Is the internet a massive cyber peephole? Sounds like a sensational question? But such claim may not be that far from the truth.
No matter how hacked-savvy people like Julian Assange or Lulzsec is, there has to be a source pool where they get their information from. (Data simply don’t manifest themselves out of thin air.) And the existence of this source pool is why online privacy is an illusion.
A Bit[E] Of Me is an experimental artwork where the artist, Federico Zannier, is literally selling his personal data on the internet. Specifically, he is selling data of his online activities. Eg. The websites he visit, the post he made on forums, etc.
“Since February, I have been recording all of my online activity (the HTML pages I have visited, the position of the mouse pointer, a screenshot of what I was looking at, a webcam image of me looking at my computer, my GPS location and a log of the apps that I was using). Check out myprivacy.info to see some of the visualizations I’ve made.”
-https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461902402/a-bit-e-of-me
(Unfortunately said data collection does not include how many time he scratches his nose for a particular day. (But you can buy his NSFW browser histroy for $2!)
Practically everyone of us has given up some degree of personal data to companies online via Facebook, Amazon, or Ebay. And said companies may have used those data for monetary purposes without us receiving a single cent of commission or royalties. Remember seeing those long list of texts ending with “I Agree” or “I Decline”? Giving out license to use our personal data for free is literally a button click away.
“Why not profit from our own personal data directly? It’s not like I can hide them anyway” is probably what goes in Zannier’s mind.
Zannier’s motivation is clear. He wants to raise awareness on how frivolous we are with our online data. He wants to highlight the absurdity of such irrational phenomenon. He wants to earn a few bucks along the way. Online privacy is pretty much a false facade, might as well make use of it right?
The advent of the internet has allowed data of all forms to be visualized and quantified. Graphs, maps, charts, images, or videos instead of strings of code. Everything we do online is collected in digital data form and can be chronicled into books or made into film if we want to (disregarding the entertainment factor). As much as we are concern with our online privacy, the moment we step into the internet, such privacy is void. In fact, it may be non-existing. So what if you set your online blog or social network account to private. The moment you saved and publish anything it will always be stored there in the server, up for grabs by anyone who can. So what if you have a high grade cyber security network. It can stop malicious software or incoming threat but for how long? Our online data are all up for grabs by potentially anyone. Companies where you registered an account, government agencies looking for “terrorists”, 4chan lurkers, etc. And we keep giving up our personal information with no means of stopping. Unless we stop using the internet entirely, this is not going to change. (Hint: We can’t.)
On hindsight, how many creepy voyeurs would bother invading your digital private space? If there are what are the consequences? People like Zannier is not revealing his bank details nor anything physically personal — simply his superficial online presence that bares no direct dire consequences to his life if exposed. People post pictures of themselves, their location and their inner thoughts on Facebook every time anyway. (That’s still no excuse for stalking.)
Nevertheless, if we bother locking our doors at night, we should do the same to our personal online space. We can forget about having total privacy but try not to have zero deterrence either.