Here an excerpt from my latest article at The Gospel Coalition:
“We live in a data-driven world. From our shopping habits and online reading to where we drive and our political leanings, data is being collected on us all the time, and many of us are just starting to realize that truth. We saw recently how Facebook’s data was used by Cambridge Analytica to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. We also saw California law enforcement officials use DNA samples from family tree databases to solve the 30-year-old Golden State murder case.
A few days ago my best friend and I were talking about a restaurant on the phone, and as soon as he got off the call, an ad appeared in his Instagram timeline advertising that very restaurant. Needless to say, it was a tad creepy. Whether or not our phones are actually listening to us, we do know that our devices are designed and allowed to record massive amounts of data, often without our understanding or knowledge.
We know our data-rich world comes with many benefits, too. Waze gets us to our destination using the quickest route. Netflix finds the perfect show for us that we’ve never heard of before. But with these data-mining benefits also come dangers.”