It is, at the moment, very difficult to keep track of all the things we should and/or conceivably could be worried about. (This year we probably don’t have to fret about razor blades in apples and rat poison in candy; we should, however, be concerned about whether or not your mask is covering your nose, Sharon.) Luckily, Take This Lollipop mastermind Jason Zada has returned to once again remind you that you have got to keep your shit locked down, internet-wise.
If you missed the original the first time around, it’s below—sort of. The effect is lessened somewhat when the film isn’t taking all your Facebook data and using it to populate the film.
Like its predecessor, this Take This Lollipop depends on your willingness to happily offer access to your own data; no, it is not secretly produced by a shadowy cabal of identity-thieving buttholes. You can be reasonably assured that when you grant Lollipop access to your webcam, nothing truly nefarious will happen. Or maybe it will, muahahahaha, et cetera.
Your turn. It’s suggested that you view the film on a desktop browser, rather than a mobile device, so once you’re done in the bathroom, grab your laptop and go ahead and try it. Oh, and make sure you watch the whole thing (the actual ending is unmistakable). We’ll be waiting. As we twiddle our thumbs, here’s a video that will prove relevant in just a few moments.
The deep fake artist who helped Zada create that wild little experience goes by BirbFakes, and he’s, you guessed it, the person behind “Jennifer Lawrence-Buscemi.” The point here is not simply to freak you out by how weird your face looks when the internet is controlling your mouth. Its aim, to quote a representative for the film, is to use “deep fake tech [and] AI, all in a Zoom meeting horror setting to highlight today’s cybersecurity threats.”
So, as Take This Lollipop and presumably Jeffrey Toobin would both like to remind you, you should probably get one of those little slider-bar privacy things for your webcam and be thoughtful and deliberate about where and how you share information—including the fact that you have a face.
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