This is an interactive artwork by Kristoffer Ørum. It critiques surveillance and profiling by making the processes transparent. It functions on five levels:
1. Material Narrative: The story is about the physical infrastructure of the internet.
2. Advanced Fingerprinting: The narrative incorporates data from your browser ("browser sniffing") to build a technical profile. This includes advanced techniques like Canvas and Audio Fingerprinting, which generate a highly unique signature from your specific hardware and software configuration.
3. Psychographic Profiling: Your choices are used to generate a crude personality profile based on the "Big Five" (OCEAN) model, mimicking techniques used in computational advertising.
4. Demographic Estimation: The system uses your technical and psychographic data to place you in an approximate demographic and income bracket. This is based on the same kind of statistical correlations and stereotypes used by real-world data brokers, highlighting the reductive nature of such judgments.
5. Algorithmic Training: After the first playthrough, the system uses your profile to "optimize" your experience by restricting choices, demonstrating how platforms actively train their users.
The concepts in this artwork are informed by real-world research. Here are a few starting points: