Listening Back is a chilling wake-up call for anyone who underestimates the prevalence of cookies tracking your every move online. This Chrome and Firefox plugin created by Australian artist Jasmine Guffond translates cookies into music in real-time while you browse online.
“Every time a cookie is inserted, deleted or updated, it triggers a sound,” explains Guffond.
As I am writing this sentence, I can hear it chiming away in the background. I’m not even using Chrome right now, so it is an effective way of making me aware that cookies are constantly being updated even while I’m away from my web browser. They’re not just tracking when I click: they are constantly checking back in to see what’s new.
Psychedelic synth
If you enjoy the wobbly psychedelic synth of Boards of Canada you might like listening to the onslaught of cookies but if, like me, you have both AdBlock and Privacy Badger installed on your browser then you will begin to worry about how many of these third-party cookies they are managing to catch and block.
“Listening Back therefore functions to expose real-time digital surveillance and consequently the ways in which our everyday relationships to being surveilled have become normalised,” says Gufford who has a new album out titled Microphone Permission.
