Questioning What a System Requires to Know

THE BOLDER WAY™

QUESTION ANYTHING

QUESTION RESOURCE 0030

THE QUESTION

How much personal information should I have to give a System before it will let me interact with it?

Systems can ask to know something about me before I can look, compare, access, communicate, purchase, participate, or proceed.

Sometimes that information may be necessary for what I am asking the System to do.

Other information may serve another purpose.

And sometimes I may provide information simply because providing it has become part of getting through the System.

Questioning what a System requires to know does not require me to decide that collecting personal information is wrong.

It allows me to Question the relationship between what I want to do, what the System wants to know, and what I must disclose in order to continue.

A QUESTION TO HOLD

Why does the System need to know this about me?

BEGIN WHERE SOMETHING GETS YOUR ATTENTION.

You do not have to answer every Question.

THE BOLDER WAY™

QUESTION ANYTHING

QUESTION RESOURCE 0030

BEGIN HERE

WHAT AM I TRYING TO DO?

What am I trying to see, learn, compare, access, buy, use, or do?
Am I trying to explore—or complete a transaction?
What does the System require before I can begin?
What does it require before I can continue?

What does it require before I can complete what I came to do?
At what point does the System actually need to know who I am?
What should I be able to do without identifying myself?
What should I be able to know before I provide personal information?

WHAT DOES THE SYSTEM WANT TO KNOW?

What information am I being asked to provide?
Which information is required?
Which information is optional?
Is that distinction clear to me?
What information is necessary for what I am asking the System to do?

What information serves another purpose?
Do I know what that other purpose is?
What happens if I do not provide it?
Can I continue with less information?
Is there another way to participate?

WHAT ELSE CAN THE SYSTEM KNOW?

What information am I intentionally providing?
What information can the System observe while I interact with it?
What information can it connect with information it already has?

What might it infer without my explicitly telling it?
Do I experience all of those as the same kind of knowing?

WHAT SHOULD I BE ABLE TO KNOW ABOUT THE SYSTEM BEFORE THE SYSTEM NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT ME?

THE BOLDER WAY™

QUESTION ANYTHING

QUESTION RESOURCE 0030

GO FURTHER

AFTER THE SYSTEM KNOWS

What becomes possible once the System has this information?
What can it personalize?
What can it recommend?
What can it rank?
What can it filter?
What can it decide?
What can it show me?

What might it not show me?
What can it remember about this interaction?
What could this information affect the next time I return?
Could what I am offered change because of what the System knows about me?
Could the terms of my interaction change?
Would I know if they did?

ACCESS, CHOICE, AND PARTICIPATION

What am I receiving in exchange for the information I provide?
Am I exchanging information for access?
For convenience?
For personalization?
For speed?
For participation itself?
Would I make the same exchange if I had another way to participate?

Am I choosing to provide the information—or choosing whether to participate under the System’s conditions?
How much choice do I have if refusing the information means I cannot continue?
What am I agreeing to because I want the benefit?
What am I agreeing to because the System has made it a condition of entry?
When does a request for information become a requirement for participation?

QUESTION TO GO FURTHER

Would the System treat me differently if it knew less about me?

THE BOLDER WAY™

QUESTION ANYTHING

QUESTION RESOURCE 0030

LET THE QUESTION MOVE

WHAT BELONGS TO THIS INTERACTION?

What does the System actually need in order to do what I am asking it to do?
What does it want in order to do something beyond what I am asking?
Do I know the difference?
What information belongs to this interaction?
What information could remain mine?
What am I willing to disclose?
What am I unwilling to disclose?

What happens to my participation when I draw that line?
What choices remain available to me?
What does the System know before I arrive?
What does it know because I participated?
What continues after the interaction ends?
What responsibility belongs to me in deciding what I provide?
What responsibility belongs to the System in deciding what it requires?

SELF

What am I willing to exchange for access, convenience, or personalization?

When do I provide information without really considering the exchange?

What makes the exchange feel worth it to me?

What would make me choose not to participate?

SYSTEMS

What does the System actually need to know—and what has it chosen to require?

How does each requirement relate to what the System is supposed to do?

Who decided what a Human must provide in order to participate?

What becomes possible for the System because that requirement exists?

SOCIETY

When did giving personal information become an ordinary condition of participation?

Which disclosures have become so familiar that I barely notice them?

What do Humans increasingly have to reveal in order to participate in ordinary parts of life?

What expectations about privacy, access, convenience, and participation are becoming normal?

RETURN TO THE QUESTION

How much personal information should I have to give a System before it will let me interact with it?
Why does the System need to know this about me?

What should I be able to know before I have to identify myself?
What changes after the System knows more about me?
What am I choosing—and what is being required?
What remains a Question?

What does this reveal about Being Human?

Answers can come from anywhere. Questioning remains yours.

Questioning What a System Requires to Know — QR-0030