Preparation

All you need to prepare is a PC and an internet connection. Alternatively, this exercise can also take place on a tablet or smartphone. The exercise sheets should be prepared in advance.

Method / Process description

The following exercise is taken from the project "Data protection goes to school" of the BvD and klicksafe.de. Details can be found in the "References" section.

Tell me what you buy and I'll tell you who you are. What data can tell us about ourselves. 

Getting started - Black story

Tell the following riddle, which is based on the card game "Black Stories", and thus arouse curiosity about the story: "Why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?", a father wants to know from his daughter. How did he find out?

Black Story" method: A mostly bizarre initial situation is described. By asking the pupils questions, which they are only allowed to answer with yes or no, the pupils try to reconstruct the story behind the situation described.

Resolution: An American father complains to a department store (Target) about vouchers for pregnancy/baby items that his 16-year-old daughter had been sent, without knowing at the time that she was actually pregnant. The company had already determined this based on the daughter's consumption habits.

The following film or corresponding online articles can also be used as an illustration.

• "Verräterischer Kassenbon" in the WDR Mediathek (German language)https://www1.wdr.de/mediathek/video-verraeterischer-kassenbon-104.html
• Artikel Forbes (englisch): How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did
• Artikel (englisch) "Big Data: How Target Knows You Are Pregnant"

Elaboration

What exactly can you find out about people based on their shopping behaviour?

Participants work through the worksheet and describe the presumed consumers based on their purchases. Example of person 1:

• Is ill,
• probably gastro-intestinal illness,
• female,
• between 17 and 23,
• very interested in fashion.
• Participants read out some profiles.

Collection in plenary: How can companies find out more about the people? Recording and analysing buying behaviour via discount cards (e.g. Payback) as well as competitions or opinion polls, evaluating video surveillance in salesrooms, tracking RFID chips on products or in shopping trolleys, storing bank transactions, credit agencies, Schufa queries. Why do companies do this? Customer loyalty, trade with customer data, personalised advertising, basis for scoring procedures (recording and evaluating payment methods/information about payment morale), optimisation of company processes.

Download material

Worksheets and material under the project "Data protection goes to school". (german)

• https://www.bvdnet.de/datenschutz-geht-zur-schule/lehrerhandout/
• Direktlink: https://www.bvdnet.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/FN367_LehrerHandout-BvD_3.Aufl_Ansicht.pdf

Task and worksheets on page 35.

• English version of the worksheet

References

(c) Data protection goes to school, Sensitive handling of personal data.

Publisher: Klicksafe.de

klicksafe is co-funded by the European Union http://ec.europa.eu/saferinternet

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution and Non-Commercial 4.0 International licence, i.e. non-commercial use and distribution is permitted provided the source klicksafe and the website www.klicksafe.de are acknowledged.