About
Arguably, data is one of the most precious resources of the 21st century. It can be used for anything, from scientific discoveries to predicting behaviour. Due to its value, it has long become a form of payment.
However, many don’t seem to quite acknowledge this fact, often giving away their data carelessly without even realising what they’re giving away. This might be in part their own fault, and in part due to the often convoluted and confusing data collection and privacy policies published by companies.
To remedy this fact, I decided to illustrate (some) of the data collected by various companies—in this case social networks, but the same principle could apply to any other sort of digital service—in the form of receipts. After all, when you buy something for money, you also get a receipt as proof of your payment, listing exactly how much you paid for what.
It is important to note, however, that many of the pieces of data collected by service providers are necessary for them to provide their services. After all, nobody can see a tweet if it doesn’t get stored and published in some form by Twitter, and neither can anybody like a picture on Instagram if that action can’t be recorded. Elements like payment details, address data, etc. are required for very clear purposes. Some other pieces of information, however, might only serve to create profiles and beahviour patterns.
In the end, everybody should decide for themselves whether they want to pay with the data a service is requiring, but I believe everybody has the right to know exactly what data will be collected of them.
Background
I created this project for my typography class in my second semester at the University of Applied Sciences Munich. The overarching topic for the project was “Typography in my…”, interpreted by me as “Typography in my wallet” choosing to focus not on money, but receipts from various stores.