{"id":62766,"date":"2018-05-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/foxtail\/2018\/05\/09\/joana-varon\/"},"modified":"2021-02-09T01:34:14","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T01:34:14","slug":"joana-varon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/internet-culture\/interviews\/joana-varon\/","title":{"rendered":"Joana Varon: Hunting the data suckers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout the Americas, a mythical creature roams in the shadows, slinking out only to kill  livestock and haunt our dreams. The Chupacabra<\/i>, which literally means \u201cgoat sucker,\u201d gets its name<\/a> for its habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock, especially goats. And it\u2019s on this sneaky bloodsucking creature that Mozilla Fellow<\/a> Joana Varon has based her own project, calling it Chupadados<\/i>, the Datasucker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cChupadados is the 21st century iteration, more modern and more cute,\u201d Varon said. \u201cIt means ‘data sucker,’ and it\u2019s more cute because that’s exactly what our technological devices are. They are charming. They are innovative. We love them. But in the end we might be having an abusive relationship with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chupadados project gathers stories from across Latin America about data collection conducted by governments, businesses and even individuals to monitor cities, homes, purchases and bodies. Varon finds the daily experiences people have with apps and technology ripe for storytelling that exposes abuses of data privacy. Her goal is to show how Chupadados operate behind their attractive exteriors and teach people how to better master their relationships with their devices.<\/p>\n