How Google, Facebook and others use our most personal secrets against us

 

Is it possible to use a person's personal Google data to create their doppelganger? To reconstruct their personality, behavior patterns and hidden desires? A cross-media data experiment makes it possible to experience what kind of insights into our most intimate secrets Google, Facebook, and others already have.

How ads follow you around the internet

Hint: It’s why every site asks you to accept cookies.


You’ve seen the pop-ups: “This site uses cookies to improve your experience. Please accept cookies.” Cookies do improve your experience. They function as the website’s short term memory; with each new click you make, cookies help the site identify you as the same person. Imagine every time you add something to your cart and click away, it disappears. Or each time you load a new page on Facebook, you have to log in again. Without cookies, the online world we know today couldn’t exist.