Learn about Trackography

Why does Trackography matter?

Trackography explores online tracking, which is carried out by companies which detect and measure our online behaviour with the aim of selling data about it to various third parties - largely without our knowledge or informed consent.

Online tracking is an integral component of the internet's business model and it plays a vital role in a larger industry which profits out of our data. Not only does Trackography shed light on the internet's opaque data industry and on the geopolitics of data, but it aso shows that media organisations play a role in all of this too.

Read below for more information.

Data industry: Profiling without our knowledge or informed consent

Advertising is the default business model of the internet. Almost every single website we access is being tracked by someone, somewhere. This is enabled through the use of tracking technologies, such as cookies, by companies which make millions out of collecting, analysing, processing, aggregating and selling our data - often at the cost of our civil liberties (such as our right to privacy).

In many cases, such companies create profiles about groups and individuals which aid the advertising industry. These profiles tell a story about us – which may or may not be true - and can include our political beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, habits, interests, affiliations and much more.

And while this might all sound harmless, we have very little control over how and when our data is collected, how our profiles are created, whether they are accurate, who they are subsequently shared with, who has access to them, what they are used for, where they are stored and for how long.

Individual profiling can raise various types of concerns. Imagine not being able to get a bank loan because your bank has bought data about you which shows that you are an "unreliable customer". Or imagine your insurance company classifying you as someone with "risky behaviour" due to the fact that your browsing activities show that you have an interest in extreme sports. Or even worse, imagine law enforcement agencies knocking on your door because you "read too much" anarchist material online.

Group profiling can be equally problematic and can raise concerns for societies at large. Sociologist David Lyon argues that profiling is a powerful means of creating and reinforcing long-term social differences. Research has shown that clustering data about groups can lead to social stratification and discrimination, which is reinforced by an entire data brokerage industry that operates behind the scenes. Data brokers - companies that collect, analyse and sell consumer information - enable discriminatory targeting of groups based on sensitive information like financial situation or health indicators. By selling marketing lists like "Rural and Barely Making it" or "Tough Start: Young Single Parents", data brokers are putting people into categories ("data segments") which can lead to discriminatory behaviour towards them by those who acquire such lists.

Online tracking enables the collection of data about our online behaviour, which is routinely being sold to various third parties, such as advertisers, banks, insurance companies, service providers and even law enforcement agencies. This not only makes it hard to exercise any substantial control over our data (and our lives), but it also makes it difficult to mitigate potential data breaches.

Most of this takes place behind the scenes. The global data industry has been quite opaque...until now.

We developed Trackography to increase transparency about the data industry. We hope it will start a discussion on unseen and unconsented data collection and on the politics of data.

Geopolitics of data: Lack of adequate legal safeguards in a tracked online world 

The internet is literally a network of networks. Everytime we connect to a website, our data (such as our IP address) travels through these networks. Specifically, it goes through certain network infrastructure (such as cables) until it reaches the server which is hosting the website that we want to access.
But let's not forget that such servers and network infrastructure might be hosted in various different countries – which means that our data can then subsequently be handled under those countries' laws and regulations. If we are lucky enough, perhaps connecting to a website means that our data travels to a country which has strong privacy frameworks. But is that something we can say for the servers of all the third party companies that our data travels to?

Onlike tracking means that when we connect to a website, we don't only connect to the server of that specific website. Instead, we also connect to the servers of all the other companies which are tracking users' access to that website. While we might only intend on connecting to cnn.com, for example, in reality we are also connecting the to servers of at least nine additional (tracking) companies. Each of these companies has its own privacy policy and complies with laws and regulations of its own country.

Many countries around the world though do not have data protection laws. In the countries that do have privacy laws, they are not always properly enforced and/or inadequately safeguard data. The European Union is considered to have the strongest privacy frameworks globally, but even its Data Protection Directive is unable to catch up with the fast paced developments on the internet. The architecture and business model of the internet is such which enables multiple third parties to constantly collect, process, aggregate, share, sell and store data in various countries around the world. This means that while our data might initially be collected within the EU, it might end up travelling to various other countries before it is ultimately stored in a final, non-EU country - only to then be shared again with parties located in other countries. In other words, it is practically very difficult to be able to locate the precise location of our data in every given moment, which makes its regulation and protection even harder.

Trackography untangles this problem a bit by illustrating the specific countries that our data travels to when we access websites.

Media organisations: Contributors to a tracked online world

The media provide us a window into the world, but at the same time they enable others to lurk into the window of our life.

The advertising business is a revenue model for media organisations, which is quite understandable given the increasing competition with blogs and infotainment. They use Google analytics to measure their web statistics and they embed Twitter and Facebook buttons to enable their readers to share articles through their social networks. But as a result, most media organisations around the world have became a part of the global tracking industry and likely don't even realise it.

However, media companies should take responsibility for the privacy and safety of their readers. They could explore new revenue models which give the reader a paid option to opt out of online tracking, while still being able to access the news. In the Netherlands, for example, there is an advertisement-free media website that offers a paid service for readers. Media organisations should generally explore alternative business models, especially if they claim that they respect their readers and their rights.

This is an issue that we illustrate and raise through Trackography.

For more information about this project, please view the FAQ section.