Your Privacy For Sale

Poster on a colourful wall.You are being watched. You may not realise it or you may not see any harm in it but everyday you are tracked, tagged and logged. As you go innocently about your daily business there are powerful forces behind the scenes observing your every movement.

It isn't big brother who is watching you. There are no spies or strange political forces at work. You are watched by the camera at the ATM machine, by the computer that logs every swipe of your credit card and by every website you've ever clicked on.

Individually none of this matters. If no-one knows your face then the ATM footage is useless. One transaction alone doesn't reveal very much about you, except that you like bread or milk. A single website can only harvest so much information from you without you giving it to them yourself.

However much of this information is aggregated or stored together. Many websites are linked by cookie trails that log your browsing habits and redisplay information based upon them.A security camera on the go, 24 7.

Your privacy is up for sale. Who you are; your likes, your habits, even your spending power can be swapped between companies at will. So what? What does your privacy mean to you? You may not see it affecting you now but the issue is that it hasn't been misused YET.

Once your information goes up on the web it's there for good. You need to think about it now so it won't harm you later.

We are here to highlight the implications of today's growing surveillance society. We are not against the internet, nor the use of surveillance as a watchdog. We are here to highlight what risks lie in the aggregation of information and our unconscious willingness to give away information about ourselves.

Comments

Posted by anonymous

2009-06-10

My word what an interesting site full of great info.

Posted by anonymous

2009-06-03

Has all this information changed you, or are you just putting this info up for personal gain knowing it won't change what you do.Anonymous.

Posted by anonymous

2009-06-03

What a fantastis website me and me mates loves it Ta Tum

Posted by anonymous

2009-06-02

How do we know u arnt part of it hummm....:)

Posted by anonymous

2009-06-02

Just found out you are not safe any where.Why does life suck so much. Thank Goodness for The Pear.

Posted by Robert

2009-05-30

I never even thought about my personal details up to now but now OH MY GOD.

Posted by anonymous

2009-05-30

Nice one. You hear about this stuff all the time and take no heed but now I get it. Ta

Posted by anonymous

2009-05-30

We live in a society where being anonymous is impossible we just have to be more select.

Posted by Bewildered

2009-05-29

Wish we could all go back to life when private meant private.Then maybe we could all sleep soundly. What a thought.

Posted by anonymous

2009-05-28

Bit paranoid! I don't agree, I think you can never be too careful. If we had all this information before we started using the net then the net just may be a different place to surf. Thanks dudes.

Posted by Aoife

2009-05-27

brilliant work -best of luck with it. very imformative and really made me think!!!

Posted by Trev

2009-05-27

Oh my god ,are you serious? I never knew that, I wish you were joking.

Posted by Jimmi Chew

2009-05-27

Hey guys, in complete agreement with you. Nobody safe nowadays.

Posted by Cathy

2009-05-26

Got info on site from my friend its mind blowing.

Posted by Nadine

2009-05-26

Nice one great info hope you can get this to all. AS we are all so careless with our details.Its so scarey.

Posted by Poddy

2009-05-26

Would love to see the comments from voxpopos

Posted by anonymous

2009-05-26

Voxpops are so interesting more please

Posted by Jim

2009-05-26

Good stuff guys. Too much information on anything is dangerous. Lets keep 10% of ourselves for ourselves

Posted by Siobhan

2009-05-25

A bit paranoid well I don't agree I think you can NEVER be to careful. Thanks for all the information I had no idea I was giving away so much. I will be so careful in future. Siobhan.

Posted by Tracy

2009-05-24

saw your info at omni thanks hope to see lots more .Tracy

Posted by anonymous

2009-05-24

good site

Posted by Jennifer

2009-05-24

Saw the posters in town! Very interesting site, I was completely clueless!

Posted by Molly King

2009-05-23

Thank you so much. I logged on to your site and think its amazing I have been trying for years to get this information accross to my teenage boys for years and you have done it for me. I hope you all get on really well, you have a great career ahead of you .A very big thanks Molly King

Posted by Nevin Nolan

2009-05-23

great site great info should go global good luck.

Posted by Audrey

2009-05-23

good luck with the site its so good.

Posted by Jade

2009-05-23

This really highlights the extent of surveillance in todays society.I had never been so informed about the information on cookies. Thank You.

Posted by Andy

2009-05-23

I dont agree that all surveillance treats every citizen as a suspect. I also feel it protects us all too. Thanks for all the info. Andy

Posted by Paul Cooney

2009-05-22

This site is most interesting and it certainly opens up ones opinions and thoughts on self awareness and is \" big brother\" really watching us?

Posted by anonymous

2009-05-22

Interesting and thought provoking site guys, well done.

Posted by Conor

2009-05-22

Very interesting. I have all my info on my site from phone number to my address etc.... taking it all down now though!!

Posted by tangent

2009-05-21

I never give out my address and I see nothing wrong with people knowing what "tangent" likes and meeting new people. If the entire world knows what I like then so what. As long as my phone number/email/address is not directly there there's no problem. What exactly could they do to hurt me with this information anyway? I am a web designer and I know how to avoid being spammed!

Posted by Ronan

2009-05-21

The problem with all this surveillance is that it treats every citizen as a suspect. This fundamentally changes the nature of the relationship between Governments and their citizens.

Posted by anonymous

2009-05-21

Bit paranoid but nice site

Posted by anonymous

2009-05-21

There is safety in anonymity. - Never reveal your real name - use a proxy where possible - always lie We are Anon. We are legion. We are the a**hole of the internet and we will NEVER leave.

Posted by Alison

2009-05-20

This is awesome! really interesting!