There has been buzz in the news about every middle-aged parents’ favorite social media platform.

In case you are a part of the population that is not a middle-aged parent or active on Facebook, allow us to break down for you why Mark Zuckerburg will be testifying before Congress for the first time.

Data from 50 million Facebook profiles was given to Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm. The information drawn from the data was then used to create quizzes and profiles to influence Facebook to vote and think politically.

In response, Facebook’s privacy policy has come into question.

This opens up Pandora’s Box and make us at The Daily Eastern News wonder: Were we even granted any privacy to begin with?

The Internet has given us eager, useless and endless opportunities to explore, search and enjoy ourselves.

As technology continues to advance, the double-edged sword that is the Internet sharpens.

Everything we search gets regurgitated onto our timelines, walls or whatever name the given social media calls their main sharing platform. When we sign up and use social media, we plug in our full names and share messages with our friends and fellow users. This situation is a more than gentle reminder that our “private” information is equally up for grabs as our search histories are to influence us as consumers, users and people in general.

Today, it feels like this influence starts walking the line of manipulation. What we decide to put on our social media and anywhere in the Internet, is no longer just ours or something we are sharing with a select someone or group of people. It becomes archived into the programs we are using to better fit our experience. It becomes property to the boundless landscape that is home to an infinite amount of information that is increasing every minute the more people log in.

Now, we are not saying that everything you put on the Internet is at risk of being a step in the direction closer to make you into a robot (mainly because we have not received any confirmation yet). It is OK to post #ThrowbackThursday pictures from your last family vacation in Hawaii, but do not be surprised if you start seeing ads for cheap airfare slowly pop up every time you open Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Social media is meant to be exactly what it sounds like: for us to use and be social. Companies, organizations and all other institutions that fall under this category have learned to use social media as a tool to persuade us.