Invasion of Privacy
Discuss privacy in the digital realm

The ability of technology to capture information and erode our personal privacy has increased as our digital devices have become more sophisiticated. For example, the devices that we carry can track us on social media or gps and gather biometric data such as our fingerprints. With your students, explore the various ways in which we can see and be seen in the digital world today. Discuss how students’ interactions on the Internet or social media might affect their privacy. Consider the following:

What is being collected?

How is it used?

How is data stored?

Who has access to it?

Does data expire? When and how? 

When do students notice that they are being tracked or spied upon by cookies, retailers, Facebook, Google, or other search engines?

What do they notice when they use gps on their phones or post an image or a video to Instagram?

What type of advertisements or messages appear when they check their email?

Who sees the information they search for or post?

Do students edit what they share? How?

Green and blue video feed.
Green and blue video feed.

Laura Poitras (b. 1964), ANARCHIST: Data Feed with Doppler Tracks from a Satellite (Intercepted May 27, 2009), 2016. Pigmented inkjet print mounted on aluminum, 45 × 64 3/4 in. (114.3 × 164.5 cm). Courtesy the artist

On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whitney.org/artport

On the Hour projects can contain motion and sound. To respect your accessibility settings autoplay is disabled.