Post #7: Selling Data and Lives

Selling Data and Our Lives

Finding a balance between technology benefiting our lives and intruding on our lives is a fine line that Americans have had to walk on over the past decade as technology has rapidly developed, for good and for evil. This issue of protecting privacy affects every American as our rights get more and more intruded on everyday. It affects everyone in different ways; some just get ads for websites they just visited and others get their identity stolen because they placed an order online. 

If you are the “lucky”  one in that situation, your privacy is still severely breached and your data is getting sold from first party companies to third party companies. It's everywhere, your phone, computer, tablets are all connected to one account and anything (and everything!) your search, write, text is stored and distributed throughout the main company and whoever they sell your data to. Americans who use the internet are consumers in multiple ways; mainly in a way that we are unaware of and only benefit the billion-dollar corporations that we inadvertently sell our lives to by posting on websites like Facebook. 

I know that I get creeped out when I see an ad on Instagram for a jewelry website I was visiting on my

computer, just a couple minutes prior. It reminds me how closely I’m being tracked and reminds me I’m not only being watched; I’m being encouraged to be a consumer. I closed the website for a reason; I’m a college student who doesn’t need any more packages from the mailroom. Yet, my technology is strongly encouraging me and reminding me to spend money on things I don’t need, and I’m not sure if I even want those things. In a world full of online pictures of “perfection”, people could spend thousands trying to buy that perfection and seemingly falling short every time. I bought the dress; why am I still not perfect like the girl on Instagram, vacationing in the South of France? 

That's a seemingly superficial issue, in comparison to how data breaches can destroy lives and businesses. However, this privacy issue, caused by the major companies and collect and sell data, both directly affects Americans and indirectly affects them. Yes, these companies sell your data and provide targeted ads but what are the effects of the ads? Could the ads telling young girls “buy this”, “look like this”, “be this” the reason behind the increasing depression and suicide rates among teen girls? 

How much of us is being sold?