Facebook Registration

Created at the peak of the 2016 American election cycle, Facebook Registration is a physical registration form for Facebook created from a hybrid of United States Tax and Immigration forms. It presents Facebook’s information collection in a manner in which most people would be uncomfortable using. The work highlights the contrast between this discomfort and the reality that most people have provided Facebook with this information. It also speaks to the near mandatory need to participate in social media to be a member of modern society. The work was intended to raise awareness of privacy issues with social media. Download the form in printable PDF format here.

This work was created and exhibited at the School for Poetic Computation Code Subversions session in 2016. Just three years later public understanding of social media has been transformed. People are far more aware of what information they are providing and how it is being used and privacy of personal information has become a central social issue. Presented in the future context, the work represents a historical artifact capturing public perception of social media in 2016.