Incautious Porn wants to prove that our expectation of online anonymity is foolish — and that our "free" social networks are more costly than we realize. The website — part of the Art is Open Source network — gathers comments and phone numbers left in public forums for erotic performers to call, and uses the information to create a piece of digital artwork that's available for purchase. Also available for purchase? A scan of its database to see if your phone number has been found, followed by a subsequent €1,000 fee to remove it. But the project seems less about the money, and more about the message; "it is about the transformation of the ways in which we perceive private and public spaces," the creators write. "It is about being sold hundreds of times each day: our data, information, emotions, relations."
This type of extortion by embarrassment isn't new. Websites that post mugshots and arrest notes that will remove the information for a fee have been around for some time. Similarly, "revenge porn" sites that collect user-submitted photographs of exes have gained notoriety for charging those featured in the photographs a fee to have them removed. "We're not the bad guys!" Incautious Porn notes, after clarifying that all information used by the site was taken from public sources.