So for the past couple of weeks i have been heavily investing my time into the research of privacy, or rather the lack of within cyberspace. After reading countless articles and numerous chapters in published material i have become to gain a better understanding and view regarding our privacy online.
Part of my research has included looking at what people have done to try and combat this problem.
My main interest is to look at the effect that google has on the web and our personal data so i have been mainly looking at google based applications/artworks tackling the difficult subject of privacy.
Scroogle! Scroogle.org
Scroogle is a secure method for searching online protecting your privacy. By using its service it stops Google from leaving cookies, tracing your ip, and leaves google with no idea who has sent the search queries, enabling any user to stay anonymous.
Google: I want your soul
A short film/animation revealing information about Google.
TrackmeNot http://www.mrl.nyu.edu/~dhowe/trackmenot/
“TrackMeNot is a lightweight browser extension that helps protect web searchers from surveillance and data-profiling by search engines. It does so not by means of concealment or encryption (i.e. covering one’s tracks), but instead, paradoxically, by the opposite strategy: noise and obfuscation. With TrackMeNot, actual web searches, lost in a cloud of false leads, are essentially hidden in plain view. User-installed TrackMeNot works with the Firefox Browser and popular search engines (AOL, Yahoo!, Google, and MSN) and requires no 3rd-party servers or services.”
My Google Search History - Launch site
“My Google Search History is a set of movies, sounds and text inventory with all my search requests done since 2006 on Google search engine.
Displayed as an inventory, my searchs show a full selfportrait.
Like a big souvenir movie, this video can refresh the small things i was looking for at specific moments.”
The Search Wall http://www.thesearchwall.net
“The Search Wall is a collaborative tele-interactive art work reflecting what people are searching for on the Internet. Privacy issues almost daily make news and are a large concern for many of the Internet’s users. However, through daily usage of search engines we nevertheless willingly gradually disclose it.”
FACELESS http://www.ambienttv.net/content/?q=faceless
“Wanting to tell a story, you choose video as the appropriate medium. You look for locations, only to discover that every place has already been filmed and featured. The question arises: why shoot more footage in places which have permanent cameras monitoring every corner, recording every move 24 hours a day? Rather than bringing in more cameras, why not use the existing recordings that capture London’s daily life from every angle?” more
TheBigPlot http://www.thebigplot.net
Coming Soon
Carnivore http://r-s-g.org/carnivore/
“Carnivore is a surveillance tool for data networks. At the heart of the project is CarnivorePE, a software application that listens to all Internet traffic (email, web surfing, etc.) on a specific local network. Next, CarnivorePE serves this data stream to interfaces called “clients.” These clients are designed to animate, diagnose, or interpret the network traffic in various ways. Use CarnivorePE to run Carnivore clients from your own desktop, or use it to make your own clients.”
The Surveillance Camera Players http://www.notbored.org/the-scp.html
Tags: data profiling, google, idat, prid301, prid302, privacy, protecting your privacy
