Based on the documentary, The Great Hack, I found that big data, which is essentially large volumes of user data found in different applications and websites, is used by multi-million businesses and corporations in order to better understand a person’s likes, dislikes, interests, and a variety of other subjects. This can be exemplified from the political scandal that Cambridge Analytica was associated with in the 2016 U.S. election where the IT service management company collected personal data of approximately 60 million Facebook users in order to advertise Trump’s political campaign. To be more specific, they used the users’ data to generate ads for the election of Trump and created propaganda against Hilary Clinton which of course led to Trump winning the election, albeit under extremely shady circumstances. It was because of this that Professor David Carroll, a professor of media design at Parsons School of Design, chose to delve deeper in the scandal of Cambridge Analytica during the 2016 Presidential Election. The goal Carroll had with the Cambridge Analytica case was to obtain complete disclosure from Cambridge about his data and essentially get full transparency from them. It was because of this, that many concerned citizens, similar to Carroll, began to speak out against big technology companies harvesting user data saying these data rights apply to the definition of human rights and should be treated as such.

I noticed many connections in regards to user data after watching this documentary and rereading the article, “Death of the private self.” Both sources discuss the use of data, its importance and the effect social media has on the future generations. While both forms of media delve into two different subjects, with the documentary focusing on the importance and uses of data and the article explaining the reason why more and more people are becoming more active online instead of in person. Through this, there’s a clear connection, and perhaps the biggest one, that can be illustrated that with the advance of technology, the sooner people realize how much of their personal information is out there for others to see, the sooner another Cambridge Analytica incident can be avoided amongst other more terrifying things. To be honest, after learning more about the Cambridge Analytica scandal and watching that documentary, it’s scary how many companies could obtain or even currently have citizens’ private information without us even realizing it. People, as well as government officials, should see that entire scandal as a wake up call for people’s data rights.