Wow. All right, here we go. Sit down, put on your seatbelt, because it's time for the global Bob Show. This week's podcast is titled, your digital exhaust is going to data brokers. That's right, as you're cruising the highways and the byways of the internet, you're going from digital town to digital town on the information superhighway. You are putting out a lot of digital exhaust. And that information is worth gold to data brokers. I would like to thank everybody that tunes into the show every week. This is the global Bob Show. And we are the crossroad of technology and politics. Now, last week was a special request that came in. And so we did a show about it. This week is another special request. This topic was asked by my brother and I told him absolutely, I will put it together. And what he wanted to know is how the heck do these people get my information, and then they start targeting me. He had one that was pretty interesting. He was on one of the major social media sites. And he clicked on a link inside there like advertisement, well, what was strange was, is that I got a phone call on my cellular phone, asking about my brother, and the guy had enough information that I knew that it had to be something related to him. So somehow, this data broker from my brother clicking on a link, actually called my cell phone somehow, maybe we were, you know, married together, because you know, maybe from the same address or something like that. But I just thought that was interesting. And it was about some software, my brother is involved with an electrical contracting company. And so when the person called me asking for him, and then explain what company he was from, I was just flabbergasted. I haven't used that word in a while flabbergasted. So that sweat led to us putting together this podcast, I'm sure all of y'all have experienced this at one time or another, where you're doing some searching on the internet, or maybe you're logged into your favorite social media site. And then next thing, you know, there's a lot of advertisements you start getting bombarded with. So you go to one site, and you click on something and then you go to a completely different site and the advertisement banner down in the bottom. It takes in forces advertisements onto you from stuff that you were looking at. So how does all this happen? Well, in the early years, the internet wasn't encrypted. So it was pretty straightforward. A lot of times as your communications would go through the internet, and through different switches and routers, they had these devices on there, that they could sift through all your data and then see what you're looking for. Because it was all unencrypted, fast forward a little bit. The Internet, they started to do what they call SSL encryption, which means that from end to end, your data is encrypted and cannot be read. For all intents and purposes. One thing I like to clear up is that a lot of people when they have these conversations with me, they tend to believe it is their ISP, or their internet service provider that is spying on them. As I mentioned earlier, the Internet was widely unencrypted. So yes, your ISP could spy in on you. But each day, the internet is going more dark. And it's going more dark because of the encryption that's being rolled out. So when SSL encryption, you know, when you go to your bank, and you have that little lock over the web browser, now that is called SSL. So your ISP could still see what domain names you're going to. So they can't read the traffic if you go to name your your bank, but they could see that you made a request to www.my bank.com. Don't go to that site. I don't know if that's a real domain or not. But your ISP could still see that you've requested that site, someone at your house, because your computers are behind a firewall. However, now even your DNS traffic is becoming encrypted with new technology. Now all of this is happening behind the scenes. And you probably don't even know this is happening but it is a good thing. So if your ISP were to try to spy on you now about the only thing they can tell. If you're using SSL and your DNS is encrypted by the only thing they can tell is the IP address that you went to because that part is still unencrypted. However, it's not really that valuable, from a marketing standpoint to say, someone at Brian's house went to this IP address. So how in the heck are they able to track you if everything is encrypted? Well, I'm sure most of my listeners know this, that there's something called cookies. Now, at the highest level, a cookie is just a little piece of data that has dropped when you go to a website. If you were to go to aol.com. Well, AOL could drop a cookie into your web browser. Then if you go to a another site, that site could request the cookie and see that you went to AOL. Now, as always, I'm oversimplifying all of this, and cookies have been around for a very long time. But not all cookies are bad tracking cookies, well, if they're used for bad purposes, they could be bad. But when you log into a site, there's also good cookies. These cookies are called session cookies. And session cookies allow you to log into a site and then move around the site to all the different pages without having to read log back in. So if we didn't have session cookies, then every time you clicked on a link in a site, as you navigate it around your bank site