I found this task among topics recently used in the IELTS test and hope it was incorrectly reported to the public because it seems the question should have been, ‘Do you think this is a positive or a negative situation?’ I feel it would make better sense with this question rather than advantages/disadvantages questions. 

The task comprises several keywords, one being ‘personal information.’ What is it exactly? I asked ChatGPT the same question, and it was nice enough to offer the following answer:

🔵Personal Identifiers: Names, usernames, email addresses, phone numbers, social media handles, and similar identifiers.

🔵Demographic Information: Age, gender, ethnicity, and other demographic details.

🔵Location Data: Physical addresses, GPS coordinates, or information about the user's location.

🔵Financial Information: Credit card numbers, bank account details, and other financial data.

🔵Authentication Data: Passwords, security questions, and other information used for user authentication.

🔵Health Information: Any data related to a user's health, medical conditions, or healthcare history.

🔵Online Activities: Browsing history, search queries, and other online behavior.

🔵IP Addresses: Internet Protocol addresses that can be used to identify a user's device.

🔵Device Information: Details about the user's device, including the operating system, browser type, and device identifiers.

In addition, Large Internet companies and organizations are also two important keywords, but what is the difference between them?

🔵An "Internet company" is a business that primarily operates and conducts its activities online. This can include e-commerce, online services, digital content creation, or social media platforms.

🔵An organization includes schools, nonprofits, and government customers in addition to companies.

In the question, there are two keywords, also: advantages/disadvantages. 

Essentially, an advantage/disadvantage is a type of (hidden) comparison. For instance, here, we compare Internet companies and organizations holding personal information as opposed to not holding such information. When we think about the advantages/disadvantages tasks like this, it becomes easier to write a clear response. Obviously, our comparisons are not always explicit; they can be implicit (hidden), and the reader can sense that.  

 

To address the disadvantages, we can think of cyberattacks – one example being what happened to Yahoo many years ago. We can also consider the issue of user privacy and selling sensitive data to third parties, as Facebook did a few years ago, or government agencies that use the information to harm political opponents or whistleblowers. 

To address the advantages of this, we can consider the issue of increased efficiency in search results and content personalization. Another idea is the fact that such information can help international organizations solve global problems, as was done by the Word Health Organization to track the spread of COVID with the help of Facebook and Google. 

Note that in the ideas above both Internet companies and organizations are included. 

I hope you have found this helpful.