New York artist Risa Puno is capitalizing on the concept of social media as currency with her latest experiment 'Please Enable Cookies.'
Curious to see how easily people would volunteer their personal information, Puno gave out cookies in exchange for some form of data. She collected random bits of information, ranging from a photograph to a fingerprint. Yes, a fingerprint! Nearly 400 New Yorkers passing through the Brooklyn arts festival relinquished some form of intimate data for a cookie in the shape of a social media logo. Instead of eating their cookie, many of the participants simply took a photo of it.
Puno's experiment just goes to show how prevalent, and unchecked, social media is these days. A picture of a social media logo cookie on your social media account is, by all means, pretty meta.
Why This Trend Is Growing
- Data as Currency
- Businesses can explore new ways of incentivizing customers to provide personal data in exchange for goods or services.
- Privacy Concerns
- Privacy-focused technologies that enable individuals to retain control over their personal data could disrupt the personal data economy.
- Social-media-first Economy
- Businesses can prepare for a future where social media presence is the most valuable asset marketing asset by investing in building strong social media brands.
Industries Being Reshaped
- Marketing
- As the value of a strong social media presence continues to rise, disruptive marketing campaigns that involve incentivizing personal data collection could gain traction.
- Data Analytics
- The data collected in experiments like Puno's could be used to inform business data analytics strategies aimed at improving customer insights.
- Cybersecurity
- Privacy-focused technologies that enable individuals to retain control over their personal data could gain traction amid growing concerns about data breaches and cybersecurity threats.
