Christian Heller in his Berlin apartment. He blogs about every detail of his life eliminating all privacy as a demonstration of his belief in the post-privacy era.

By Haiko Prengel


Christian Heller has overcome any inhibition he might have had about living his life in a virtual glasshouse where every part of his private life is exposed for all to see. The revelation that the US National Security Agency requires large Internet companies like Google to hand over vast amounts of personal data transmitted by individual Web users has not changed his view.
Heller is still more than happy to reveal online all his innermost secrets, including his diary, bank details and accounts of his personal life.
The 28-year-old is carrying out what he describes as a “post-privacy experiment” and believes he is going on the offensive by voluntarily revealing his most intimate activities on the Web.
For several years, Heller has meticulously noted his complete daily routine and published it on his website, www.plomlompom.de, under the title “PlomWiki.” “It has given me great pleasure,” he explains. “My philosophy is that the more useful information is, the more public it should be made.”
Many of the Berliner’s notes can be best described as banal, such as recounting what he has eaten that day or giving details about what academic article he is currently working on. Heller agrees that not many people actually read his blog entries, although he does not bother checking the access statistics for his website.
The experiment is merely replicating reality. The admission by the US government that it has been secretly collecting information on non-US citizens for nearly six years has made clear that data protection is more an illusion than reality.
Government surveillance appears widespread, but people also have to accept some degree of responsibility for what is happening as a result of their, in many cases, unabashed willingness to share private and intimate details with others on social networks. Heller belongs to a movement that believes we are now living in a “post-privacy” society and asks whether in the digital age — considering the amount of data available and technological advances being made — the concept of data protection should not be simply consigned to the dustbin.
 ‘Post-Privacy — Living Well without a Private Life’ is the title of Heller’s book. It tackles the theory that privacy is now a thing of the past. The blogger also gives talks and writes articles about humanity’s “digital consciousness.”
Campaigners in Germany for strict protection of data contend that Heller’s thesis is naive and even dangerous. They argue that the potential for oppression that could come with round-the-clock surveillance is underestimated.
 “Press reports about surveillance states only allow us to guess about the degree to which data flows can be controlled, censored and manipulated,” the German Federal Data Protection Commissioner, Peter Schaar, wrote in a review of Heller’s book.
Making the best of the situation because invasive surveillance is now possible with modern technology is not an acceptable position, he argues. Instead a way has to be found that leads to the creation of a democratic information society. “This entitlement encompasses the legal as well as technological design principles that will protect the rights of Internet users — including the right to privacy and control of personal information — in the 21st century,” says Schaar, a privacy advocate with a government salary.
Advocates of transparency are also critical of the post-privacy philosophy, arguing that while information about public tenders and spending should be transparent, private data needs to be protected.
Heller believes the post-privacy debate is an important part of understanding and moulding how humanity will live together in the future.
Transparency could also be used to control the power of the state, he argues. Society needs to become more tolerant as the impending “massive exposure of characteristics” will bring to light not only your neighbours’ secrets but many other things that are still considered taboo.
 “Privacy will no longer exist,” says Heller with almost complete indifference.— DPA