Anyone who has ever watched a movie or television knows this classic scene where a character asks the question “Does it feel like you’re being watched?” » to another character. Today, many Americans in today's society are asking the exact same question about their own lives. In the 21st century, modern technology has enabled governments, businesses, scientists, and researchers to do just that: monitor our lives with clusters of what is known as “Big Data.” Big Data is commonly considered the digital storage of large amounts of information (CQ researcher, 909). Big Data can be anything from a person's Facebook content to their email address; any personal information about someone can be considered Big Data (909). The question then becomes how the data is used and what are the advantages and disadvantages of entities having access to this big data. Big data is the digital storage of large amounts of information and comes in many different forms. This may include information about an individual from social media, phone calls and recordings, emails, bank statements, and any other personal information they may have, including credit card numbers (912). This information is most commonly found in emails, social media, and search engines (912). Additionally, government organizations such as the National Security Administration (NSA) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) collect much of this big data; in one case, the DEA demanded phone records from AT&T (912) customers. Computers designed for big data can look beyond structure to examine less structured data such as Facebook information, camera footage, search engine searches, and what customers view in retail stores online retail such as Amazon.com (912). Much of the big data that is stored in the middle of paper...... a means of identifying exchanges that may be illegal; the use of this data gave rise to nearly 300 investigations in July 2013 (915). There is no doubt that Big Data is an extremely controversial topic in today's society. Businesses, scientists, and even government use Big Data every day, whether to find new ways to strengthen the economy, improve medicine, or track terrorists. However, this comes with the belief that people lose their privacy and trust in government, as well as other disadvantages such as a worse credit score and whether or not someone gets a job or a loan. Like many things in life, Big Data has both advantages and disadvantages. The question therefore remains: is Big Data more beneficial than harmful? Works Cited “Big Data and Privacy”. CQ Researcher 23.38 (2013): 909-932. Internet. Feb 2014.