It's an established fact that the introduction of radio as the mass medium we know today was delayed for quite a long time by the fact that the technology used made it possible to both receive AND transmit signals. Up until the 1920's only ships in distress were allowed to transmit »CQ,« i.e. »to everyone.« Employed from the very beginning by the military, this technology allowed the dream of societal discipline to be realized in a limited form - making it possible to issue an immaterialized command to all people at once, allowing ideological control of social entities in the guise of a »collective media corpus« (Christina von Braun). Nowadays it seems that Bertold Brecht's demand to let the receivers become transmitters has been more than met - but just what kind of transmissions are we talking about here?

While Sherry Turkle enthused over the possibilities offered by »the Web« for producing (instable, multiple, postmodern) identities, i.e. splitting the »collective media corpus« into innumerable subjectivizing particles, we can't help but suspect (and we've had this suspicion for a while now) that these very same Web subjects - whatever they may actually be - are once again merely being addressed in their role as consumers. In »The Traffic in Photographs,« Allan Sekula questioned whether photography, since it plays such a pivotal role in a culture centered on the mass marketing of mass-produced goods, could push the boundaries of the prevailing capitalistic logic, pervaded as it is by the abstraction of accumulation. This question must ultimately be posed as regards »the Web« as well, since it's a prime example of this abstraction of accumulation run rampant, undoubtedly playing an (ignominious) role in the attempt to transform the capitalistic material goods culture into a post-capitalist information culture.

Among other things, the »New Economy« brought us the expansion of the Internet, capital investment options of doubtful value, several million AOL users, countless Internet service providers, search engines, newsgroups and discussion forums, MUDs, MOOs and endless log file lists. In the wake of all this, economies have developed that actually deal with information instead of goods - especially information on the use of the Internet by potential Web consumers: »User Tracking« is the magic word for this microstructural economization. Adware, spyware, badware, malware, stealware, spamware, trojanware, foistware, backdoor Santas and Web bugs are the software utilities used in this novel culture of social diagnosis and control, in the systematic measurement, categorization and isolation of individuals as economic subjects. »Aureate/Radiate«, »Cinducent/Timesink«, »Web 3000« and »Cydoor« are the names of the companies that have established a kind of diagnostic information monopoly and shifted the contours of a »data body« (Critical Art Ensemble) in a more consumerist direction.

»The infinite choices and total control promised by virtual reality are just the options that investment institutions try to avoid.« (Critical Art Ensemble) For this reason, Web plug-ins are installed together with diverse shareware and freeware applications (unbeknownst to the user) that record the user's IP address and document his or her surfing behavior. Web bugs hidden in advertising banners also record the time at which the page (or HTML mail) was opened and to whom it was perhaps forwarded. Spyware is installed on the user's computer as an independent and invisible program - it does not appear in the task manager and certainly not in the list of programs that can be uninstalled - and is therefore free to monitor which keys are pressed, to scan data, read out cookies, change browser settings. And, just like E.T., it has the urgent desire to »phone home« over a back channel, in order to transmit all of the data that has been collected. This is how databases come upon their information, which they then structure and turn into a profitable marketing instrument. The more users that are »visible«, »the more readily the powers that be can learn what they need to keep tabs on, and how to do so« (Critical Art Ensemble). Such databases represent an extensive arsenal for profiling social activity, allowing predictions to be made according to gender, ethnicity and sexuality and, not insignificantly, documenting which users have been »taken in« by anti-government propaganda disseminated by citizens' rights movements or diverse NGOs. So, if your »personal firewall« happens to ask you if you would like to receive or allow cookies, scripts or even ActiveX commands, go ahead and succumb to your paranoia - just click »No.«

 

Translated by Jennifer Taylor-Gaida

 

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