This Smart Collar Will Have You Thinking Twice About Terms of Service Agreements

If you carry a smartphone or wear a smartwatch, you vaguely know that someone or something is tracking your every move. Though a scary thought, you probably didn’t bother to read the disclosures of the various apps you use; who has the time? Besides, no one would abuse this data, or simply tailor what you see so that you never see an opposing view… right?

In order to bring this monitoring behavior to light, Hong Kong-based art collective XCEED devised a 2016 art installation designed to track and guide you through it, using a literal collar.

This collar is fastened to a participant’s neck with a power drill, and walks the wearer through the exhibition via the voice of “Suri,” who claims to be a friend of Apple’s Siri. In addition to vocal “encouragement,” the metallic device is able to produce a disruptive buzzing noise when one has wandered the exhibition for longer than the pre-ordained 20 to 30 minute viewing window. (A countdown clock is attached to the front of the collar.)

Since this event, they have created an updated version, dubbed “Collar X,” which they toured with in Greece and Poland and hope to continue displaying around the world.

You can read more about this rather interesting and frightening project in its Creators article here.