Hi Lemmy,
intro I study fine art and for a project I want to buy some of the data from brokers from all of the art students at my university.
The point is to show people how easy it is to get that data.
questions: I have a list of emails and names. Can I go to data brokers and buy all of the data associated with those emails ot does it not work like that?* Can I then combine various datasets and build a better and better collection? How and where do I actually buy that data?
about the project at our annual university festival, I would have old desks with old PCs (like in a government building, or at the DMV) people can come and I will tell them something about them or even print them their data on an old looking printer.
Thank you
Not sure about data brokers but be very wary of possessing or presenting Personally Identifiable Information. This could get you in legal trouble aside from just being disrespectful of people’s privacy.
If you follow through with this, do post here as I’m interested in what you come up with! Just blur any names, etc.
Hi - I want to legally obtain the data thorugj the brokers - and I would make very sure that no one other than the people themselves get their own data.
I will : )
The point is to show people how easy it is to get that thata
asks how to get the data
Haha good point
Be prepared to get some very angry reactions. People don’t like having their privacy invaded, even if you’re just getting info that’s already out there.
I thought about that too and already have a few ideas of what I could do.
For instance keep the documentation and legal stuff at the ready where it shows how I legally and rightfullly obtained all of that data.
Kind of like a terms of service paper
Just because it’s TECHNICALLY legal doesn’t mean people won’t be incredibly pissed off. I would run this project past some administrators at your university, maybe the head or dean of your arts program. You could easily get suspended or expelled for a stunt like this if you piss off the wrong faculty member, it doesn’t have to be illegal to be “conduct unbecoming”.
That’s going to offend people in the wrong way, and could have some legal consequences. We all know how easy it is to get data. Maybe set up a bunch of cameras around a room capturing faces of people and displaying them on a projector with false info.
Yeah I am also afraid that some people will get mad.
And that camera idea is really good, thanks for that
Aren’t there like… ethics issues with this?
You helpfully did not identify the country, but if it’s the United States, you can just ask the state to send you the entire list of registered voters. Some states will charge a large amount of money, some won’t. You could probably do something fun with that.
Yes - which is exactly the point of the project.
I wanna make people aware that this is all of the data they “voluntarily” give up when using services.
I’m in the EU
I think I get what you are trying to do and many people have pointed out the ethical issues. Its like you don’t want to do art to show the plight of orphans by making people orphans in the exhibit. The first thing that came to mind is if you look into things like salting and hashing. Both to protect data but also to bring up issues around that (future tech invalidating them) or maybe make your art more about the issues with collecting data and anonymizing it like what big tech companies do. Combining that last part with information gained would still be an ethical line but it is something being done right now in society that people accept.
bro who cares about ethics
i don’t have any info for you but please do this, this is the kind of thing we NEED, on an even larger scale. If you succeed, you should make a post about it.
Dark web
Lol where?