Your Data is the New Currency: Are You Protecting It?

Author(s): Harshit Kandoi

Originally published on Towards AI.

Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash

Picture this: you book a movie ticket online — easy, right? A few clicks, a confirmation email, done. But then the next day, your inbox is overflowing with movie posters and deals. Your Instagram feed suddenly shows popcorn offers and upcoming movie trailers. Even your Alexa recommends a “Movie Night” playlist.

What just happened?

That harmless transaction was actually a data drop. One moment of your online activity turned into fuel for dozens of algorithms. Your interest in that one film became a breadcrumb in the massive digital trail you’re leaving behind casually every day.

In 2025, every scroll, like, tap, and even voice command feeds an environment that knows more about you than you might expect. This isn’t some kind of target advertising anymore, it’s a full-fledged ecosystem powered by our personal data. On platforms like X, users are openly calling it “surveillance capitalism,” where your habits are tracked, sold, and resold like assets on a stock exchange. Hashtags like #DataEconomy and #PrivacyFail trend daily, and for good reason.

But this goes far deeper than ads. Your data isn’t just being used to sell your data tracks, but it’s being used to predict your day-to-day life, learns your… Read the full blog for free on Medium.

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Published via Towards AI