As we embark into a fully data-driven world, it is important for technology consumers to ask questions to better understand where their personal data is going.

Unfortunately, the interminable sphere of Big Data can get really boring and confusing. This is why cartoonist Josh Neufeld and Michael Keller of Al Jazeera America collaborated to create “Terms of Service: Understanding our Role in the World of Big Data,” a comic novella sum field guide that demystifies Big Data and its implications on daily life.

The comic itself is centered around how data is handled in the United States and explores the tradeoffs between giving up personal data and how that data could be used against you. It answers many questions, such as:

• Which technologies might seem invasive today, that five years from now will seem normal? 

• As technology users, how do we keep up with the pace without letting our data determine who we are?

French newspaper Le Monde recently published the first 30 pages of the French version of the comic. Recent concerns about the collection and sharing of data have brought Big Data to the forefront of privacy discussions.

Sources

Terms of Service, http://projects.aljazeera.com/2014/terms-of-service/#1

Al Jazeera America, http://america.aljazeera.com/tools/pressreleases/al-jazeera-america-releases-first-graphic-novella.html