The value of personal data in today's society was the subject of this Dezeen x Dutch Design Week 2020 talk, featuring designers Julia Janssen, Isaac Monté and Lei Nelissen.
The Dutch Design Week (DDW) creatives were joined by Vincent van Herk of the Dutch Design Foundation, who curated the DDW sub-theme "Privacy in the Age of New Intimacy" and gave an overview of the theme.
Dezeen editor Tom Ravenscroft moderated the talk.
The Aeon app gathers traces of information that people have left online
The talks' focus was on how people's data has become an increasingly valuable commodity in today's world and how our privacy can be guarded.
The designers that took part in the discussion have all created works that touch on different aspects of privacy, data and information.
Janssen's project "Why I like green" explores how Facebook's algorithm has decided that she is interested in sportswear and technology, prefectures of Japan, the American Mathematical Society, and the colour green.
As a result, she is creating a game that looks at how true the algorithm's conclusions are. An online profile "doesn't merely describe your interest, preferences, conditions, obligations, desires, and weaknesses," said the designer.
"It influences your perception of the world because companies decide what types of advertisements, products, or information is most suitable for you, based on that data."
Designer Nelissen will discuss his work on Aeon, his graduation project, which he is collaborating with design studio Bureau Moijilike Dingen and IT company Surf on.
The Aeon app gathers traces of information that people have left on the internet, enabling them to delete, modify or add to the information that exists about them online.
"This allows you to create the online identity you wish to project," he explained. "These changes are then pushed back to their sources, after which only you get to enjoy your full history."
Monté's project, Prosthetic X, combines the digital and physical through the use of nine prostheses that collect data from their wearer. This is sent to an artificial data organ that monitors and communicates the user's social, mental and physical health.
The project focuses on privacy by design and the empowerment of an ageing population, which will want to decide how such data is handled – whether it remains private or is shared with family or healthcare providers.
Prosthetic X is an artificial data organ
As well as hearing from the creatives in our daily live talks, some of the designers' work can be visited in our Dezeen-curated virtual tour of Dutch Design Week 2020.
The full programme for the Dezeen x Dutch Design Week 2020 collaboration can be found here.