A zine called A Quick Guide to the Slow Net provides context about the problems underpinning online dataĬollection and how slow networks could be used to resist data-collecting companies.Slow Net, aims to utilize this strategy of purposeful inefficiency in three Our identities get privatized and our autonomy is threatened.īecause real-time collection of data is enabled by fast Internet speeds, one form of resistance could involve co-opting a tactic from labor unions called the slowdown strike, in which workers deliberately reduce their productivity. As a result, power and wealth is concentrated among those who are able to collect, utilize, and gatekeep vast amounts of information. In this process, humans are reduced to interchangeable pieces of data in a homogenous population of data laborers.
By predicting what we’ll do next, data collectors can use the data to intervene and divert our actions in a direction that supports them economically. Some of the data is used for improving userĮxperience, but much of it is used to predict and influence our behaviors in real-time. Privacy concerns have made many news headlines recently, and it’s clear that our behavioral data isĬollected when we’re browsing online and using smart devices.
#NETDRIVE 2 SLOW SERIES#
Slow Net is a series of experiments that explore how slow networksĬan be used to protect against data-collecting entities that threaten our autonomy and influence our identities.