Concept:
Given the aim to capture people’s reactions after their personal data being exposed to the public without their prior consent, the experiment combines the idea of anonymity through blackboxing (similar to the built of many modern gadgets such as our smartphone and Smart home devices) and the idea of a physical printed receipt to show findings which came from the mechanism of purchasing activities(fig 1.1, 1.2, 1.3). This paper receipt(fig 1.3) will show personal details that can be found in their online accounts.
Process:
Here, 17 people ages 16-25 years old are tested. The reason being this specified age range was found to be the most concentrated population groups that were greatly influenced by the rise of technological culture (Medium, 2019). In order to generate a truthful response, this experiment adopted a surprise factor. The participants were not informed regarding the objective of the experiment or alerted of the process. It was conducted by initially scanning each participant’s face, followed by a receipt print out, containing his/her private information obtained from their digital footprints. The participants’ reactions throughout the process were video recorded and compiled for analysis and evaluation.
The probe’s outcome represents an overview of what generally people think when their privacies were ‘abducted’ from their premises without even acknowledging it. The overall evaluation shows that people felt anxious, scared about what data were extracted, where the data went, and who can see their data. And that users have little understanding and recognition over the online applications they use. I think the idea of getting a receipt is unique, as it is a medium used to state prove of purchase. However receiving one before consenting on whether your data collection could take place is also interesting as it is in contrast to the more conventional process of getting permission first. This raises a question of “is it worth giving your data?” In moving forward, I will proceed to focus on a market that might be impacted by these privacy breaches. This will be determined by further secondary research.
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