or your shopping site, you'd have to keep logging in. So please don't think that cookies are bad. And that's why you don't want to block all cookies. marketeers know that web browsers are starting to look at cookies that come down, and they warn the user, that possibly this could be a tracking cookie. And also, there are various extensions, which are little programs, you can load onto your browser, that will keep the cookies that are deemed good cookies, and then block the cookies that are considered bad cookies. Now, there's technology that's coming out of which they don't need to put a cookie on your computer to be able to track you. And I find this very interesting, they're able to fingerprint the device that goes to the website, I'm going to keep this pretty simple. So basically, this is how it works. All Devices are not the same. If I have two iPads that are brand new out of the box, that came off the assembly line, one after the other, they have the exact same version of iOS and chrome or whatever, Safari web browser, those two devices have a different enough fingerprint that can be established remotely, to tell them apart. This is called fingerprinting. And basically what happens is, is that your device, when it goes to the website, downloads a little bit of code that profiles that device, it can find out things like what's the resolution of your screen, you know, that's how clear your screen is, it can tell how your device handles encryption, it can tell different nuances between the devices. And they're really, really good to fingerprint that device. So even though a cookie is not dropped on that device, they know that if you go to one side, and then go to the other side, the fingerprints match, the next way you're tracked across the internet. And this is probably the primary way when you have those deja vu moments. Like when you're talking to somebody and next thing you know, you start getting advertisements for it, or you go from one site to the other. And here comes a big bombardment of advertisements are apps that track now this is the part that's really scary, because we have so many applications on our phones, everything from medical applications, to social media applications to other applications that help us with our phone, one in particular that comes to mind was back before 2013 When you would have to go on your phone and act like you're making a video you bring up your your phone video recorder and so you would get the LED light that lights up. Now it's built into the operating system on my iPhone, I swipe up my thumb I click the flashlight button. And here comes the bright LED light very useful. But before that was embedded inside the operating system, somebody created an app called flashlight. Now lots of people downloaded the flashlight app while in 2013 mean, researchers started looking at this flashlight app. And once they got up under the hood of it, they noticed that not only was it turning on the LED light on your phone, but it was also sending your GPS coordinates and your device ID back to the person that developed this app. There's been a lots of these applications that you download them to do one thing, and then researchers uncover them to say, Wait a second, why does that need access to my geo location, another one was one called HD wallpaper. Now I remember I actually had this one downloaded, this was back whenever I had my Android phone. And these are all older applications. Well, when you would launch that app, you could take and create this cool little wallpaper, and it would be animated. Well, on that particular one, it was sending home to the manufacturer of the app, your device ID, which is a very unique, kind of like a serial number, and your complete contact list. Move forward a little bit, one of the major app crazes that came out was angry birds. And Angry Birds in its early version would do your device ID, and also your location. So you can imagine when you're looking at these apps on the outside, unbeknownst to the person installing it, you really didn't know exactly all the data that it was accessing. Now, Android and Apple have done a very good job at profiling these applications. And now they kind of put it up in your face. So please make sure that you read all of that, when you do install an application. What it will do is say this application requires access to, you know, these various one. So if you're installing a flashlight app today, it says that it needs, you know, access to your GPS coordinates. And you may not want to install that application, the methods of tracking that we've discussed thus far are kind of, maybe you could call them cert petition Asli tracking you, you know, you go to a site that drops a cookie on your browser, you have these apps that need permission to different data on your phone, that you may not understand that they actually need to have that permission. But now the third type of tracking, and this is a big one here. And this is probably the one that has the most power to D mask you and know exactly who you are, whether it's encrypted or not, your internet, if it's encrypted, your ISP can't spy on you, they can't get the DNS records. So they don't know what websites you're going to. But herein lies the problem. Almost all sites now especially social media sites, they ask you to sign up. And no matter what encryption, you have deployed, or cookies that