To whom do you want to give your data?
While we use WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook daily, giving our phone number to the local restaurant or downloading the contact tracking app is not an option for many of us. Covid-19 has revealed many things, including the ambivalent handling of our personal data. The nation-wide awareness campaign «Data Café» run by Opendata.ch and the Mercator Switzerland Foundation is addressing a question that is becoming increasingly important in the current pandemic: “To whom and for what purpose do I want to make my data available?”.
The leading Internet currency is personal data
The principle of the «Data Café» is simple: Visitors receive a coffee in return for providing their full name, gender, e-mail address, birthday and canton of residence. Thereby, the commonplace online deal of “data for services”, is transferred to the analogue world and thus made tangible. “We invite people to reflect on the value and role of data in our society and make them more aware of the opportunities and dangers of data.” explains Nikki Böhler who initiated the Data Café.
Reactions could not have been more diverse
The Campaign was officially launched at the beginning of March at the Helmhaus Zürich. We have seen many different reactions to our offer to receive a coffee in exchange for personal data. From “my data is everywhere already anyways” to “paying with my data?! this is terrible!” we heard all kinds of reactions to our offer. Get a feeling of our the Data Café experience in our video trailer:
Visit one of our upcoming data cafés
After long break due to Corona we are now ready to get back on the road and continue our tour de Suisse. Our next stops are:
- 08.08.20 – Weekly market, Lucerne
- 13.08.20 & 15.08.20 – Kino im Kocher, Bern
- 18.08.20 – Frau Gerolds Garten, Zurich
- 18.09.20 – Rathaus für Kultur, St. Gallen
- 27.09.20 – Literature festival “Literaare”, Thun
- 03.10.20 – Café Mitte, Basel
- 17 – 18.10.20 – Museum for Communication, Bern
Learn to understand, protect and use data
If you have not done so already, make sure to visit our website for short tips on how to better understand, protect and benefit from data. Sign up here if you are interested in joining one of our workshops where you can talk to data experts and ask all your questions to gain practical data knowledge.
