· Absurd Bureaucracy · Your data
Data Export Request Office: a free game about asking for your own data
Ask a made-up app for a copy of your data: the right boxes, format and dates, then download only from the real page.
What is Data Export Request Office?
People of Nowhere want a copy of the data their made-up apps keep about them: just the photos, only the last 30 days, in a file that opens in a spreadsheet. Fill each request form exactly, then decide whether the “your copy is ready” page is the real one or a fake asking for a password.
Data Export Request Office is a free game about a right many people don't know they have: in many places, you can ask a service for a copy of the data it keeps about you. People of Nowhere bring their requests to made-up apps: just the photos, only the last 30 days, a file that opens in a spreadsheet.
Fill each request form exactly: tick the right categories, pick the format (HTML to read in a browser, CSV for a spreadsheet, JSON to move to another app) and, from Intermediate, the dates. Then a “your copy is ready” page opens: download it if it's the real page, close it if it asks for a password, a fee or an installer.
At a glance
- Category
- Absurd Bureaucracy
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Play time
- 6 min
- Price
- Free, in your browser, sign-up optional
How to play
- File
- +60 for the right categories, +20 each for format and dates, +10 per request.
- Download
- +50 for downloading from the real page or closing a fake one.
- Three levels
- Beginner, Intermediate or Expert, picked before you play: the content and the clock change, and each level keeps its own best score.
- Satire
- Absurd and warm: every country, office, planet and form is made up, and every run ends on a real admin skill.
Scoring
+60 for the right categories, +20 for the format and +20 for the dates (+40 for the format on Beginner), +50 for judging the download page, and +10 per request.
Win by getting at least 70% of the requests fully right.
What it trains
- Privacy awareness
- Knowing you can ask for a copy of your data.
- Precise requests
- Turning what someone asks for into exact form choices, then spotting fake pages.
Strategy and tips
- Underline the nouns
- Each thing the person names is a box to tick. Anything they didn't name stays unticked.
- Format = what next
- Reading it? HTML. Sorting it? CSV. Moving to a new app? JSON.
- The real page asks nothing
- Your copy is already yours. A password box, a fee or “install this viewer” means close the page.
Why play Data Export Request Office?
Knowing what an app keeps about you, and getting a copy in a format you can use, is a basic part of looking after your data. Asking precisely gets you a smaller, clearer file.
Frequently asked questions
Is Data Export Request Office free?
Yes. It is free and runs in your browser, with no download. Signing up is optional.
Are these real apps?
No. Every app, website, newsletter and domain in the game is made up (the addresses end in .example, which is reserved for examples). The online habits it teaches are real.
Is this legal advice?
No. The game is general and educational. Rules about data requests differ from place to place; each service's own help pages explain how to ask for your data.
Are there difficulty levels?
Yes: Beginner, Intermediate and Expert. The content and the clock change, and each level keeps its own best score.