A font that self-censors itself

An interesting project by designer Emil Kozol. His font “Seen” self-censors itself by automatically striking through words that are monitored by the Feds. This way, you can quickly visualize as you type the words that could get you monitored by the NSA and other agencies.

We know since Wikileaks and Edward Snowden revelations that our online conversations are heavily monitored. Agencies even publish lists of words that can trigger monitoring, like the Homeland security one. These lists, however, are not heavily publicized and quickly forgotten, so we get a fake sense of being anonymous online. You are not, and this font is a good beginning to make you aware of it.

Some of the words that act as red flags for security agencies are quite obvious, like “Ben Laden” or “Al Quaïda”. Other simple words, like “facility”, will be crossed if you use the “Screen” font, which is kind of worrying. A good test would be to take scan your emails, blog posts, and social media updates, and display it with the self-censoring typeface, you may have some surprises.