Our information on the internet is never private,  information like our name, phone number, and date of birth are actively being sold and bought between companies. This information that is being traded is called “big data”, social media companies like Facebook depicted in the film The Great Hack have done these practices. Facebook would collect information among their users then sold to advertisement companies, then that information will be used to target ads based on the information that was bought. Facebook is able to collect this information based on what you post and targeted surveys among users, what seems like an unsusceptible user-friendly survey is actually a way for Facebook to collect information on you. This invades our privacy by having our data collected without our knowledge, meanwhile, companies like Facebook use these data so the consumers spend more on advertisement products. David Carrol, who specializes in data protection, became interested in the Cambridge Analytica case after the big leak of Facebook users’ information. He notes how millions of people had their data used in the presidential election without their knowledge. He strongly argues that U.S. data protection is still lacking compared to other countries, and also people should be educated as to how they can protect their own information online.

The film The Great Hack and the article  “Death of the Private Self”, are both very similar in the way how it suggests that our information on the web is actually much more vulnerable than we think it is. Both sources depict how our information is constantly being circulated on the internet and we must be more careful as to what we want to disclose about ourselves the next time we make a Facebook profile or take an online survey. In summary, the internet is a revolutionary invention but that’s only if you use it responsibly.