Translator: Wanting Zhong Reviewer: Hélène Vernet
I do have a question for you: Do you have curtains at home,
maybe in the living room, maybe in the bedroom?
Raise your hand if you have curtains at home.
(Laughing) A lot of hands!
Now, who closes those curtains every now and then,
maybe when you go to bed, when you're watching television?
Again raise your hand.
That's good. It's good to see.
Now, imagine living inside a house fully made out of glass.
So, every wall is transparent, everyone can watch you,
and you can watch everyone else.
How would that make you feel?
Comfortable!
This is exactly what Yevgeny Zamyatin depicted in his novel "We".
This dystopian novel was written in the 1920s,
and it's about the futuristic society in which everything is made out of glass.
So the whole city, the whole society, is fully made out of glass.
Everything is transparent.
They were doing this so they could correct each other's behavior
because, the idea was,
if you're being watched, if there's a possibility to be watched,
you will perform better and be better for the society.
Now of course, this is dystopian, futuristic,
but in a way, it has a parallel
with what China is implementing next year.
They're going to implement the social credit system,
fully based on big data.
So that could mean that your police records
combined with your social media behavior and with your bank accounts,
together will determine a certain score,
a certain social credit score.
And that score could determine whether you get a good job or not,
whether you're able to live at some place.
It could even affect your children,
whether they could get into a certain school or not.
That's kind of interesting.
There's a certain parallel
with what Yevgeny Zamyatin was writing already in the 1920s.
Of course, here in the West,
we take our privacy a bit more serious in a way,
which is good, I think.
But still, we are connecting a lot of things to each other.
Just this week, there's a big news article
about the 5G network in South Korea and the US.
They're kind of having a race of who was first.
We're connecting more and more devices to each other.
Behind me is a map of the Internet.
This map dates back from 2005,
and you can assume that it's much more dense now, being 2019.
We're connecting more and more devices to each other,
and this is something that is very invisible.
I mean this map is a rendered version of the Earth, the biosphere.
I'd like to call this invisible network, the"infosphere".
And this infosphere is growing at a staggering rate.
We're connecting more and more.
Of course, it's good.
Technology is good but now, let's go back to your home, your glass home.
How would it make you feel?
I've just heard "comfortable".
Imagine living inside this glass house.
Would you change your behavior?
I know I would.
It's like having a police car in your rear mirror
when you're driving on the highway, constantly in your rear mirror.
I am not doing anything wrong, but still, I would correct my behavior.
I will make sure I would show perfect behavior.
And this, this has a certain parallel to the Panopticon.
The Panopticon is basically a first prison design,
dating back from the 18th century.
Jeremy Bentham, an architect, designed a whole new prison system,
in which there was a centralized view.
As you can see behind me,
there was a tower in the middle, and it could watch a whole cell block.
Because in the time of Jeremy Bentham, apparently, there were a lot of riots,
just like in France here right now,
a lot of inmates rising up.
And because it was all fairly hard to control,
he came up with a centralized view, a tower in the middle.
It would not just correct the behavior of the inmates,
but it would also make sure that they would behave better,
and they would have the feeling that they are being watched.
And because they have that feeling, they would show better behavior.
The Panopticon is kind of like Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote,
a very dystopian thing in a way.
I guess a lot of people know George Orwell's famous work "1984".
That's a great example of the Panopticon.
Big Brother was constantly watching its inhabitants,
watching on big screens in their living rooms,
watching them on the streets.
Whenever they did something wrong
or potentially could be doing something wrong,
they would be corrected.
Privacy makes us human.
The fact that I'm standing here, I'm wearing a different mask now,
than I'm wearing when I'm out with friends,
which is normal, which is good.
I can decide which mask I put on at what moment.
So everyone has something to hide.
I'd presume that if I'd pick a random stranger here in the audience,
and ask if I could see their cell phone, they would feel a bit threatened,
which is good.
But it's still you deciding which mask you're wearing at that point.
Because we're connecting everything to everything,
and technology companies, the government,
all kinds of companies are following us through our devices,
it's kind of hard to do that online,
It's kind of hard to choose your own mask.
We can't just go offline anymore.
We can't just switch off, that's become really hard,
maybe even impossible.
I think everyone knows the example of personalized ads.
