Transcriber: Take A Mile Reviewer: Denise R Quivu
My name is Pernille Tranberg.
This is my real name. This is my original identity.
I use this when I'm online, when I'm on Twitter and on LinkedIn,
and when I act professionally.
And I love social media, I have to say that.
But I also have another name.
This name, Pia, I use that for seven years on Facebook,
and all my friends know me, and I use it on Pinterest as well.
And that's because I'm not professional there.
I tend to be a little more private on Facebook.
And I also created a third identity, Nanna Bach,
and that's because so many pages and apps ask me for personal info constantly.
And if you go to fakenamegenerator.com,
you can completely make a really good identity,
where you can get everything, from height, weight, and eye color,
and even credit card number.
(Laughter)
So, why am I almost obsessed with this you might think?
It's because I did this book with a very good friend of mine
called Steffan Heuer, who lives in San Francisco,
and the research for this book was a huge eye opener for me.
What is actually happening out there on the web, and on your phones.
We are surveyed 100% in everything we're doing.
And to understand that, you have to understand everything about Big Data.
You've probably heard about Big Data, it's a buzzword these days.
And one of the best examples some of you might have heard,
was the supermarket Target in the US,
who wanted to get to women before they got pregnant.
Actually, even before they even knew themselves that they were pregnant.
So they hired some data scientists,
and they took all the data they had themselves on their customers,
and enriched that with data from social media and databases,
and everything they could buy.
And then they created a pregnancy prediction machine.
And then they could start marketing their products to these women
who didn't even know yet that they were pregnant.
And they were so successful,
that one day a father came down to Target really annoyed, saying,
"Why are you sending these coupons to my 18-year-old high school daughter,
as if you want her to be pregnant?"
And yes she was pregnant.
And he came back two days after, apologizing, saying,
"I didn't know she was pregnant."
And that's what Big Data can do.
It can predict things we can't even imagine happening in the future.
It can predict suicides.
It can predict whether you're getting pregnant,
or you are getting an alcoholic.
And what can that data be used for, it's only up to you own imagination.
Another example of Big Data is Instagram.
A lot of you are probably using Instagram.
Why did Facebook pay a value higher than the New York Times?
It was an app making no money. Two years old, 13 people work there.
It's because of data.
There are so much data in Instagram.
Of course, also because it's a mobile app.
But there is so much data behind every single picture.
You tell Facebook where you took it, and who took it.
And then this whole social graph -
you're sharing everything with your friends -
worth a lot of money.
So we are talking about the Gold Rush.
And the World Economic Forum calls personal data the Oil of Today.
That is what is making the whole digital world function.
And as soon as something become so valuable, everybody wants it.
And we're seeing a black market for it as well.
And a guy called Joichi Ito,
who was the director of the MIT Media Lab in Boston,
compares the situation today with the situation in the 50s and 60s,
where people were polluting the environment.
We didn't think about it at that time.
And today we're paying a high price for that.
He's saying, what we're doing today, is we're polluting with personal data,
and many of us are going to pay a personal price later.
I don't know if it's true, but it might be,
and that's why I'm worried.
It's all about your personal data.
It's not one single Facebook update, or one search, it's a puzzle.
Everything you're doing is collected in Big Data banks, identity banks.
And then it's stored and resold.
For example, a data broker, Acxiom, in the US,
they have like 500 million profiles on people.
And they've 1,500 data points on every single person of those people.
It's not something you join voluntarily.
They just take it from the web and databases.
And they know what you're eating in the airplane,
what are your vacation dreams, what are your health worries.
Everything you're searching on,
and what you're sharing, yourself, on Facebook and all the other places.
The title indicate that I'm going to talk about sex.
I'm not talking about sex in the real life,
I'm talking about datasex.
We have two kind of people.
We have a person at one extreme who is 100% private,
who would never be on Facebook and never share anything.
And at the other hand, we have the datasexual,
who will be completely sharing everything:
that they've a Nike fuelband,
and tell everybody, "Well, I have been running so long now",
and they're measuring their pulse and everything.
And I think I'm somewhere in the middle, leaning towards a private person.
And I'm going to get back to that as well.
For me, it's all about trying to control who knows what about me when.
It's not the traditional term privacy.
It's about controlling my own personal data.
That's what I'm trying to do with this.
The datasexual, apart from sharing everything about his health,
he will also share everything on Facebook, and has an opinion about everything.
You all know that kind of people.
Maybe some of you are one of them as well.
And you're becoming transparent.
And that's what the Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, wants us all to become:
transparent, and so-called "authentic".
That's what he is working at.
And some datasexuals really love it.
They get something sexually out of it, I think.
Because there was a survey on 200 Germans,
where they had to put in their desires constantly on their phones.
And of course, eating and sleeping were their first desires.
On number 4, it's was watching television, and updating on Facebook.
Number 9, was having real sex.
So!
We also know from other surveys and studies,
that people are getting something in exhibiting themselves on Facebook.
It's giving something in the brain similar to what you get when you have sex.
This datasexual probably also sends his spit to this company.
Because they're collecting genetic testing.
And this company, is one of the biggest ones doing DNA profiles,
and it's founded by the wife of the founder of Google.
And Google has a lot of money in this company as well,
so they're also collecting our DNA profiles.
All this is a movement today called Radical Transparency.
And being completely transparent,
is maybe a good idea if you're a 70-year-old Professor.
You have your last job, you have your insurance,
you have everything.
But if you're young, you just have to think about what you're doing.
Because there are a lot of risks out there.
