_Under Watch_ is a ten-day pervasive game experience that seeks to investigate the capacity of uncomfortable interactions to elicit high-level reflection in players on the topics of commercial mass surveillance and data privacy. The study design revolves around what appears to be a gamified social-networking mobile app called SnapGram that simply encourages participants to find and take selfies with fellow players, with a promise of monetary prizes for the top-scoring players. ![[sg_login.png]] ![[sg_feed.png]] >*UI design is original, but home feed posts and profile pictures are by [Satchely](https://www.deviantart.com/satchely/about) for [Team Salvato](https://teamsalvato.com/).* Over the course of the game, however, disquieting in-app experiences are slowly introduced and scaled up: microtargeted advertisements that reach the extreme of featuring deepfaked imagery of each player’s own likeness; coercive “achievements” that reward players for profitable behaviors such as clicking ads; and diegetic updates including privacy policy revisions and news bulletins that reveal SnapGram’s insidious business practices. ![[prof-page.png]] ![[ad_dew-theory_redact.png]] Through the subversion of player expectations about the true nature of the app as well as the profiteering gamification that pits privacy against personal gain, we seek to evoke feelings of discomfort in players regarding their choices and priorities with respect to online behavior, and thus promote critical reflection on the intersection of privacy, social capital, and commercialism.  I discuss our design process in a first-authored paper titled [You Are Under Watch: Designing an Uncomfortable Pervasive Game for Critical Reflection and Player Equity](https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qajlr51eq8nmx3yaakd99/ISEA_2024_final.pdf?rlkey=wmdxfoam4yxdoilpf0gd0camq&st=7fvz79cz&dl=0), presented at and published by the 2024 International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) academic conference. We ran pilot studies of *Under Watch* in May and July 2025, which involved running the game for 39 total participants and conducting surveys and individual interviews for statistical and thematic analysis.