| Story | Social media is the world’s platform for sharing anything and everything. But every time we opt-in or hit the “Accept” button, we willingly give away our most personal information. Which begs the question; how much is privacy worth? To find out, SapientNitro Chicago threw a party that pit privacy laws against personal privacy during Social Media Week 2013. Inspired by classic psychological experiments, we offered rewards to guests for allowing us to compromise their privacy. We developed a high-tech system to track their behavior, stirred in some alcohol, and measured how much personal information guests would give up to get top-shelf party perks. |
| Philosophy | Guests who opted in by connecting with their social networks would unlock fun social experiences, delicious craft booze, fine food, and prizes. But it would also bring social media humiliation, spamming, profile trolling…and probably a hangover. Each partygoer received an RFID card used to track their every action. It was linked to a personal mobile site that pulled in their Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus profiles. The site became the centerpiece of their experience, featuring everything the guest needed to participate. A tiered scoring system. A leaderboard to encourage competition. Even a live scrolling feed of every tweet or Instagram photo that mentioned our hashtag, #SMWOptIn. With an RFID card in one hand and their smartphones in the other, guests were ready to party. The party setup resembled a carnival, with game booths spread across our office where guests could either earn or redeem points. At earning booths, guests received points for posting socially shameful behavior to their feeds. At reward booths, prizes were given out based on their point totals and tier: N00bs couldn’t access rewards, Minibosses received mediocre perks, and the thoroughly shamed L337s (meaning Elites in hacker speak) got the best stuff. So the more privacy you gave away, the more rewards you could get. |