From Convenience to Compromise: The Price of Personal Information in the Digital Era

Have you experienced receiving a phone call from an unfamiliar number? Nowadays, it may seem like a rhetorical question because most of us have encountered such situations. The prevalence of spam calls on our mobile devices has made it a common occurrence.

Personally, I receive these phone calls at least every few days. I often wonder about their origin and how on Earth they got my number.

How about when you scroll through social media or a website, and you come across an ad for something you checked out a few days ago. It’s an item you’re genuinely interested in, but you can’t help but wonder how or why the ad is being served to you.

This instance, along with the strange capability of Google and other software being able to read your mind by showing you ads for things you searched for momentarily weeks prior, are all in the same category. We are all familiar with the reality that organizations that we connect with in some capacity for online shopping, article reading, or more leverage a good portion of our personal information to their advantage and, in essence, to ours.