Puppeteer: Stringing Together Autonomy in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism

Abstract

This paper introduces Puppeteer, a hybrid desktop app and browser extension that allows users to make custom browsing puppets who browse the internet in human-like patterns generated by a local large language model (LLM). By generating browsing data unrelated to the actual browser user, Puppeteer hopes to build off of Nissenbaum’s digital privacy strategy of obfuscation. Puppeteer also hopes to add a ludic and social element to obfuscation methods, offering users a playful and game-like interface, and the ability to share browsing puppets with each other. Now more relevant than ever, Puppeteer also seeks to add friction between users and the surveillance capitalist algorithms that govern our physical and digital lives, giving users a tool to regain agency from extractive, manipulative systems – turning puppets into puppeteers.