A Satirical Device Invented To Prevent Digital Spying

Do you feel tired when living in a dystopian and digital society in which human’s privacy is just something existed in the past? How about distracting the smart assistant, or the digital surveillance device in your house by making it to gossip idly with other devices?

If CounterBug - the speculative device created by Erlend Prendergast is manufactured, perhaps it will be a hilarious but bizarre solution to the surveillance capitalism’s throes. The creator developed the device during his final year on a course called Product Design, at Glasgow School of Art. The technology is in a satirical project which highlights the paranoiac situations caused by the lack of personal privacy in this digital world, and also the consumerism’s inherent contradictions.

Digital Trojan horses

There are many different problems people are coping within their smart homes, and Erlend Prendergast said:

The satirical project is said to be a new approach they can adopt in digital self-defense and is described as intentionally tongue-in-cheek and satirical by its creator Erlend Prendergast to Dezeen. The creator also mentioned:

However, they still attempt to solve a real problem in this digital world. In a survey from Ipsos and World Economic Forum, it was reported that there is a growing distrust about how governments and companies use people’s private data.

For example, Amazon, even though with good reasons, is still reported to hire numerous employees to eavesdrop people’s conversations received through the Echo devices of their companies.

Talking models

The device consists of three attachments for different functions and one single base unit. However, no matter what function it is, the main aim is still to disrupt the Echo devices of Amazon and prevent it from collecting unwanted information.

For example, Murmur attempts to bring contradictory phrases into the mic in order to confuse Amazon’s algorithms for ads targeting. For instance, as suggested by Pendergast, Murmur will whisper information about the book release of Kim Kardashian whilst users are having a discussion about political figures.

As a result, Echo devices' attempt to profile users based on their preferences will be scrambled up.

Besides, there is another device called Blabber, which is made for people who feel ashamed of being eavesdropped through their devices, as well as the implications from it and its impacts on their social statuses.

For this to be done, Blabber engages in small but desirable conversations, then brings users’ social status back to the data store of Amazon. When people leave home, Blabber will be turned on and autonomously talks with the digital assistant at their houses about different topics, such as animal charities, like literature and ethical retail.

Apart from Murmur and Blabber, there is also another device called Scramble. This accessory targets at averting Amazon’s Alexa from picking up trigger words which the National Security Agency in America (NSA) monitors.

Scramble will interject in case users mention words like "white noise", "car bomb" or "pirate", and the device will shout a mundanity over the alike words.

CounterBug, which was created by Pendergast, majorly aimed at people having smart devices at home. However, the device is also invented for people who are afraid of the dystopia as well as the shady nature of collecting data and profiling users for ad targeting.

Even though his inventions may not be successful, they can still intrigue the idea of preventing Amazon employees from eavesdropping.