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

  • HubertManne@kbin.social
    3·
    8 months ago

    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.