We all know the internet tracks our every move, but it’s not something we always acknowledge. Google, for example, knows everything about us using location data and soon the UK government will be able to hold on to that data for 12 months, just in case.
Nothing makes the tracking notions of the web more stark though is this web experiment; Clickclickclick. The website tracks everything you're doing, the same way your browser does, but instead of keeping it under the radar, it shows you exactly what is being registered at every moment.
Read more: You can now delete (almost) all trace of yourself from the web at the click of a button
When you click on the website, it takes you to a blank screen with a big green 'Button'. Even before you click on the button, the data starts rolling in on the screen, to show what activity the browser is recording about you. This includes the time you entered the site, how many times you clicked on the button and how fast you moved your cursor.
A strange voice talks about your activity, such as not very active or very active, and pops in the occasional Game of Thrones reference too, with “Winter is Coming.” It sounds creepy, coming from such a disembodied voice, and when you go back to the site after not being active it greets you by saying “There we go”. It even asks you to use your webcam so the voice can “see you”.
Read more: How to delete your Google search history and stop tracking
The experiment was created by VPRO Medialab in collaboration with Studio Moniker as a way to show internet users how far-reaching user profiling can be. It does make you consider your internet usage more and truly reveals the type of data being stored about you on the different sites you visit.
If you are concerned about what is being stored about your internet usage, find out how to delete the data Google stores about you and, if you want to go one step further, how to delete yourself from the web completely.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
