Dataslip: Into the Present and Future(s) of Personal Data

Abstract

Most people are entangled with an ever-growing trail of data that results from their daily interactions with products and services. Yet, they are hardly aware of the nature and characteristics of the data within this trail. We design dataslip, a provocative artifact that materializes the personal data trail into a receipt and aims to elicit creepiness. We demonstrate dataslip at two events in Delft, The Netherlands. Dataslip is a starting point to foster conversations with local community members about the underlying challenges and potential alternatives to personal data collection and use. We use these as prompts for further speculation through a collaborative futuring exercise with children, where we part from challenges towards hopeful and empowering futures. We contribute with an artifact that invites individuals to interrogate the current personal data practices they are embedded in and a set of five speculative design scenarios that suggest hopeful and empowering alternatives.