Chelsea Manning and Data Privacy take centre stage at Geneva human rights film festival

Hans Block's unnerving documentary 'Made to Measure' was screened on Saturday 5 March at the 20th edition of Geneva's human rights film festival, FIFDH.

The fascinating piece poses the question: Is it possible to reconstruct a person’s life based solely on its google searches?

'Behavioural residue' is the central element here. Those little data traces we leave as we go about everyday life. And this film shows us how we do that, and what the rest of the world can deduce about you from it.

The premise is an experiment that uses machine learning to analyse our digital footprint and then, crucially, to create a psychological profile from that data.

They used a volunteer as a case study and profiled her over the course of five years, leading to a theatrical finale where her digital life would be, as it were, inhabited and performed back to her by an actress.

We are all aware of how valuable algorithms are to online retail. But can a profile from our search history tell people much deeper facts about our true selves? Can it answer questions like: What am I afraid of? and What would I be willing to fight for?

What we search is big business. Take health for example. Our searches are monitored and the results compiled and sold to pharma and insurance companies by data brokers, and it's happening to all of us.

The mapping out of this woman's life turned into an extremely emotive piece of filmmaking when the search profile had revealed a miscarriage. Moved to tears the subject had to take a break.

"That's what it was like. Not at all in this context but still. That's insane," she said, shocked at how her reality had been pieced together and given life due to a dataset.

"That's what it was like," she repeated to the actress opposite her.