The world has experienced a data explosion in recent years. In 2020 alone, 64.2 zettabytes of data were created or replicated, according to IDC. This is roughly equivalent to 500,000 times the amount of information in all the academic libraries in the United States. More importantly, much of the data created today relates to individuals, and that data is becoming more personal.
A decade ago, when a company collected personal information from you, you wittingly took a clear action to provide it to them – whether it was uploading a photo or filling out a form with basic information such as your phone number, mailing address or password. Now, companies obtain much more sensitive personal information –often without the average individual knowing, since it is created instead of collected.