Open offices are privacy nightmares, especially if you’re trying to hide sensitive data on screens. But since open offices aren’t going away any time soon, there’s Casper: a new product from the applied materials company Designtex that works like a cloaking device.
When applied to a glass wall or a window, Casper blacks out screens behind it. The transparent window film blocks light waves transmitted through LCD and LED screens. This makes them look like they’re turned off. Everything else in the room looks completely normal. While privacy screens have existed for laptops and individual monitors for quite sometime, Casper brings it to the architectural scale. It’s like a Romulan cloaking device come to life.
“Privacy has become like acoustics; it’s a big topic of conversation,” Susan Lyons, president of Designtex, tells Co.Design.
For visual privacy, people in glass offices or conference rooms usually close blinds or curtains to protect sensitive information. When designers haven’t thought ahead about privacy, employees may paper over windows. All of these interventions can disrupt an environment that’s usually open.
“Culturally, people are interested in transparency,” Lyons says. “Colleagues like to see what’s happening in the workplace. This balances openness and privacy but also the need for informality.”
Designtex worked with about 50 different clients to test Casper in its beta phase. The most obvious applications are for technology and financial services firms, which deal in sensitive data. It’s also beneficial for medical offices, Lyons says. Because of HIPAA–a law that protects patient confidentiality–doctors often talk to patients in closed rooms if they’re discussing private health information, which can make patients anxious or nervous. With this film, they could potentially make some of the rooms more transparent and comfortable–while maintaining privacy.
While “visual hacking”–a term that denotes obtaining sensitive information through visual means, like simply looking at a computer screen or looking at documents on someone’s desk–might seem benign compared to data breeches and network hacks, it is a threat. A 3M study found that visual hackers were able to successfully get the information they needed in 91% of the time. In about 50% of cases, they were able to get the information in 15 minutes or less. According to 3M’s white paper, hackers were able to obtain employee login credentials, corporate financial and accounting information, and privileged information between an attorney and client. About 50% of the information they gleaned came from computer screens.
Designtex’s window film represents a physical intervention to combat tactics like these and does it in a way that doesn’t impede on the overall look and feel of a space.
“We see ourselves as an applied materials solutions company,” Lyons says. “So how may we, with materials, solve problems in a felicitous way?”
Paranoia about information leaks and corporate espionage never looked better–and it’ll cost you. Designtex prices Casper at $160 per linear foot. Additionally, the company cautions that the film isn’t 100% effective at extremely acute viewing angles. Visit info.designtex.com/casper for more.