Firewall-et was developed as part of my degree in Product Design at Central Saint Martin College, London.
This self-initiated project investigates the protection of privacy and the ever-increasing data mining through technologies such as RFID. Research in the field of surveillance, data tracking technologies as well as their use and abuse have led me to an awareness of the pressing issue about data leakage and thus the protection of private data in the near future.
Exploring diverse shielding materials and running tests on their (un) reliability I developed the device Firewall-et that is based on the idea to disconnect the antenna from the RFID tag. Only when activated, the sensitive information on the tag can be read. This offers the user a safe way to manage his RFID cards and to control when and where he shares his personal data.

Product design is not just about objects but should cover the full user experience including all services over the lifecycle of a product. To communicate this best, I chose to build this website that allows to interactively learn about Firewall-et and its handling.

Firewall-et is a design concept that contributes to the current discourses of social and political issues related to privacy protection and data mining and at the same time offers a unique solution that could be part of our daily lives and give back a piece of control that was lost.