Privacy

 Privacy is a topic which comes up frequently in the modern discussion of social media and the digital age. We are in a time where we no longer are the main target for products online; we are the targets. Data collection and analyzation are a major industry now, raking in billions of dollars to pick apart every aspect of our digital lives. This collection of information on a massive scale is unprecedented in what it means for society as a whole.

In the recent movie Don't Look Up! which is available on Netflix, (Definitely worth a watch if you haven't seen it yet!) Peter Isherwell, who is a mash-up between Musk, Zuckerberg, Gates, and various tech billionaires, says to DiCaprio "Our algorithms can even predict how you’ll die with up to 96% accuracy. I looked you up after we first met. Your death was so unremarkable and boring... I can’t even remember what it said. Apart from one thing. You’re going to die alone." (Ouch!) We will soon reach a future where the data collected on us will be able to tell anyone with the money to buy it our most intimate secrets. Some say the phone knows us better than we know ourselves. If that is true, then what does that say about this rapid monetization of our usage habits?

Nothing good. Already it can be debated recent elections have been influenced by that fact. It would be naïve to think otherwise. With the billions of dollars spent on political campaigns, a scenario a-la House of Cards is definitely not out of the question, where the NSA's data-pool on American citizens could be utilized by an incumbent President to help sway the election in their favor. None of this is good news for democracy, and it is up to the people to fight for their own privacy, even if they can't see the direct effects of loss. We are screwed.