DATA DOESN’T DIE. IT HAUNTS.

Data breaches are everywhere. Corporations and conglomerates announce the risk of users’ private information being exposed nearly daily. Your social security numbers, financial information, and health records are just some of the valuable information cyberhackers seek when infiltrating a database. With access to such sensitive information, hackers can perpetrate identity theft, financial fraud, and even blackmail, causing significant harm to individuals whose data is compromised. What’s particularly troubling is that these breaches are not confined to small or obscure companies; even seemingly credible and reputable companies like AT&T, Marriott, Facebook, and American Express have fallen victim to data breaches. These organizations have millions of users in their databases whose safety has been compromised on multiple occasions. It begs the question of who can we trust with our personal information and to what extent. These major corporations have more than enough funding to enhance and increase their cybersecurity, yet they still fall victim to data leaks. These companies must take more accountability for the potential harm they expose their millions of customers to. Since data breaches are a pressing issue in our society as we navigate the digital age, I felt compelled to delve deeper into the topic in my video. The intended audience is the general public, as data and privacy leaks can affect nearly every citizen. Upon my research, I learned that there is a plethora of different causes to this prevalent issue. One of the most common ways a breach can occur is through a cyber attack, where a hacker uses malware like ransomware or keyloggers to exploit users’ personal information. Additionally, insider threats, weak passwords, unpatched software, and third-party vendors can be used to leak user data. This was an unsettling discovery as we are also currently experiencing surveillance capitalism, a term coined by Shoshana Zuboff, which is essentially the commodification of users’ personal data by large corporations. On the podcast Recode Decode, Zuboff states, “When customers are fully informed about how their data is being used, they don’t like it. So, companies like Google and Facebook have decided to take without asking. And whoever has all that data has a tremendous amount of power — so much so that the same people who unwittingly provided more data than they realized to tech companies can then be manipulated toward commercial and political outcomes.” Our data is unknowingly harvested by these organizations, which are sold to other parties or stolen by hackers. Regardless, it feels like an incredibly unsafe time when our privacy is compromised on a nearly daily basis. The video I made is a remix of a horror movie commercial, reflective of the eerie feeling many users are experiencing from the numerous data breaches. My hope is for the viewers to be conscious of the data they share and whom they share it with. Change your passwords, read terms of agreement contracts, and request your data from major platforms to be aware of what information they have on you. Protect your data. Protect your privacy.