The data that a source had in its servers and hard drives was just data but suddenly a new term appeared which was "Big data". is the term used to describe a huge volume of structured or unstructured data, so large that it is almost impossible for traditional database management software to process. In simpler words, data is very large in size and yet grows exponentially every day. The reason behind the sudden rise of big data is that today there are so many digital platforms from which data can be collected compared to just a few decades ago. The price of storing and managing data has also become cheaper and will continue to decrease further. The cloud computing platform has enabled access to data from anywhere with great download speed. All of these factors have served as fuel for the expansion in the use and analysis of big data. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay To explain the meaning of Big Data Laney presented 3Vs: volume, velocity and variety. The Vs imply that the size of the data is huge, that the data is created quickly, and that it will be available in various formats and will be collected from many resources. Nowadays, the 3Vs definition is considered insufficient to explain Big Data, so validity, truthfulness, value, variability, locus, and vagueness were added to create a standard definition of Big Data. What is the source of Big Data? Every time a user uses any network or digital service, they leave digital footprints that can be collected as data. These digital services could be anything capable of storing and managing excessive data such as social media, e-commerce sites, online payment portals, search engines, digital maps, etc. For example, a person searches “Good Mobile Phones Under 7000 Rupees” on Google, now Google will create a new thread for fingerprints of these users (if the user is logged in with their Google account on the browser, this thread will be linked to your Google ID otherwise, the thread will be uniquely identified by the user's IP address or by the ID of the device used to access Google). If the user now examines the search results and opens an online shopping site, Google adds new data to the thread about which website the user prefers. If the user searches for a product again, the search results will have their favorite website at the top. Therefore, basically Google uses the data collected from users to show targeted search results and advertisements. In addition to that, if the user buys the phone from the shopping website, the website will recommend the user to buy a screen protector, phone case and other accessories for the mobile phone. Facebook takes it a step further, Facebook tracks every single click. of the user, they also collect what they have deleted after typing something in the comment box or status update section. They also collect data from your private chats and the type of topics you follow. If someone wants to see Facebook's data collection and analysis algorithm in action, they can simply have a mock chat with their friends about purchasing a particular product (like a calculator or shoes) or consuming a particular service ( such as fast food or cloud storage). on the Facebook website, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp or Instagram (all these social media platforms are owned by Facebook!) and the participants of the fake chat will very quickly notice that their news feed is full of related ads.