I have never actually though of the idea of big data. But after reading these articles it all seems to make sense. Big data is always there, taking notes on what we search and how many times we do so. For example, when I wanted to buy a new car and was looking at multiple car dealer website I saw ads on my facebook for car dealerships soon after. The big data related to me is personal because it is based of things that I do. A benefit of big data is that when I am shopping or on any kind of site with ads the will more times than not be specific to things that I like or that I have frequently looked at on the internet. In the podcast by Sally Herships states that big data is following us and gives insight as to why “For retailers, the options often are a) showering consumers in random ads for things they may have no interest in, or b) sending us too many ads for things we may have already bought. Most of the time, retailers go with choice b, and Siegel says they do that because they’re cheap and so just enough of the time, companies will make a profit.” What we can get from this is that companies invade our privacy to send us useless ads to make a profit. A drawback or con is that this can seem very invading to some and it gives people the opportunity to know things about you that you may not have wanted. Jennifer Goldbeck talks about this and states that we should be able to say or not if we want our private data being used and shared.