DEPRECIATED — SecureDrop Contributor Interview Script

What is an Intercept Interview Script?

Intercept Interviews are short, semi-structured, exploratory interviews (In the Internet Freedom community commonly called "Intercept Interviews") are useful ways of researching broad topics,

They provide you with basic understanding of what users do, and establish opportunities for further dialogue with users.

These can then be used to carry out further, more focused research.

They should not be very long, taking about 30 minutes. This interview script will focus on SecureDrop.

Essential parts of the interview are:

• Introduction (to explain to the participant who you are, why you are talking to them)
• Get consent (to establish trust with the participant)
• Reviewing the notes (to be transparent, again to establish trust)
• About the participant (to learn about the participant, and their organisation)
• About SecureDrop (to learn about their understanding of SecureDrop)
• About the development process
• About the governance

Tools needed

• way to take notes (paper, or laptop)
• audio recorder (optional)

Interview script

Introduction

Hello there, my name is [interviewer]. I am a contributor to Securedrop. Thank you for agreeing to speak with me. I'd like to speak to you about SecureDrop.

Get consent for recording the audio of the session

(This is only needed if you're actually able to record the interview)

I would like to ask you for your permission to record our discussion today. Recording our conversation allows me to focus my attention on you.

With all our interviews we remove personally identifiable information, like names, organisations, countries.

I will use this recording to make notes of our discussion today. Once I've made the notes, I will delete the recording.

May I record our discussion?

Getting written consent

(If the person gives agreement to record the discussion)

Thank you for giving permission to record. I'd like you to read this, if you have any questions please let me know. If you agree, please sign at the end.

Reviewing the notes I make

(This is needed if the person agrees to recording or not)

You can answer my questions to the extent that you feel comfortable. You're free to choose not to answer a question, or to stop the interview at any moment. OK?

We will send you the notes for review and wait for your approval to publish them.

It would be perfectly ok for you to decide at that time that you want to share the interview only with the interviewer - not other members of SecureDrop or publically.

Do you have any questions before we begin?

About the participant

• Can you tell me your name, or an alias I can call you during this interview?
• Can you tell me your occupation?
  • Alternative: or what do you spend your time doing most?
• Can you tell me how you got involved in SecureDrop?

About SecureDrop

• In your own words, can you tell me what SecureDrop is?
  • Further prompt if necessary: Describe what it does/what does it allow users to do?

SecureDrop users

• Have you ever interacted with SecureDrop users?
  • Can you tell me about that?
  • (Further prompt if necessary) Where was that? When was that?
• What other ways do you interact with SecureDrop users?
  • (Further prompt if necessary) Can you tell me about the last time?
• Can you tell me about the SecureDrop instance admins?
  • (Aspects to cover) Installation, Tails updates, Disaster recovery
  • (Clarification if needed) These are the people who work in the organisations that use SeureDrop

SecureDrop development process

I'd like to understand the SecureDrop development process.

• Can you tell me about release frequency?
  • (Further prompt if necessary) What decisions are made before a release is made?
• How does Continuous Integration work in SecureDrop development?
• What is the patch submission and review process?
• Can you tell me about your development tooling?
• How does CI relate to publishing SecureDrop new versions?

SecureDrop governance

I'd like to understand the SecureDrop governance.

• Who is empowered to make decisions on SecureDrop?
  • (Further prompt if necessary) On the application, or the project?
• How does someone become empowered to make decisions on SecureDrop?
• How are decisions made to prioritise what is implemented?

Finishing

Thanks very much [NAME/ALIAS] for your time and patience. As a little thank you, I'd like to give you [SMALL GIFT].

Is there anybody you know who uses SecureDrop? Would it be OK to introduce me to them so I can talk to them about SecureDrop?

Thanks again.