It is certainly no secret that our privacy as a society has never been more threatened than today due to our life in a digital world. Not only do we have to worry about criminals stealing our personal and banking information, but we now also have to worry about big businesses like banks and insurance companies. What makes matters worse is that we easily and willingly give up much of our privacy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayPrivacy is a right that belongs to every individual. Privacy can be defined as an individual's ability to isolate and express themselves selectively. But most of us don't understand how what we post is used, how it is tracked, collected and used for various purposes. Have you ever searched for a product on Google and then immediately been bombarded with ads of the product or the same brand, perfect? example how the Internet monitors our every move. Every email you send, every product you've purchased online, everything you've posted, and everywhere you go, it's all recorded and archived. Search engines use this data to provide advertisers with a more receptive audience. People view social media as a nonprofit public service, a way to share and receive information with friends. What we don't know is that social media companies generate their profits through targeted advertisements. The more we publish, the more information the company can collect, which will result in better targeting and more revenue. Take the recent Facebook data scandal which involved the violation of the privacy of over 50 million Facebook users which was then used to target ads during the 2016 presidential election. This was done by selling users' personal information to a political consulting company which used the data to create advertisements manipulating users into voting for a particular candidate. The social media giant is not the only offender of this behavior, Facebook was the first company to be shut down. Many companies get away with it because their privacy policies are constantly changing and we never bother to read the hundreds of documents they send us and if we ever get the chance, we can't understand what is being said since we are not lawyers. One of the greatest dangers is the one we carry around every day and use freely without paying attention. I'm talking about our credit cards, the magnetic strip of ATM cards contains a large amount of data and is easily hacked. Although we are constantly warned to be careful on the internet and not provide personal information after receiving an email saying we have won 50 Million Euros in a lottery in England which we did not enter. never participated. Many of us are willing to voluntarily give up our personal data which will be used for any identity theft or to hack your bank account. However, the future looks brighter as governments are now putting increased pressure on companies to change their obscure privacy policies and agencies are now reading the terms and conditions that almost all internet users completely ignore. Businesses are invited to.