inexpensiveData is an app that visualizes what personal data will you give away when you get "free" service from an app or a website. For example, Facebook. On one hand, Facebook is a free website where we can hang out with our friends. We get an well designed, efficient, reliable service which allows us to connect, debate, and discuss with millions of people around the world, host and share content, look at other people's photos.
On the other hand, Facebook is a private company, with more than one billion users and also with shareholders demanding profits. Facebook pays for and owns the thousands of servers that host all our content. Then there's all the well-paid and well-qualified engineers, programmers, and software designers that keeps the whole thing going.
"If you’re not paying, you’re the product" and you pay for this with your data. Facebook’s business model depends on allowing companies to target adverts at us, based on the things we share. If we're going to use this "free" services, we need to give our data away.
inexpensiveData is aiming to make this trading more transparent. inexpensiveData seeks to help people gain an understanding of how their personal data being created and collected by these apps and websites.
Facebook/Instagram/Twitter; Google; Gmail; Chase/Venmo; Netflix/Chrome; Yelp/Foursquare; Uber/Lyft; Messages/WhatsApp.
1. people can see all the services
2. people can see all the data from Facebook
3. people can see the Friends data
Inspiration:
1. Your facebook data: https://www.facebook.com/help/405183566203254
| Ads Clicked | Dates, times and titles of ads clicked (limited retention period). |
New Facebook data analysis tool shows marketers what their customers are talking about.
| Address | Your current address or any past addresses you had on your account. |
| Credit Cards | If you make purchases on Facebook (ex: in apps) and have given Facebook your credit card number. |
| Messages | Messages you’ve sent and received on Facebook. Note, if you've deleted a message it won't be included in your download as it has been deleted from your account. |
2. Uber can and does track one-night stands.
https://web.archive.org/web/20141118192805/http://blog.uber.com/ridesofglory
A couple of years ago, there was an entry on the company's blog titled "Rides of Glory." The company examined its rider data, sorting it for anyone who took an Uber between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. on a Friday or Saturday night. Then it looked at how many of those same people took another ride about four to six hours later – from at or near the previous nights' drop-off point.