Based on the film The Great Hack, I came to an understanding that the way big data works is big companies take personal information from social networking platforms like Facebook. The reason our information is used is to benefit their presidential campaigns and increase the attention they get from people by using the information they took without our consent to know what we are interested in and what we dislike. By one person allowing consent would mean that they are allowed to see the information of that person and also that person’s friends. Professor David Carroll in the Cambridge Analytica case was pursuing to find out what information Canbridge used, how they got it, and how they used it in order for the public to be aware of what has been happening without their consent and knowledge. As a result some people trusted Mark Zuckerberg (creator of Facebook) less because they kept it from their users that companies were using their data without their knowledge and him not being able to explain it while in court. As a result from the Cambridge Analytica case it was found out that they used certain technology to use every user’s data they obtained to send ads that would benefit their campaign and increase their chances of getting their vote by either showing a negative side of their opponent or a positive message of campaign team in order to be the favorite candidate. People later had less trust in their government if they could trust the presidential campaigns as the in the 2016 election there was a scandal as the invasion of privacy of millions of users.

This goes back to the article we read in the beginning of the semester (“Death of the Private Self”) because they both show how social media is part of a majority of everyone’s lives now and that also means that our privacy is something we have less as a result from it. The film got more into the consequences the invasion of privacy have on the users and for the companies that allow it to happen and the companies who use the information. While the article talked more about how social media is our future and as a result we have less privacy all around including our homes which the goal was mainly to raise the awareness of everyone since everyone used social media at this point or would be since it’s our future.