you've turned off all your cookies, and you're using a private browser, some people even go so far as to use a VPN, thinking that that will protect them. Once you authenticate to a site, then that site knows exactly what you click on inside of that site. Social media is a big one for this, you log into social media, not only are they now getting your pictures that you upload, but they also give you advertisements. And I find this kind of funny, sometimes, I'll be logged into my favorite social media site. And I see the normal advertisements for someone like me, I get podcast advertisements, I get advertisements for amateur radio gear, because I click on that kind of stuff. I'm in those forums or groups that tailor themselves to amateur radio operators and other various hobbies that I have. But every now and again, I'll get a crazy advertisements like how in the heck do they think that I'm going to buy this? I mean, well, what they're doing is they're testing you to see that maybe they can land on something that they don't know about. Now, remember, when you're authenticated to these sites, anything you click inside of that site, or application, they're going to know that it's you and they have all the information that is stored about you. Now, what do they do with this information? Well, they go to data brokers and the data brokers take and bring in all of this data from various data sources. So I don't want to pick on any social media site, in particular, but there's a lot of them that not only do they buy data, but they sell data. So what you start to see is, is that they have so much information about you that they can actually start doing some An AI Artificial Intelligence type operations to predict things that you may or may not be interested in. So, imagine your favorite social media site, they sell your data to a Data Broker, then a shopping site that you go to they sell your data to a Data Broker was the data broker that can start fusing all of that information together to then put you into various categories. And once you're placed into one of these categories, that's when they attach a monetary number two it. So for example, if you happen to get labeled as a compulsive buyer, your information is worth about $7. If you're an expectant mother, it's worth about $1 people getting married, which is very popular, that's worth $9. So these data brokers puts you in one or many, many categories, then they sell your data. So therefore, when an advertiser wants to make a Targeted Advertisement, then they know pretty much if they were to select the ham radio category that I fall in, and then they also find me in the compulsive buyer category, well, then why not send him advertisements for ham radio gear, because he's a compulsive buyer? I don't know if that's true or not. But anyways, that's the way that works. But here's something that I find interesting. Is that one of the highest rank categories, are people with substance abuse. So how do they get this information? How do they know that you're a substance abuser? What happens is, is that they start fusing a lot of data together from various data sources. Let's give a good example. You go to the doctor, and the doctor says that you have high blood pressure. And right now, you don't need to take medicine for it. Just make sure that you change your diet around. What do you do? Probably when you're in the parking lot of the doctor's office, you start Google searching, low blood pressure diet, well, if you're a substance abuser, maybe you start searching for things like health insurance for substance abusers or health insurance. For alcoholics, I'm using this very, very high level, but those search engine results can also go to the Data Broker. So that's how they get this information together. Now, I know that a lot of you're thinking wait a second, hold on my medical records are protected by HIPAA. Well, that is not the case. HIPAA controls the information between the patient and the doctor, the patient, and say, the insurance company. That's where HIPAA rules and regulations come in at. But if you go to your favorite medical website, and you authenticate, so I log in is Globalbob show@gmail.com. And I start searching for high blood pressure, or I start searching for heart disease, none of that information is protected by HIPAA. So there is no expectation of safeguards of that data. So basically, you're giving up more medical information probably, than what your doctor even knows. So if you're searching for ailments, like we all like to self diagnosed, just make sure that you're careful. Because that data is no longer protected against the HIPAA laws. We've discussed how your data can be used for Targeted Advertisement, we've talked about how these apps and social media sites and search engines may know about your ailment before your doctor does. Now, one of the things I find a little disconcerting is that if the government wants to take a peek inside your cell phone, or your computer at home or iPad, well, then they need to go out and get a search warrant here in America, we have very, very mature laws that state that the government just cannot come in and tap your communications. So we have a reasonable expectation of privacy. And we're also protected against searches and seizures. But what if the government is able to buy this data, instead of tapping your data, then that could be