Your phone company is watching Malte Spitz

hi this is my mobile phone a mobile

phone can change your life and a mobile

phone gives you individual freedom with

a mobile phone you can shoot a crime

against humanity in Syria with a mobile

phone you can tweet a message and start

a protest in Egypt and where is a mobile

phone you can record a song loaded up to

SoundCloud and become famous all this is

possible with your mobile phone I’m a

child of 1984 and I live in the city of

Berlin let’s go back to that time to

this city here you can see how hundreds

of thousands of people stood up and

protested for change this is autumn 1989

and you imagine that all those people

standing up and protesting for change

had a mobile phone in their pocket who

in the room has a mobile phone with you

hold it up hold your phone’s up all your

phone’s up hold it up an android

blackberry wow that’s a lot almost

everybody today as a mobile phone but

today I will talk about million my

mobile phone and how it changed my life

and I will talk about this these are

thirty five thousand eight hundred

thirty lines of information raw data and

why are these information there

because in the summer of 2006 the EU

Commission tabled a directive this

directive called data retention

directive this directive says that each

phone company in Europe each Internet

service company all over Europe has to

store a wide range of information about

their users who called soon who sent him

an email who sent him a text message and

if you use your mobile phone where you

are all these information are stored for

at least six months up to two years by

your phone company or your internet

service provider and all over Europe

people stood up and said we don’t want

this they said we don’t want this data

retention we want self-determination in

the digital age and we don’t want that

phone companies and Internet companies

have to store all this information about

us they were lawyers journalists priests

they all said we don’t want this and

here you can see like ten thousands of

people went out on the streets of Berlin

and said freedom not fear and some even

said this would be Stasi 2.0 Stasi was a

secret

police in East Germany and I also asked

myself does it really work can they

really store all these information about

us every time I use my mobile phone so I

asked my phone company Deutsche Telekom

which was at that time the largest phone

company in Germany and I asked him

please send me all the information you

have stored about me and I asked him

once and I asked him again and I got no

real answer it was only blah blah

answers but then I said I want to have

this information because this is my life

you are rotor calling so I decided

to start the lawsuit against them

because I wanted to have this

information but doctor Telecom said no

we will not give you this information so

at the end I had a settlement with them

I put down the lawsuit and they will

send me all the informations I asked for

because in the meantime the German

Constitutional Court ruled that the

implementation of this e2 directive into

German law was unconstitutional so I got

this ugly brown envelope with the CD

inside and on the city this was on

thirty five thousand eight hundred

thirty lines of information and first I

saw it and I said ok it’s a huge file ok

but then after a while I realized this

is my life this is six months of my life

into this file so I was a little bit

skeptical what should I do with it

because you can see where I am where I

sleep at night what am i doing but then

I said I want to go out with these

information I want to make some public

because I want to show the people what

does data retention mean so together

with side online and open data city I

did this this is a visualization of six

months of my life you can zoom in and

zoom out you can whine back and first

robot you can see every step I take and

you can even see how I go from Frankfurt

by train to Cologne and how often I call

in between all this is possible with

these information that’s a little bit

scary

but it is not only about me it’s about

all of us first it’s only like I call my

wife and she calls me and we talk to

each other a couple of times and then

there are some friends calling me and

they call each other and after a while

you are calling you and you are calling

you and you have this great

communication network but you can see

how your people are communicating with

each other what times I call it other

when they go to bed you can see all this

you can see the haps like who has a

leaders in a group if you have access to

these information you can see what your

society is doing if you have access to

these information you can control your

society this is a blueprint for

countries like China and Iran this is a

blueprint how to surveil your society

because do you know who talks to whom

who sends him an email

all this is possible if you have access

to these information and these

information has taught for at least six

months in Europe up to two years like I

said at the beginning you imagine that

all those people on the streets of

Berlin in autumn of 1989 had a mobile

phone in their pocket and SISTAR’s would

have known who took part at this protest

and if the Stasi would have known who

has the leaders behind it this may never

have happened the fall of the Berlin

Wall would maybe not there and in the

aftermath also not the fall of the Iron

Curtain

because today state agencies and

companies want to store as much

information as they can get about us

online and offline they want to have the

possibility to track our lives and they

want to store them for all time

self-determination and living in the

digital age is no contradiction but you

have to fight for yourself determination

today to have to fight for it every day

so when you go home tell your friends

that privacy is a value of the 21st

century and it’s not outdated when you

go home tell your representative only

because companies and state agencies

have the possibility to store certain

information they don’t have to do it and

if you don’t believe me ask your phone

company what information they store

about you so in the future every time

you use your mobile phone had it be a

reminder to you that you have to fight

for self-determination in the digital

age