People Are Willing to Give Away Their Personal Data for a Cinnamon Cookie

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This story was co-published with ProPublica.

In a highly unscientific but delicious experiment last weekend, 380 New Yorkers gave up sensitive personal information — from fingerprints to partial Social Security numbers — for a cookie.

“It is crazy what people were willing to give me,” said artist Risa Puno, who conducted the experiment, which she called “Please Enable Cookies,” at a Brooklyn arts festivalThe cookies — actual cookies — came in flavors such as “Chocolate Chili Fleur de Sel” and “Pink Pistachio Peppercorn.”

See also: Dutch Student Sells All of His Personal Data for 350 Euros

To get a cookie, people had to turn over personal data that could include their address, driver’s license number, phone number and mother’s maiden name. Read more...

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