Social profiling is a huge new area.
Every employer will make a social profile on you before you get a job.
Of course, you can get so much out of Facebook and Google search.
Why not do that? It would be stupid.
This woman was fired because of that single little update.
You might think that's stupid, but that's what is happening constantly.
So what are they looking after?
They're looking after photos, sexual drunk photos.
They're looking after any indicators that you have racist beliefs,
or if you are homophobic,
or anything like that, violence, drugs, etc.
And they're also looking at your friends, which by default are open on Facebook.
Do you have the wrong friends?
I mean, are your friends gang members, or friends of friends of gang members?
They're also looking at: are you sharing everything?
Maybe you're not so secure.
Maybe you're a bit insecure.
Can you keep a secret?
That's very important for a company.
And do you complain? Are you somebody who is constantly complaining,
or gossiping about colleagues?
"We don't want those kind of people in our company."
So just some numbers.
9 out of 10 are actually doing social profiling today.
And we're also doing it when we're looking for a business partner.
We're also doing it when we're dating.
When your date is going to the toilet, you're just checking her online.
But 7 out of 10 are actually rejected because of their social profiles.
But remember, 7 out 10 are also getting a job because of it.
So if are trimming your online reputation in the right way,
it gives you a job as well.
I have 3,000 followers on Twitter,
and I'm constantly trying to get more and trim my online reputation.
Because I know it's very important, and it's fun, of course.
Insurances is another huge area.
This is a friend of mine, Lisa,
who was sharing with everybody on Facebook,
that she and her husband are sitting down in France night now,
drinking a lot of wine.
Fun. Yeah you have seen those pictures before.
But, robbers out there are following everybody.
And they have a huge house in Copenhagen.
And they might rob that one. Right?
And that's one thing that's really annoying.
But the insurance company,
the next step, they will say, "Why I should cover that?
I mean you put it on your front door.
You told everybody you are not at home."
And we're already seeing cases like this in the US.
This is a UK insurance company.
And they say, "Well, if you let yourself be monitored 100%,
everything you're doing in your car,
then you might get a better coverage."
Because then they can take your behavior,
like how often do you rest when you are on a long drive,
and they can match that to the behavior in Big Data,
and then they can assess how much should you pay.
And that might be good if you're always a good driver.
But all of us are always driving a bit too fast.
I think it's a too high a price to pay for your privacy,
and being [yourself].
And the next step is, that will be the same with health insurance.
And remember, it's not only on the web.
Apps are much, much worse.
If you look at your iPhone now,
probably four out ten of your apps know that you're sitting here.
Because you told them, "Yes, it's OK to monitor my location."
And they also have access to your contacts.
Identity theft is another risk. All of you have probably heard about that.
It's very good to have a lot of fake email addresses to use for that,
and avoid that.
The whole tracking thing with cookies and tracking devices,
is something you can also do something about,
because many of you have probably tried to check out a price for a flight,
and you've gotten away from the site,
and when you got back again, it was higher.
And that because they're using cookies.
And that's only the first step, today, of how pricing will be.
It will depend so much more in the future on your form of behavior.
It will depend on you moods, it will depend on your health,
if you're sick, on your physical state, and maybe also on your DNA.
That's what the big companies are working on now.
We know that you will buy more if you're depressed.
So why not track you when you're depressed?
And you probably told that on Facebook.
Consciously or unconsciously.
So, people like Mark Zuckerberg.
He is trying to make us all very transparent,
but I think he has really misunderstood the premises of democracy.
Because in a democracy, you can expect transparency from huge powerful entities,
like companies and governments.
But you shouldn't expect that from the individuals.
We, individually, are the weak parts of the society.
We have the right to be private and control what people know about us.
But that's what he's trying to change, and that what worries me mostly.
Because, if you are too transparent, many of us risk becoming the target.
We know that from history.
And if you look around,
everybody you know who are rich, powerful, and famous,
are they oversharing, are they telling everything about themselves?
No, they're not, and you're becoming one of them. Right?
To round off.
German authorities are having the same message as I'm having.
They're telling all their children to fake it on Facebook.
Use another name.
And children are used to that.
Before they go on Facebook,
they've been on the Sims, Movie Mega, Happy Hotel.
all the games they were playing, they always used pseudonyms.
They know how to.
They tell their friends what is their play name,
and it's really, really easy.
But as soon as you get onto Facebook,
they've a real name policy, and everybody is giving everything to Facebook.
Which is the bad idea.
So what I do, my fake identities, is a very primitive way of doing it today.
It's doing manually, and it's actually hard work I would say.
But very soon, we will see tools coming out,
helping us to manage multiple identities.
Google and Apple, of course, already took out patterns on ideas
where they will help you with some software
where you can have more identities.
But hopefully, there will be others than the trackers themselves.
Until then, I'm going to put on sunglasses and a hat.
Because I don't know if you know it,
but in the Hong Kong airport you can't wear a hat.
Because it disturbs facial recognition.
And Facebook is now using facial recognition.
So if you do that, they can't use it anymore,
and hopefully, my friends can still see it's me.
So to finish off,
it's all about controlling who knows what about me when.
We have that right in the analog world,
we should have that right in the digital world as well.
And remember, it's not only about faking it,
there are so many other tools out there.
One really good tool is,
to install these small programs in your browsers,
which will stop anybody from tracking you from website to website.
That's just one single thing.
There are so many easy things to do,
and I really think you should do it now, before you get really rich and famous.
Because we want to know about you when you get rich and famous.
Thank you.
(Applause)