We've just launched our new project, Trackography, and already we've been happy to see the response it's got. And with the help of others, our list of countries on our map keeps growing!
Watch Tactical Tech's Maria and Claudio launch the project.
Read the official press release below:
New online tool shows how we are tracked when we read the news online
Chaos Communication Congress (31C3), Hamburg, 29 December 2014 - A new online project, titled Trackography (https://trackography.org), offers unprecedented insight into exactly where and through which companies our data travels when we read the news online.
Launched by the Berlin-based Tactical Technology Collective on the occasion of the annual Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg, the project currently tracks how over 2,500 media websites in 28 countries share readers' personal data profiles.
“These profiles tell a story about us which may or may not be true,” said Stephanie Hankey, Tactical Tech's executive director, “A profile can include information about our political beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, habits, interests, affiliations and so on. We have very little control over where and with whom this data is shared, how accurate it is and how long it is stored for.”
The Trackography website allows you to pick out your location on a map and then choose a media website (for example spiegel.de). The map then shows you where in the world your data travels when you read articles on that media site.
It also shows which companies are tracking you, and collecting your data, along the way.
Trackography reveals that our data often travels to servers located in other countries. This means that this data falls under the data protection and retention laws of those countries; if any exist.
“Trackography was created to increase transparency about the generally opaque data collection industry, and to provoke a discussion on unseen and unconsented-to data collection,” said Hankey. “Third party trackers can aggregate our data, link it to other data collected about us and subsequently create profiles.”
Trackography: https://trackography.org
About Tactical Tech
Tactical Tech (tacticaltech.org) is a non-profit organisation working since 2003 to advance the use of information and digital technologies by advocates and activists worldwide. Based in Berlin, we work with an international network of partners and collaborators to help rights, accountability and transparency advocates and the communities they work with to use information and digital technologies effectively in their work.
Contact
Please email press[at]tacticaltech.org for press enquiries
OR If your country is not yet on the trackography map and you'd like to help out with media lists or running scripts, email trackmap[at]tacticaltech.org
