These ten “personas non grata” are people you probably don’t want in your product or service, but who are likely to find their way in anyway.
If you’re on mobile, the Personas Non Grata mobile app includes news stories that show what these characters have been up to lately.
Why no “hacker”? Because any of these personas non grata can use a digital attack.
Why no “troll”? Because we don’t care whether they are being “funny” or not, and that’s not the conversation we want to have.
Why no “racist” or “homophobe” or “misogynist”? The personas below cover actions, not motivations. Any of these may be motivated by racism, misogyny, homophobia, etc. That’s an important discussion, but a different one.
Gathers information about another person’s activities and identity in order to blackmail or intimidate
Uses psychological, physical, or financial power to prevent another person from exercising basic freedoms
Disrupts or causes chaos for the sake of pleasure, power, or notoriety
Doesn’t know how to properly behave in a certain context, and as a result ends up annoying or harming themselves or others
Denies scientific, legal, or social consensus, and plays on emotions and on the multiplying power of technology to tell the “real story”
Tracks and traces people in a way that is against their interests, with the weight of government and law behind them
Finds loopholes and workarounds that allow them to use your product or service to make money
Uses misrepresentation – of themselves or of a product or service – to fool others
Gathers a mass of individuals in order to coordinate an attack, multiply its effects, and decentralize its sources
Encourages, recruits for, and/or plans to carry out a violent, ideologically motivated attack
