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  • Author Author: Catwell
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London pop-up doesn’t ask for money; asks for personal data instead

Catwell

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Kaspersky Labs and artist Ben Eine teamed to open a pop-up shop where you pay in personal data to raise online privacy awareness. Your money’s no good at this shop. (Photo via Kaspersky Labs)

 

When you sit and think how much personal data is given away online daily, it’ll make you shudder. Your every move is tracked from the video you watched on Youtube to a page you liked on Facebook. Monitored by algorithms, it’s a means to provide you specific advertising, as if that’s something we wanted. We don’t really give it a second thought. But what if you were asked to give up personal information when you walked into a store? Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab put this to the test in London when they opened a pop-up shop where the currency was personal data.

 

Dubbed The Data Dollar, the shop offered exclusive items and prints by street artist Ben Eine. Each item has a different data requirement. For example, if you wanted a mug you had to give up three pictures or screenshots from WhatsApp, SMS, and email to the firm. Getting a shirt required the last three pictures on your camera roll – no, you cannot choose. The original print meant giving up your phone entirely and having staff scroll through taking five pictures or three screenshots that they wanted. This situation sounds terrifying, yet it’s something we do regularly just without human interface.

 

One Endgadget reporter noted how some people were nervous, desperately trying to clean up their phone before handing over their data. So, is this the future of currency? No, it’s just an experimental way to make people more aware of the personal information they give away on a daily basis. Recently, Kaspersky Lab found that 29% of people around the world have been a victim to a cyberattack, yet 39% leave their phones unprotected. Both Kaspersky Labs and Ben Eine are worried about how easily people will hand over their information. He felt the pop-up shop was a good way to raise awareness.

 

Initially, the whole thing sounds like a joke, and the shop’s official page does urge you to buy Kaspersky’s privacy software, but it is effective at making you aware of how much of our data is shared with companies daily. Though it seems innocuous, these companies can still sell your information and of course, others with bad intentions can get a hold of it as well. It’ll make you rethink just how much you share online.

 

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  • in reply to Catwell

    I've avoided LinkedIn due to the nature of my work and connections - Extremists were using the (rather too detailed) profiles to target those in my line of work.

     

    To me it matters! (and probably to my wife too - but I shouldn't really speak on her behalf)!! image

  • in reply to Catwell

    Does it even matter? Aside from potential internet stalkers

    I think awareness is very necessary, which seems to be missing.

     

    While you might not be a potential for stalkers and other creeps, the young girls/ladies out there are a target..

    I often see profile photos that make you go REALLY, and I'm not even one of those looking for potential targets.

     

     

    Marketing and Advertising are targetting potential customers, and I think it won't be long before a larger slice of the criminal fraternity utilise targetted subjects.

    They may utilise someone to provide a list, so the old excuses will not be relevant.

     

     

    This came up during some of the IoT design discussion.

    While you don't need to understand the data, the fact it is passed only/more often when someone is home means they have a pattern.

    A similar technique was used during the war before they decoded the messages to great effect.

     

     

    But it's great this store has shown it, and excellent that you've posted it here ...well done sir.

     

     

    Mark

  • in reply to mcb1

    Does it even matter? Aside from potential internet stalkers and identity thieves, what's so scary?

    Becoming a meme, I suppose.

     

    Closing your blinds at night is something we all do. Having digital blinds might be nice.

     

    C

  • in reply to mcb1

    It's true, I don't use any regular social media sites (places like this are the closest I get) and I keep a fair bit of my data offline, but it's still out there.

    I even burn / shred anything with my name / address on it before I recycle and yet my name is available for all registered members to see.

     

    Hmmmmmm . . . .

  • It is astounding how much privacy people give away on social media.

    This is information they would not give to a stranger on the street, but somehow they accept it online.

     

    I wonder about the next genration whose parents grew up in the connected world.

     

    Mark