What if I told you “you are not unique,” that your individuality is easily replicated. You exist merely as a walking, talking, pointillist painting, made up of points which, individually, look like nothing identifiable. However, collectively a personal portrait emerges that exhibits a granularity unachievable using other mediums. This is because the points used to paint these portraits are not dots of paint on a canvas or individual pixels arranged on a screen, but rather single points of data. Because of data’s unique properties, our seemingly unquantifiable personal attributes are assigned numeric values. However, rather than capturing our image in a moment in time, these individual points aim at true malleability, seamlessly shape-shifting to mirror your current and future self.
Data points that fabricate this shadow-self are often collected only with the most general type of consent. We most likely began to exchange our data for access to a new type of human connection, or a new kind of convenience. By ticking a box confirming we read a “Terms of Service” agreement, our digital doppelganger was born. Every status update, picture uploaded, like dispensed, article posted, retweet, ride shared, delivery summoned via app, item in your cart, website visited, and term searched, increased its detail. Although our digital doppelgangers are native to the digital world, they have eyes and ears in our own, using devices to track our heartbeats, follow our locations, and learn our voices.
While this seems eerie and unsettling, the darkness of the digital replica is its potential to our lives beyond us selling us things. What if it attempts to sway our political opinions or determine our ability to get a job? This publication, explores topics of Dark Data, a title that seems as mystifying as the systems and practices it encompasses, but is more simply defined as the absence of clarity surrounding data mining and agglomeration.
We are not attempting to lecture readers on the most cutting edge practices in digital hygiene. Rather, through this publication we aim to shine a light on topics surrounding personal data, our consent to and awareness of its collection, and consider its usage within an ecosystem beyond the screen of a computer. We hope that by illuminating some of the intricacies within our current technological frontier we will provide some insight into exercising some volition over our personal data. We encourage the reader to investigate these systems more fully to determine their desired relationship with their digital doppelganger.
This publication is divided into three sections. Each piece draws on the author’s unique interests and expertise. It is our hope that by reading this publication you, the reader, will have a better understanding of how your data is being collected, how it is analyzed and sold, and the possible silver lining to all of this hand wringing.
Adam Moore is a first year MFA candidate at Parsons School of Design studying Design and Technology.
Brooke Smith is a third year BFA student at Parsons School of Design studying Design and Technology.