Case study: Quantified Toilets
Objective:
Provoke debate on the future of privacy and surveillance, particularly around infra- structure-level human-sensing technology
Process:
Critical making, speculative design, observations, qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis
Approach:
To spark debate about the future of privacy and surveillance at a large international technology conference (CHI2014), we conducted a thought experiment: we designed and installed bathroom signage that gave the impression that all toilet ‘input’ would be automatically analysed, and the results published online. A corresponding website broadcasted a fictional data feed of the latest samples.
Team:
This project was carried out in collaboration with Matt Dalton, Angela Gabereau, Dr Sarah Gallacher, Dr David H. Nguyen, and Larissa Pschetz.
For more information, see: www.quantifiedtoilets.com
Related media articles
The Atlantic: 'What a Toilet Hoax Can Tell Us About the Future of Surveillance', 29 April 2014 (link)
Wired: 'Urine analysis hoax prompts health data privacy debate', 2 May 2014 (link)
Gizmodo: 'Your Behavior In This Toilet Is Being Recorded For Analysis', 2 May 2014 (link)
The Daily Dot: 'Would you be OK with pee-testing surveillance toilets?', 5 May 2014 (link)
Yahoo! Japan: '「データ収集する公衆トイレ」は是か非か', 2 May 2014 (link)
PC Tipp: 'Quantified Toilets: Wenn das WC alles über uns weiss', 2 May 2014 (link)
Engadget: 'Quantified Toilets: Überwachungs-Stunt auf CHI-Konferenz', 2 May 2014 (link)
Le Mouv: 'Des WC qui analysent vos données, ça vous tente?', 6 May 2014 (link)
Washington Post: 'What was fake on the Internet this week', 2 May 2014 (link)