What  struck me most from the discussion on Monday would be just how widespread and trenchant access large companies, like Facebook and Google, have to our ‘personal’ data. This trend worries me considerably. I feel like privacy rights are almost obsolete in an age where so much information is readily available digitally, often without the user’s knowledge. Luis’ requesting his data from Google really substantiates this point. There really is an exhaustive record of everything we do on the internet.

Now of course, we all see this as troubling and we all don’t desire our personal information to be collected in such a manner. However, we all continue to use Facebook, etc. for a variety of reasons. Whether it be convenience, comfort or habit, we continue to be involved in social media and other digital enterprises that result in data collection. To be truly removed would be living off the grid, something few people are willing to do. This fact led me to the unhappy conclusion that this type of infringement on privacy is an axiomatic result of living in the digital age. I hope this is not the case, but unless people really make a concerted effort to address this issue, I’m doubtful of anything changing soon. That being said, I do believe many people are concerned about this and are actively trying to change things for the better.