Beneath the digital veil

I've recently been reading a lot of Evgeny Morozov and find his thoughts on the implications of our digitally enmeshed society both terrifying and compelling. So much of the underwiring behind our interactions on the web is opaque, and will become even more so with the big data revolution looming. So when my hard drive packed up I thought I'd take it apart to understand the physical aspects of the virtual age.

This is the hard drive, a mirror-like ceramic disk which,if it doesn't yet, will soon be the repository for every important bit of information about you. The arm scans the disk for requested information, much like the tone arm on a record player.

The processor and the circuit board are the means by which data is requested and transported.

Destroying the disk makes data impossible to recover although though how much of your personal information is scattered elsewhere on other servers and held by other bodies and companies is well worth pondering.