Even as a technology journalist, it鈥檚 hard not to switch off when someone starts preaching about personal data. I know, I know 鈥� we鈥檙e telling our deepest secrets to the mega-corporations for free, and they鈥檙e using fancy algorithms to work out our innermost desires to sell us ads. But for most of us in our day-to-day lives, it鈥檚 out of sight, out of mind.
Yet it shouldn鈥檛 be 鈥� at the very least, we should be on the ball when it comes to data. So to force myself to confront this head-on, I鈥檝e spent the last week doing a digital cleanse.
To help me, I grabbed a data detox kit produced by the in Berlin, Germany, and Mozilla. This consists of an instruction card for each of the eight days of the detox 鈥� and because it is made of paper, I can rest assured that it won鈥檛 directly collect any of my personal data (although ).
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鈥淭he data detox is about working out what is right for you. We need to choose what we share and what we don鈥檛. We shouldn鈥檛 just give it away without thinking,鈥� says Jascha Kaykas-Wolff at Mozilla.
Day 1 of Data Detox: Escape the Google funhouse mirror
First up, the kit asks me to start identifying the problem. Search for yourself online, it demands 鈥� not just using Google, but also a search engine such as that does not use your data trail to tailor its results to you. Why not switch to this permanently? And if you find any pictures of yourself, try a 鈥渞everse image鈥� search using TinEye (tineye.com) to see where else that image turns up.
Luckily for me, I鈥檓 as antisocial on social media as I am in real life, so there are not that many pictures of me online. But if you do find something you鈥檙e unhappy with, the kit has instructions on how to do something about it.
Days 2 and 3: Who am I?
I鈥檓 tasked with finding out what Google and Facebook think they know about me. Using , I find out that Google is tracking where I鈥檓 going, what I watch on YouTube and what I have searched for, and pumping it all back into operation data slurp. And because I have a phone that uses Google鈥檚 operating system, Android, the company is also monitoring which apps I鈥檓 using. Enough is enough, so I turn all the tracking off and perform to make sure everything is in order.
Using a neat tool called , I then find out what Facebook, err鈥� thinks I like. The social media platform thinks I鈥檓 into Science and New 杏吧原创, which is fair enough. But it also thinks I鈥檓 keen on Beer, Alcoholic Drinks, Beverages, and J盲gerbombs. I did do a lot of Facebooking in my student days, but come on Zuckerberg, everyone knows J盲gerbombs are so 2008. I haven鈥檛 had one of those since last wee鈥�
Anyway, surprisingly there are a lot of gambling-related categories too. I don鈥檛 gamble and am not really interested either, so find it odd that Facebook thinks I鈥檓 a fan. I go through every page I have liked on Facebook and unlike it.
Day 4: Watching my shrinking data footprint
One of the slyer tactics harnessed by companies is the use of trackers. These sit all over the web and try to work out your surfing patterns by tracking your browser鈥檚 digital footprint. The kit proposes installing a browser extension such as . Another helpful tool called clicks on random ads as you browse to confuse companies that monitor you.
Data detox detour
The kit I鈥檓 working through has been produced as part of an exhibit called that runs in London until 12 November 鈥� though the kit will continue to be available afterwards. From outside, The Glass Room looks like an Apple store, but it is filled with displays to make abstract concerns about data more tangible.
One is a picture that shows a field when you look at it from one direction and a data centre from the other. This is to reflect that despite this data centre being constructed in 2014, Google took until 2016 to collect any satellite images of it viewable on the web 鈥� a reminder that you shouldn鈥檛 trust everything you see on the internet.
Another display tracks my time and level of attention while I browse Facebook. Over聽2 minutes, apparently I give 鈥�1060 units of attention鈥� and 鈥�50 units of scrolling鈥�. This is then printed on a receipt explaining that on a minimum wage I could have earned 拢0.25 with the same effort. The average person spends nearly an hour on Facebook apps a day, freely giving away that time.
Afterwards, a booth matches my image to the largest publicly available database of faces. I鈥檓 a 75 per cent match with someone I鈥檝e never met before. 鈥淲e鈥檝e noticed that often technology and surveillance is normalised before there鈥檚 been a discussion about it. We鈥檙e not saying it鈥檚 right or wrong, just that we need to be aware of what鈥檚 going on,鈥� says at the Tactical Technology Collective.
Days 5-7: Changing my data metabolism
Spurred on by a trip to The Glass Room, I鈥檓 pleased to find that little fixes aplenty come in the next few days. Named your phone something like Tim鈥檚 Phone? Then every time you connect to public Wi-Fi you鈥檙e telling them something about you. Change it.
How many apps do you have? I guessed 50, but I actually had 93. According to the kit, that means I have high exposure. So I delete some apps and revoke some privileges, and feel a bit better. See you later, travel apps!
Day 8: Cleansed
When day 8 arrives, I feel somewhat purged of my sins. I鈥檓 still giving the megacorps some data about me. It is handy to have some things sync across devices and hey, I like the convenience. But now it鈥檚 a choice. And I am at least now blocking the weirder things being monitored.
We do give away data all the time and there isn鈥檛 much we can do about that 鈥� but this final stage is about getting into some good habits. I promise the kit from now on that I鈥檒l keep track of my app habits and will not just give away my data without choosing to do so. I might break these promises, but I will try to do a detox every now and then.
