Niek van Sleeuwen

Department: Information Design
Website: niekvansleeuwen.com

The Cookie Network

What: Revealing the hidden infrastructure that enables companies to track us with cookie technology.

Why: We often automatically consent to the use of cookies when confronted with a pop-up to get it out of the way quickly. But few of us understand what we are actually agreeing to. This project aims to change that, opening our eyes to how the data of thousands of millions of people ends up in the hands of anonymous others.

How: Cookies give access to our browser behavior. This project visualises how the networks of companies that gather such data go far beyond the original website where we’ve given our consent.

“To change the system, we have to understand it first”