Data octopus

Plastic representation of a data octopus at the demonstration freedom instead of fear

USA NROL -39 logo

Data octopus is a catchphrase from the political discussion about data protection . Numerous, far-reaching “arms” are associated with the image of an octopus . The buzzword stands for systems and organizations that evaluate personal information on a large scale or pass it on to third parties and thereby violate data protection regulations or personal rights.

Examples

Organizations known as data octopuses can be government, private, or other types. Examples of organizations or products that are called data octopus in the media are products from Google Inc. , the social network Facebook , the mail order company Amazon , the fee collection center or Schufa .

Use in campaigns

Data octopus as an art action

The three-dimensional representation of a data octopus is a means of visualizing the subject on data protection demonstrations and protests against surveillance . like the freedom instead of fear actions.

The negative prize of the Big Brother Awards honors data octopuses every year. It is awarded in Germany by digitalcourage (formerly the Association for the Promotion of Public Moved and Still Data Traffic, FoeBuD), outside Germany by international civil rights organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the operator organization of the data protection portal Privacy.org. The term data octopus was documented for the first time as part of the application for the Big Brother Awards 2001.

criticism

Occasionally the octopus metaphor is criticized as an anti-Semitic cliché. In 2015 , the anti-Semitism researcher Götz Aly accused the Süddeutsche Zeitung of having set the trend for anti-Semitic malice against Mark Zuckerberg with an octopus cartoon .

See also

• EU data protection reform , Directive 95/46 / EC (Data Protection Directive) , General Data Protection Regulation

literature

• Rena Tangens , padeluun (Ed.): Black Book Data Protection. Excellent data octopus from the BigBrotherAwards. Edition Nautilus 2006, ISBN 3-89401-494-6 .

Web links

• Who are Germany's largest data collectors , Spiegel Online
• Verdict out YouTube as a data octopus , Spiegel Online
• Stop the data octopus! Techniques and projects with the aim of informational self-determination, Zeit Online
• PayPal: Secure payment service or dubious data octopus? ZDNet

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stop the data octopus! Techniques and projects with the aim of informational self-determination, time online
2. ↑ heise.de ( Memento from June 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ it-news-world.de
4. ↑ Rena Tangens: Communication (1): Facebook Germany GmbH. In: Big Brother Awards. FoeBuD eV, April 1, 2011, accessed on July 25, 2011 . 
5. ↑ GEZ-Fahnder: 85 million addresses , faz.net
6. ↑ Data octopus GEZ: The slipper counter goes, the raster investigator is approaching , Spiegel Online
7. ↑ Collection of data octopuses at the working group on data storage (Germany)
8. ↑ privacy.org (USA)
9. ↑ commons.wikimedia.org
10. ^ Daniel Schulz: Pirate logo for Acta: Hitler's eight-armed helper . In: The daily newspaper: taz . February 9, 2012, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed January 13, 2019]).
11. ^ Mark Zuckerberg caricature: Accusation of anti-Semitism against "Süddeutsche Zeitung" . In: Spiegel Online . February 25, 2014 ( spiegel.de [accessed January 13, 2019]).
12. ^ ADL: Depicting Jews as an octopus encircling the globe is a classic anti-Semitic trope. Protest Facebook - or anyone - all you want, but pick a different image.http: //www.businessinsider.com/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-sheryl-sandberg-octopus-congress-protestors-2018-7… In: @adl_national. July 17, 2018, accessed January 13, 2019 . 
13. ↑ Götz Aly : The malice against Mark Zuckerberg is anti-Semitic. In: Berliner Zeitung . December 8, 2015, accessed August 10, 2020 .