Let's say I was looking for this sweater on a web shop,
and the minute after I'm checking my Instagram,
because that's what you do,
immediately I see that sweater on my Instagram feed.
It has become normal.
I think most people will recognize this example.
So let's say I want to go out on a Saturday.
I want to go to a rock concert, and I'm looking for tickets online.
I'm googling and I see a nice concert.
Right after, I'm going to check for a video clip of that rock band.
Perhaps it's showing a beer commercial in front of it
because the algorithm assumes
that this guy is into rock music, he must like beer.
(Laughter)
Again, this is maybe even happening already.
It's pretty normal.
It's also very innocent in a way,
but it changes when my boss gets this information.
When I don't turn up on Monday, when I'm sick,
and my boss has this certain data that I went to a rock concert,
and he also assumes that I must like beer,
he could think that I'm having a huge hangover, and I'm not sick at all.
Or maybe my health insurance, they would love this data.
They would love to raise the price, because they can think,
"This guy likes rock music, he must live an unhealthy lifestyle."
But let's be honest, technology is awesome. It is.
It has become so accessible to connect with whoever you want,
to share photos with friends,
to tell everyone about your journey, your work, whatever, it's amazing.
But sometimes you have to step back and just realize:
What are we doing? Is this really needed?
Because we have become the product, data as the new gold.
Clothing has always protected us against the biosphere, against the cold.
I'm even wearing clothes now. It's normal.
Clothing can also protect you against extremes,
like the firefighters behind me.
So clothing is something that could protect you, right?
Together with Marcha Schagen, I designed Project KOVR.
Project KOVR is a wearable counter movement,
that could protect your privacy.
It protects you from the infosphere.
Now that sounds really futuristic.
Maybe it is a little bit.
But in a way, we have managed to create clothing
that could protect your privacy
by blocking every incoming and every outgoing signal,
based on the cage of Faraday.
So it's a wearable cage of Faraday, and it basically means
that every incoming and every outgoing signal will be blocked.
So let's take the example of a mobile phone.
If you put it in the side pocket, it will drop dead.
It will lose signal.
That way, you're in charge again.
You can decide when you want to share something.
Of course, we're not against technology,
so we've also created black pockets on the coat itself,
so that way, you can put your mobile phone in there and still be reachable.
Because in a way, it has become impossible
to turn the things off that you wear with you everyday.
You can still turn your mobile phone off or switch it to airplane mode,
but even then it's still sending a signal
because the European law has told us to do so.
But let's take the example of my car keys,
or my passport, or maybe the bank cards in my wallet.
I can't turn those off.
Of course, I can grab my passport,
throw it in the microwave, and deep-fry the chip,
but then I'd have a really hard time flying to Toulouse.
(Laughter)
Our coat and our prototypes can protect your everyday data
when you want it.
But it's important to know that we're not against technology.
If you want to be reachable, you have that option.
We launched with this prototype in 2016,
and we started the project in 2015.
Back then we had a big discussion with a lot of people, like,
"I don't have anything to hide. I'm a good person. I'm not a criminal."
Well, everyone has something to hide.
Whether it's big, whether it's small, everyone has something to hide.
And the discussion was always about what is privacy.
And I think the discussion changed a bit.
Facebook did a huge fuck up, I guess we all know that,
with the Cambridge Analytica scandal, with the GDPR,
and all the media reporting about privacy.
A lot more people know about privacy.
But they still find it very hard to protect themselves,
protect their privacy.
Of course, our coat is one of those things,
but you can start yourself by taking small steps.
"Watch Your Hack" is a really nice, informative manual
that is bascially telling you why and how.
So you can start by blocking everything on your laptop or your mobile phone.
It also tells you why
because I'm not here to tell you a scary story,
because technology really is great,
but we should be careful every now and then,
"Watch Your Hack" is something that helps you understand what threats are
and how you can start defending and protecting yourself.
It's good that these initiatives are popping up everywhere.
Like our Project KOVR, I see more and more initiatives like this,
which is good because now we've realized that privacy is maybe important.
It's also good to work for it.
Let's all step back every now and then.
Let's all try to think of our glass house,
and how it would really be nice to have some curtains there.
Let's do the same digitally.
I want to close my curtains every now and then,
and I'm pretty sure you want that too.
Let's all stay human in this information-driven environment.
Let's close those curtains every now and then.
Thank you Toulouse. (Applause)