I. Composition (35 points) To what degree does privacy matter to people nowadays? Living in an era of social media, smartphones, and high-tech search engines, have you traded off your privacy for the convenience of the internet? Like it or not, we are feeding some of our most intimate personal data to profit-making machines whenever we chat on social media, make online purchases or simply browse through webpages. Some may claim that the benefits of the internet are worth the loss of some privacy; others, however, may want to insist on the importance of privacy and consider the loss of privacy a threat to one's safety and individuality.
Write a well-structured essay of about 200-300 words to express your thoughts or share your experiences with the issue of privacy on the internet. You are welcome (but are not limited) to answer (any of) the following questions in your essay: Is privacy a concern when you use the internet? Have you been bothered by any privacy violation online? Do you think that the loss of privacy is a necessary sacrifice for one to enjoy the convenience of the internet? Or, do you think that some balance is reachable between the protection of privacy and the advancement of the internet technology? How have you tricd, if ever, to protect your privacy online?