letter

Draft

Facebook Ireland Ltd.

Attn: management

4 Grand Canal Square

Grand Canal Harbour

Dublin 2 Ireland

September […], 2016

Dear Sir / Madam,

I am Minne “TheCase” Belger, an artist. For more than 25 years I’ve been working on an installation which operates a program guaranteeing my digital immortality. This artwork is called “1ive0nline” (pronounce: Live Online).

In 1ive0n1ine I’m aggregating all my digital and digitized expressions, activities and (inter)actions since the late 80’s - by phone, bulletin boards, videotext, email, messenger services, internet, etcetera. Thus, this program knows so much about me that - through a complex algorithm - it can imitate and simulate my behaviour. In other words: 1ive0nline generates a second persona, a close-to-identical synthetic version of Minne Belger.

If I die (which is, unfortunately, a 99.99% sure thing to happen between now and 2065, so I am in a hurry!) my legacy will make 1ive0n1ine accessible to everyone. At that time, I reach the ultimate goal of my artwork: digital immortality. My digital persona can and will from that moment on, continue my live forever. In other words, the synthetic Minne will live on after my death and will, through the internet, keep on publishing and sharing my knowledge and opinions - solicited and unsolicited.

Of course, the digital Minne will not be complete without the data which Minne and other people have generated about Minne on Facebook.

In the light of the above and with reference to Article 12 of Directive 95/46/EC and Article 35 of the Dutch Data Protection Act, I would like to obtain within four weeks:

·         Confirmation as to whether or not any additional data relating to me as compared to your specifications in your Help section “Accessing Your Facebook Data” (http://bit.ly/1dqivF6) are being processed;

·         Information at least as to the purposes of the processing, the categories of data concerned, and the recipients or categories of recipients to whom the data are disclosed;

·         Communication to me in an intelligible form of the data undergoing processing and of any available information as to their source;

·         Description of the logic involved in any automatic processing of data concerning me, at least in the case of the automated decisions.

From the moment I transform from the Minne made from flesh and blood to the synthetic Minne, Facebook's current procedure for obtaining this kind of data (as described in your Help file "Downloading Your Info": http://bit.ly/2dlXJys) won't suffice since it requires manual actions by a living person.

I therefore kindly request to provide me with a live datastream which will continuously feed the 1ive0nline application, thus keeping my second, regretfully, deceased "me" alive for ever. I propose to deliver these data in Extensible Markup Language, or any alternative machine-readable format that is at least as good as XML.

I have included a copy of my ID so you can determine my identity.

Please note that this letter and all further communication regarding this matter will be included in 1ive0nline.

Yours sincerely,

Minne Belger