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.
Have a story tip? Message me at: cabe(at)element14(dot)com
Top Comments
-
mcb1
-
Cancel
-
Vote Up
+2
Vote Down
-
-
Sign in to reply
-
More
-
Cancel
-
the-dubster
in reply to mcb1
-
Cancel
-
Vote Up
+1
Vote Down
-
-
Sign in to reply
-
More
-
Cancel
Comment-
the-dubster
in reply to mcb1
-
Cancel
-
Vote Up
+1
Vote Down
-
-
Sign in to reply
-
More
-
Cancel
Children