Big Data has been called the new crude oil, a seemingly inexhaustible resource that can use this data to make our lives better. Data can be used to create smart cities that make life easier for all of us, or to spur on new discoveries in medical science and even stop the next pandemic in its tracks. If used correctly it will be a boom for humanity.

But behind Big Data are millions of individual people - including you and me. From the most innocuous picture on Instagram, to how many steps you rack up in a day, to the most intimate conversations you have with loved ones online. Everything about you has been converted into data, which is now stored, used, and sold on without you every knowing to what end… or how it might impact on your life.

Aleks Krotoski and Ben Hammersley investigate how you can future proof your own digital shadow, discover just how much information about you is amassed day to day, how it can be used by authoritarian states to control its citizens and how to win the arms race against tech companies that are always trying to extract more information from their users.

Image: Illustration of a digital shield (Credit: Getty Images)