Understanding PriivScore

Everyone wants privacy. But figuring out how to get it leads to some questions:

• How much privacy do you have?
• How much privacy do you need?
• Can privacy be measured? 
• How much additional privacy do your actions give you?
• What is your goal when working to protect yourself?
• When have you reached your privacy goal?

The PriivScore was created to answer these questions, and more.

The Priiv Privacy Score

PriivScore works like a credit score, but for privacy. It assesses your privacy status and assigns a number that represents the level at which you’ve protected your privacy on an absolute scale. This makes it possible to assess your position, see how you compare to others, and track your progress over time. 

Like a credit score, PriivScore exists within a range representing low, medium, and high levels of privacy. But unlike a credit score, not everyone needs to aim for perfection with their PriivScore. 

That’s because not everyone has the same privacy needs and it’s very likely you don’t need perfect privacy (if there were such a thing). You just need enough privacy to satisfy the risks you personally face and the preferences you have. 

Consider two people: 

• The first runs a small business, has modest assets, a young family, and holds reasonably mainstream political beliefs and personal habits. This person is bothered by ads that follow them around, but not really worried about stalkers or their accounts being targeted for theft.
• The second is a world-renowned journalist who has built an impressive global reputation and personal fortune for themselves, and regularly travels to countries with very aggressive governments. They don’t love ad tracking but aren’t really bothered by it. They do have deep fears for the personal safety of their family as they have been the victim of numerous targeted attacks in the past, mostly aimed at their data and finances.

Clearly these two people face different levels of risk, so the level of privacy needed by each person is very different. Someone with similar circumstances to the second person would need higher levels of protection, and is likely willing to invest in efforts, tools, and behavioral changes that would be excessive and beyond the interest of someone similar to the first person.

That’s why the target PriivScore range for these two people would differ. The right PriivScore for you depends on your lifestyle, your priorities, and the specific risks you face. We give everyone a target range that clarifies how far you have to go to reach your goal.

The PriivScore Components Defined:

Your PriivScore includes three different numbers that tell you three different things:

• PriivScore—Where You are
  A number between 250 and 950 that reflects your level of privacy and security based on what we know about the actions you’ve completed and the tools you’re using to protect yourself.
• Target Range—Where You’re Heading
  A score range that represents the goal we recommend for you based on what you’ve told us about your technology use, lifestyle, risks, and priorities.
• PriivScore %—How Far You’ve Come
  This number tells you how close you are to your goal. It’s calculated by dividing your current PriivScore by the top of your Target Range.
  

The details of your PriivScore are shown in the Priiv App. They include:

• Your PriivScore (in the center of the display).
• An arc of the complete range of possible scores from 250 to 950. The arc is broken into four zones  – Basic, Secure, Pro, and Extreme.
• Your score progress, shown in a thin line that starts at 250 and extends to your current score.
• Your target range, shown as a white line segment. Your score progress line will overlap your target range when it reaches that level, and may exceed it if you reach a PriivScore of greater than 100%.
• The % of your target (the high end of the range) is shown below your PriivScore.

How to Impact Your PriivScore:

1. Completing Actions in Your PrivacyPath.
   Each user has a personalized path filled with actions, tips, and more. As you move through your path or complete actions on products or featured topics on the Explore page, your score goes up.
2. Answer Questions
   As you explore the app, you will be asked questions around your privacy and technology habits. Every answer can raise or lower your score. Answers may raise your score, for example, if they confirm that you’re already doing something to improve your privacy, like using a privacy-friendly tool, changing your settings, or adopting a behavior. Answers can lower your score if they reveal an area or issue that exposes you to privacy risk, and if the app knows you haven’t addressed that risk.
3. Add Tools
   Defining the tools you use to protect yourself can raise your PriivScore. When you use recommended privacy tools, your score rises based on the additional protections they provide. The fastest way to raise your score is to visit the tools page and add all the tools you’re using in each of the available categories.

Your Target Range

How much privacy do you need?

Your PriivScore target range is set based on your privacy goals and priorities. These are primarily determined based on answers you gave to the onboarding questions, including the level of privacy you chose and the rankings you assigned to your levels of concern about the various privacy risks.

Your target range reflects the fact that the target is set without perfect information. Everyone has varying levels of individual privacy need, and some circumstances are beyond the precision of our current model and algorithm. Still, most people will find that the target range suggests the level of privacy protection that aligns with their privacy needs and desires.

As shown on the PriivScore Details page, there are four zones across the complete range of PriivScores. The levels reflect the amount of privacy needed by people who need or attain the corresponding PriivScores. Your target range may lie within a single zone, or may cross two zones. 

• Basic is for people who have modest privacy needs or goals. We consider the high-end of our Basic Zone as the absolute minimum level of privacy that anyone should find comfortable.
• Secure is where most people will find their target. It represents a strong level of privacy beyond the standard that, unfortunately, most people live with today. It represents a level of protection we think sufficient for most people who do not have specific and/or elevated risks or concerns.
• Pro is the zone for people who need or desire above-average levels of privacy across nearly all aspects of their lives. Attaining a privacy score in this range requires significant efforts, and some trade-offs in convenience, throughout your digital life.
• Extreme is for those who need or demand the ultimate level of privacy. This is appropriate for people who are likely to be targeted by hackers, or others for whom a privacy breach may have disastrous consequences or cause significant reputational damage.

Changing Your Target Range

Your target range is set during the onboarding phase of using Priiv for the first time. You currently cannot modify the answers to the questions that impact your range, but in the future there will be an option to change the answers that drive your target range.