Berlin blogger records entire life online
A German blogger is revealing every detail of his life online as part of a so-called “post-privacy” experiment. The 28-year-old believes all information should be made public, but critics accuse him of being naive.
Christian Heller, whose bedroom wall in east Berlin features a poster with the words ‘Big Brother is watching you,’ records details of his daily life ranging from sexual encounters and his experiments with drugs to his choice of chocolate pudding for desert.
Heller describes his blog as a “post-privacy” experiment. “My philosophy is that information is more useful when it’s out in the open,” he told German news agency DPA.
The “post-privacy” movement is based upon the belief that technological advancements have made the attempt to protect private lives futile. Heller has even written a moderately successful book on the subject titled “Post-privacy: Living well without the private sphere” which investigates privacy as a concept unlikely to prevail in the future.
Heller’s site is formatted similarly to a Wikipedia page with diary entries offering links to further levels of the mundane. An entry for Sunday October 13th included the activities, “procrastinated on Reddit,” “had sex,” “caught up with Marxist discussions on Twitter,” and “cleaned up a bit.”
But Germany’s data protection officer, Peter Schaar, describes Heller’s theories as “naïve and dangerous” and accuses the 28 year-old of downplaying the risk of suppression which accompanies large-scale surveillance.
“Press reports allow us merely to speculate on the extent to which data is controlled, censored and manipulated in surveillance states,” he wrote in a review of Heller’s book.
"Making the best of something does not for me mean shrugging off certain developments," said Schaar.
But Heller says he gets "great joy" out of his experiment.
<a href="https://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20130422-49285.html
" target="_blank">READ MORE: Germany fines Google for privacy violations
The Local/kkf
Follow us on Twitter @thelocalgermany
Like The Local Germany on Facebook
Comments
See Also
Christian Heller, whose bedroom wall in east Berlin features a poster with the words ‘Big Brother is watching you,’ records details of his daily life ranging from sexual encounters and his experiments with drugs to his choice of chocolate pudding for desert.
Heller describes his blog as a “post-privacy” experiment. “My philosophy is that information is more useful when it’s out in the open,” he told German news agency DPA.
The “post-privacy” movement is based upon the belief that technological advancements have made the attempt to protect private lives futile. Heller has even written a moderately successful book on the subject titled “Post-privacy: Living well without the private sphere” which investigates privacy as a concept unlikely to prevail in the future.
Heller’s site is formatted similarly to a Wikipedia page with diary entries offering links to further levels of the mundane. An entry for Sunday October 13th included the activities, “procrastinated on Reddit,” “had sex,” “caught up with Marxist discussions on Twitter,” and “cleaned up a bit.”
But Germany’s data protection officer, Peter Schaar, describes Heller’s theories as “naïve and dangerous” and accuses the 28 year-old of downplaying the risk of suppression which accompanies large-scale surveillance.
“Press reports allow us merely to speculate on the extent to which data is controlled, censored and manipulated in surveillance states,” he wrote in a review of Heller’s book.
"Making the best of something does not for me mean shrugging off certain developments," said Schaar.
But Heller says he gets "great joy" out of his experiment.
<a href="https://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20130422-49285.html
" target="_blank">READ MORE: Germany fines Google for privacy violations
The Local/kkf
Follow us on Twitter @thelocalgermany
Like The Local Germany on Facebook
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.