Who's tracking who? NFB debuts interactive documentary at Tribeca Film Festival

 

By Sonya Davidson

How are we being tracked online? How is our data sold? What's happening? In a digital documentary series Do Not Track we can find out. The documentary is one of five works selected for the 2015 edition of Storyscapes, an annual transmedia showcase at the 14th annual Tribeca Film Festival in NY, running from April 16 -19, 2015. 

In this fascinating series, web users can share their online ID for a personalized experience and discover how thier data is being collected, stored and used. We learn how to track the trackers and see what methods and tool trackers are used. During each episode, viewers can volunteer some data about themselves (with permission) to experience what online privacy really means. Data provided can also be deleted at any time. 

Conceived and directed by the award-winning Canadian documentary filmmaker and web psroducer Brett Gaylor, this collaborative project brings together public media broadcasters, journalists, developers, graphic designers and independent media makers from different parts of the world. 

Each episode of Do Not Track explores one aspect of how the modern day web is increasliyg a space where users' movements, speech and identities are recorded and tracked. From our mobile phones to social networks, targeted advertsiing to big data, each episode has a different focus.

You can also follow the conversation on Twitter @DoNotTrackDoc

Here's the trailer...