In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, a poor black woman named Henrietta Lacks has some cancer cells that were unique: ones that could continue cell division forever. Renamed after Henrietta Lacks, HeLa cells quickly became a new field of study. However, without the acknowledgement of Henrietta herself, her cells were taken into research and study all over the world.

“Henrietta knew nothing about her cells growing in a laboratory” (Skloot, 42).

This is just the beginning. A field of study suddenly created and extremely popular wouldn’t take long to let Henrietta figure out about what was being done with her cells. The irony here is: even if she knew sooner, there’s nothing she could do. Just like that, she soon died of cancer. But the progress never stopped, as well as the growth of her cells. Her family faced the same problem, powerless. Now we see how terribly privacy could be handled by even doctors for personal benefits. The immortality of her cells costs her life, but her life costs nothing but cells that made other people famous.

“The internet made the world a smaller place, but has the internet made the world a safer place?” (Al Jazeera).

The more people are connected together by internet, the more privacy are exposed. This is meant to take each internet user’s digital footprint into consideration in big data analytics to better understand their program for the better. In other words, considered as benefits to them.

“Internet” by John Schnobrich via Unsplash

This is evidence that the issue of progress vs. privacy does not only occur in the past, they reappear with another form in the present day–with the same reason. We should all be careful of violating others’ privacy and also protect ourselves’.