From Theory to Play: Making Privacy Playable
Starting from the feeling By the time Context & Cringe began to take shape as a game, one thing was already clear: We were not starting from mechanics. We started...
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Context & Cringe Application Privacy Game
Regular price
£23.00
Unit price
🏆 Winner of our 2025 CyberSec Game Challenge, Context & Cringe is a fast-paced card game about application privacy, awkwardness, and real human impact that helps teams understand why privacy decisions matter.
Who is it for?
Who is it for?
Context & Cringe is for people who build products that use personal data, from developers and product managers to designers and architects. It gives teams a quick way to compare what feels reasonable, what feels intrusive and why.
For privacy and security facilitators, it’s a playful icebreaker for a lunch-and-learn or a threat modelling workshop.
Bulk pricing
Bulk pricing
Automatically applied at checkout:
| Buy | Discount |
|---|---|
| 5 or more decks | 5% off |
| 10 or more decks | 10% off |
| 20 or more decks | 15% off |
| 30 or more decks | 20% off |
Designed and manufactured by
Designed and manufactured by
CyberSec Games
Context & Cringe Application Privacy Game
Regular price
£23.00
Unit price
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Components
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SuitsApp, Feature, Data
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# Cards
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Created by
About the game
Players build product scenarios using three card types: App, Feature, and Data, aiming to minimise their own “cringe” while sabotaging others with awkward or amusing combinations. The game starts laughter, debate, and meaningful discussion about privacy expectations and user trust.
Designed for developers, product managers, architects, security teams and privacy champions, it works equally well as a workshop activity, training tool, icebreaker, or team-building exercise. Rounds are quick, easy to facilitate, and highly replayable.
From ‘aha’ to ‘uh-oh’
What makes a piece of data feel right in one app and wildly out of place in another? On The Application Security Podcast, creators Kim Wuyts and Avi Douglen explain why they made Context & Cringe, how a round works and how the game helps teams spot privacy questions worth asking about the products they build.
How to play?
Everyone has two cards of each type. Three card types, plenty of combinations.
- Combine or place cards to create an app (App + Feature + Data)
- Pitch your combination briefly to the group
- Players vote “comfy” or “cringe” for each scenario
- Your aim: To get the lowest cringe score!
The real game isn’t winning. It’s that moment when someone realises they wouldn’t actually be comfortable with it.
About Kim & Avi
Kim Wuyts and Avi Douglen are leading voices in privacy engineering and application security, combining deep expertise with a refreshing sense of play. Active across the privacy and OWASP communities, they’re known for turning serious topics into practical learning experiences. Together, they are the creators of the Context & Cringe privacy card game proving that learning about privacy can be engaging, memorable, and even fun.
The making of Context & Cringe by Kim & Avi
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From Theory to Play: Making Privacy Playable -
From Theory to Play: Designing Around “Cringe”From Theory to Play: Designing Around “Cringe”
Recognising the problem One of the challenges with privacy is that people often do not recognise the problem in the first place. In design discussions, a feature can appear harmless...
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From Theory to Play: Why Explaining Privacy Wasn’t EnoughFrom Theory to Play: Why Explaining Privacy Wasn’t Enough
When knowledge isn't the problem Context & Cringe did not begin as an attempt to create a game. Over years of teaching application privacy in workshops and training sessions, we...
