User:Jonas Lund/T1project

Thematic Project #1 A network of self-analysing websites.

Whenever you browser around the web you leave a digital footprint. This footprint consists of certain aspects of your computers configuration, such as browser version, where and what you click, your ip, previously visited websites through the use of cookies, browser window size and your operating system.

The data that your browser reveals is collected by the server to make up a picture of who you are. By creating large databases, online advertising companies can profile users and categorise you into a target group and tailor the ads they display for a higher click-through-rate.

In this work I've chosen to select a few of these parameters, collected them over time as each user visits any of the websites connected to the project. I argue that the best way of approaching the constant recording of everything I do online is not to fight it, by hiding behind a slow darknet, but rather by recording others myself. Using similar techniques as the large advertising networks, I can create a database of data for myself, which I own.

In thistimeinplace.net I use a geolocation API to connect the ip of a user with a location. This is displayed using google maps on a fixed zoom level, continuously updated to be centred on the last visitor.

In whatyouseeiswhatyouget.net I use the size of the browser window and play it back sequentially, ending with the last visitor's (you) browser window.

With wwwwwwwwwwwwww.net I've attempted to reveal the users browser history by displaying the top 1 million most visited websites, and then by using javascript to determine the colour of the visited links and from that create a record of the users history.This attempt failed since the major browser are nowadays blocking javascript from accessing the colour of a visited link to prevent operations just like the one I was attempting to do. As a solution I decided to track the clicks of the website instead, using the logical conclusion that a visitor would only click the links that are visible.