Telecommunications

AT&T

Redesigned AT&T’s customer privacy controls to meet new U.S. privacy laws while creating a scalable framework that can support future consent programs.

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Role

Senior Product Designer

Scope

Web App Payment & Profile Experience Design

Category

Discovery, Strategy & Experience Design

Untangling a Complex Consent System

The Challenge of Designing Transparent Privacy
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The privacy experience had become fragmented, with controls spread across multiple pages and programs, making it difficult for customers to understand their options or see how their choices connected. At the same time, the regulatory landscape was shifting, new state privacy laws were raising expectations around transparency, sensitive data use, and consumer consent, while regulators were beginning to scrutinize dark patterns, interface designs that can subtly steer users toward decisions they may not fully intend to make.

Designing the Consent Architecture

I needed to design a system that presented privacy choices clearly and neutrally while meeting evolving legal and compliance requirements. To address this challenge, I focused on creating a structure that could simplify complex consent information while remaining scalable as privacy programs continue to evolve. Since privacy settings are often reviewed across different devices, the layout also needed to adapt naturally to varying screen sizes.

  • Explored several layout patterns, including traditional tables, row-based layouts, and stacked column structures to understand how complex consent information could be organized
  • Found that none of these patterns on their own supported the amount of legal content, program relationships, and consent states required
  • Ultimately combined rows and columns into a hybrid table framework that could organize privacy programs, explanations, and consent states in a way that remained readable and flexible

The Scalable Solution

On desktop, the table structure allows users to compare programs side by side and quickly scan their options. On smaller screens, the layout shifts into stacked modules, where each program becomes a contained section that expands to reveal additional detail while maintaining readability. This approach helped keep complex privacy information understandable across both desktop and mobile experiences.

A Flexible Privacy System on Mobile

The result was a scalable privacy framework built around a structured table that adapts to different viewports. By combining rows and columns into a flexible layout, the system can present multiple privacy programs, descriptions, and consent states in a way that remains clear across desktop and mobile.

Customers can now review their privacy preferences in one place and better understand how their choices relate to one another. From a business perspective, the structure supports evolving legal requirements while reducing regulatory risk and allowing new consent programs to be added without redesigning the interface.

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