosses the line?
Who ensures compliance: Airbnb, hosts, or a third-party authority?
Value to Center: Consent and Accountability. Designing an in-platform space for hosts to store guest notes within Airbnb's ecosystem could reinforce boundaries and preserve accountability—without over-regulating host autonomy.
3. Lost in Translation: When Instructions Become a Barrier (Exclusion)
As one of the primary target user group under guests for Airbnb are tourists, it is important to consider the diverse lingual needs when thinking of a solution
Proposal: Hosts provide physical instruction manuals for all smart devices.
Tension: reliance on physical, printed instructions in a single language (often English) risks excluding guests who are non-native speakers, visually impaired, or neurodivergent. This violates accessibility and usability principles, especially when digital alternatives are viable.
Questions Raised:
Can digital onboarding improve access across diverse user groups instead of physical instructions?
Would automated translation or text-to-speech tools help reduce friction?
Can accessibility be built into host-uploaded content by default?
Value to Center: Inclusion and accessibility. App-based instructions with built-in translation, alt text, and text-to-speech tools can create a more equitable experience, without overburdening hosts.
Proposed Solution for an instruction manual for all devices
4. The Profile Problem (Algorithmic Bias × Data Control)
Revealing names and photos too early in the booking process compromises user privacy and enables bias— potentially turning personal identity into a filter.
Missed Opportunity: In the overall concept and ideation, the team might have missed out on a critical point of assessment around implicit bias.
Tension: Current Airbnb design allows hosts and guests to see each other's names and photos before confirming a booking, a process vulnerable to implicit bias. Hosts may reject guests based on race, age, gender, or assumed socioeconomic status, and vice versa. At the same time, completely anonymizing both parties may impact trust or safety.
Questions Raised:
What is the tradeoff between transparency and bias reduction?
How might selective disclosure (e.g., first name only, no image) reduce bias without hurting trust?
Could verification be separated from visible identity?
Value to Center: Fairness hinges on how identity is revealed and interpreted during the booking process. There is room to explore staggered or minimal identity disclosure that still preserves trust signals. Yet, any shift toward anonymity should be evaluated against potential unintended effects, including loss of user confidence or opportunities for misuse.
Proposed Solution for an instruction manual for all devices
REFLECTION
Bringing ethics into the process early didn’t just flag risks, but also, helped in asking better questions and designing with more intention.
This exercise underscored the importance of integrating ethical frameworks early in the design process, rather than treating them as an afterthought.The Ethical Explorer helped structure more rigorous thinking around the social impact of feature-level design.
Combining risk zones (e.g., Surveillance × Bad Actor) revealed multidimensional tensions.
Exploring identity bias through the lens of data control exposed structural discrimination.
Ethical critique became a tool for provocation, not just evaluation.
Moving forward, I plan to integrate ethics-centered frameworks earlier in the product development cycle, particularly during ideation and post-usability testing phases, to align design choices with both user values and societal impact.
To designing platforms that protect privacy, promote fairness, and rebuild trust, one ethical exploration at a time.
You can reach out to me at areen.skd@gmail.com
Copyright © 2025 Areen Deshmukh | Last updated May 2025
