New Bletchley Park exhibition looks at how internet devices affect our lives in Milton Keynes

The exhibition is called Never Alone: What Happens When Everything is Connected? It opened this week and will run until February next year.

Based on an exhibition created by the National Science and Media Museum, it looks at household internet connected devices such as surveillance, tracking, smart homes and algorithmic bias.

It draws on Bletchley Park’s unique history as Britain’s wartime signals intelligence hub. Among the items on show are a never-before-displayed wartime radio, secret index cards and a map plotting the course of a German U-boat.

The exhibition explores trends and issues around the Internet of Things – an ever-increasing network of internet-connected devices which now outnumber people living on Earth.

Drawing on the parallels with Bletchley Park’s wartime surveillance of enemy personnel and operations, and exploitation of information at scale, visitors will be invited to explore questions around security and privacy by examining wartime archive materials alongside modern smart objects.

Staged in Hut 12, the exhibition looks at objects that relate to tracking, surveillance and smart homes, and a final section on bias exploring the ways devices can reflect the human values of their programmers and developers.

Contemporary items such as an Amazon Echo Dot, internet-connected toys (including the My Friend Cayla doll, which appeared in many ‘toy of the year’ lists on release in 2015/16 but was subsequently banned in Germany due to concerns over privacy and safety), are displayed alongside a wartime radio and template forms used by World War Two intercept stations to track enemy movements, and index cards logging information about key enemy personnel.

Visitors to the exhibition are also encouraged to answer some timely questions on the use of personal data, voting if it is okay for biological and medical information to be tracked, a topic that is particularly pertinent given the current pandemic.

Erica Munro, Exhibition Manager at Bletchley Park, said: “Recent events have shown just how big an impact technology has on our lives, and that the collection and exploitation of data is still an ever-more relevant topic in the twenty-first century. Handling intercepted information at scale and exploiting it was key to the wartime work at Bletchley Park, and we are excited to be hosting this exhibition, looking at the impact internet-connected items have on our lives today. The exhibition considers the positive improvements these devices can make to our lives, as well as encouraging visitors to question how our personal data is used, and how the connected world should be managed.”

Alice Parsons, Interpretation Manager at the National Science and Media Museum, said: “Never Alone is an urgent look at how internet surveillance and connectivity is changing how we live, work and play, and it just as pressing now as when it was first developed. To have the exhibition at Bletchley Park, an iconic location for security and surveillance, is a perfect fit for the exhibition. We’re so excited that unique objects from the Bletchley Park collection are being used to further explore these burning questions and continue the conversation.”

Never Alone is open now until 2 February 2021. Entry to the exhibition is included with a general admission ticket which gives visitors unlimited free returns for twelve months (pre-booking essential.) Under 12s visit for free (must be accompanied by an adult).

Visits must be pre-booked. Tickets can be booked here