I wanted to write about a live-action interactive site: takethislolipop.com. It is a warning to people who upload personal information to their Facebook profiles. Security settings or not, when you put information on your profile, it is there for the plucking. With permission from a Facebook user, Take This Lolipop was able to go through their photos, friend lists, news feeds and other personal information. The TakeThisLolipop.com site takes teh information and plugs it into a web video startting an stalker like character played by Bill Oberst Jr. who sits in a dark room staring at his computer screen.
Imitating a cyber stalker the actor is able to log into the Facebook profile of his target and access all of their personal information. Set to the tune of some creepy music, the actor is even able to find out his targets location. The video fades out after the stalker gets into his car (clearly to go and find his target). A countdown clock and the name of one of the user's Facebook friends comes up on the screen pointing to them being the next target.
As per the Inspiration Room, the TakeThisLolipop.com site has garnered over 5 million unique hits and more than 600,000 likes from around the world. The director of the project Jason Zada had this to say:
“I’m a huge fan of horror and of Halloween, and I really felt like this was a great opportunity to focus on Halloween and mix it with the underlying fear of privacy that we have nowadays with Facebook and other social networking sites.”
From the Inspiration Room site, Dennis Jenders shared his version of the Take This Lokipop experience. See the video below:
It is a freaky way to make you think about your privacy, but I love the interactive nature. It really helps to illustrate privacy concerns.
