Personal Data Mining

          Social media, internet browsers, tech companies, and software downloads are pretty common terms in this day and age. We live in a society of growing technological development and continuous investment in the growth and development of this field. But do you know what all of these companies have in common? They know every little bit of information that is out in the world right now! Google, YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. all have tabs and files on each and everyone of us. Everything from emails, phone numbers, and passwords to what you like to do, who your family is, and even criminal records and past events are all of their property now. However, is it really that scary or frustrating to give trusted companies that are bound by the laws and regulations our private and personal data? In my opinion it isn't scary at all, It is terrifying! These companies has access to everything imaginable about us. This information could easily be used against us for purposes that are highly undesirable. In the past decade billions of social media users, internet owners, and personal accounts have been hacked across the globe. People's information has been given out and spread out all throughout the world. This information can be incriminating, damaging, hurtful, and can cost a great deal of opportunities from jobs and employment opportunities to life decisions and privacy. 

          It is ironic how companies have our information and love to hand it out to each other for business purposes, but they hate certain individuals, organizations, and political movements that they censor every bit of information that they can not stand. These same companies also go to great lengths to ensure that a lot of their information is never exposed; as they know how much damage loose information can do. These companies also, interestingly enough, have contracts with government organizations, such as the FBI and CIA. Amazon and Google have both been given long and extensive contracts with these organizations and the U.S. military. This very interesting, and it makes you wonder, if companies sell your personal information to each other; do they sell your private data to the U.S. government? It might sound like a conspiracy theory, but one has to admit that you can not deny the facts about some of these events. I am not to concerned with myself about how much data that someone could have on me; as I take many precautions of how I go about online and what type of information that I give out. I do not have a very large online presence; as I do not care for social media myself, but I do have a Google account for email and YouTube, and I was forced to make a Facebook profile for a class, but other than that I do not have much to share with people. The only information that someone could get off of me, would be that I am a gamer, and I enjoy technology. The only information that I have given out voluntarily would be my email and few personal details for account purposes. Another question that is curious and has to be asked would be how social media affects people. In my opinion, social media does isolate people, and it can cause people to feel lonely and depressed. It is pretty easy to tell how people act on social media; as many people actually post everything about their lives on social media. It is surprising that a lot of people tend to use social media as an outing for their feelings, emotions, beliefs, and ideas.

Interesting Articles:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90359992/an-ad-tech-pioneer-on-where-our-data-economy-went-wrong-and-how-to-fix-it

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-03/millions-of-facebook-records-found-on-amazon-cloud-servers?srnd=premium

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/04/facebook-asked-some-users-for-their-email-passwords-because-why-not/