[spectre] ***SPAM*** The Dating Brokers – the data industry surrounding dating profiles

[freeautomatisms]

Dear all,

We're excited to announce the release of a project which looks into the
data industry surrounding dating profiles.

A project by Joana Moll in collaboration with Tactical Tech.

In May 2017 artist Joana Moll, alongside Tactical Tech, purchased 1
million online dating profiles for 136€ from USDate, a supposedly
US-based company that trades in dating profiles from all over the globe.
The batch of dating profiles we purchased included pictures (almost 5
million of them), usernames, e-mail addresses, nationality, gender, age
and detailed personal information about all of the people who had
created the profiles, such as their sexual orientation, interests,
profession, thorough physical characteristics and personality traits.
Purchasing this data exposed a vast network of companies that are
capitalising on this information without the conscious consent of the
users, whom ultimately are the ones being exploited. This project
discloses the original dating profile dataset we received from USDate
after purchasing it and offers an extensive report on the origin of the
profiles and the vast network of companies that are capitalising on them.

Link: https://datadating.tacticaltech.org/

*Joana Moll* is a Barcelona / Berlin based artist and researcher. Her
work critically explores the way post-capitalist narratives affect the
alphabetization of machines, humans and ecosystems.

*Tactical Tech* is a Berlin-based NGO investigating the impact of
technology on society.