a way for them to get access to information about you without having to go through the standard legal system. And this just isn't for the US government. Let's say If people that are high profile, maybe high profile businessman that are traveling to other countries, they could become targets of not just Targeted Advertisement to get them to invest their money in that country, but they could see what that person's into. Now, I don't want to pick on my bachelor friends out there, but they could find out that, hey, this person come into our country, he's a bachelor, he likes to party likes fancy cars, well, when you get to that country, there could be maybe a fancy car that's parked at the Four Seasons hotel that they happen to loan you for a day or so therefore, they ensure that you have the best time ever, then they could try to hit you with Hey, bring your money to this country. Now, this isn't new. I mean, the original data brokers were the credit card companies. Back in the early years, people paid cash for a lot of things, or they would write a check. But when the credit card came out that little piece of plastic, not only was it easier for you to use to spend your money, because you would just whip out the plastic and not have to go get cash or get your checkbook. Well, they could start putting data together about you about your pattern of life, what your income is. Now, we see a lot of this with other means as well, not just the credit cards, but also these value cards that you sign up for. When you go to the grocery store. Most of the time, if you want the discounts, you got to enter in your phone number. So those are kind of the early rudimentary ways of starting to put together a profile. I had a friend I worked with one time, I will leave his name out of this and the credit card company he worked for. But according to him, he said how amazed he was that when he started working for the credit card company, he had access to the records of data that were on people. And so he looked up his own. And I think he was about in his mid 20s At the time that he had the job. And he claims that there was over 27 pages of information about him all from like his income as it increased throughout his career, to the places he shopped at, like he couldn't, he didn't actually see like the name of the store. But it would say like high end clothing store or travel, you know, these different categories. And all of that could have started happening back when he was born in the mid 70s. Now, the Data Broker industry, it's approaching over$2 billion for this information. And it's when all of this dispersed data starts to get fused together, that they can create a very high level of detail of what you're into and how to target you for advertisement. But it's not just credit card industry. It's not just the advertisement industry, your information has always been worth something to someone. Let me give you the last example. When you go to Las Vegas, man do I love Las Vegas, you know that you are being watched they have their quote unquote, eyes in the sky that is watching everything. But they also know when you enter and exit your room. Well, now when you go to Vegas, they have you with a card and so I love Blackjack, I go up to the blackjack table. I've cash in my money and get my chips I give them my my card. Now I'm not a high roller or anything like that. But then you'll see that you'll start getting these perks. And I tell everybody, they do not keep the lights of Vegas burning by losing money. And so they have mastered the art of separating you from your money. Perfect example. I have lots of friends that go out to Vegas a lot of times for trade shows and conferences. And they tell me how. Yeah, I went to go check in and I got a penthouse suite instead of the regular room. They said that it was a free upgrade or like mere pennies on the dollar. I know last time I went to Vegas, my room. They told me I can upgrade to the penthouse suite for like$20 a night. Well, why are they doing that? Because they have a record and a profile on me from all my years of going to Las Vegas and staying on those properties that they know that the more they make you feel special, the more that you will act apart. And so you'll go out and send pictures of your penthouse suite and Go down to the table and be the high roller. But all of that is very highly calculated, they're doing that because they know that the more they make you feel comfortable and special, the more money you are likely to spend. Now my last trip to Vegas, I was out there with my wife and my mom. And so we went and saw a lot of sites around there. And I didn't do a lot of gambling. So I think for the $20 a night, that they charged me for the upgrade of the room, they probably lost money on that. Just kidding, those guys are always making money. So what I want you to take away from this is, is that if you are not paying for something, okay? If you're not paying for it, you are not the customer, you are the product. That's right. It's not that they're giving you something for free, it's that you're giving them something for free of which they can make money off of. Now, the last thing I want to talk about is, what in the heck do you do about this? Okay, so you don't want to be tracked. You don't want targeted advertisements, you don't want your free upgrades at the room, you want to just go completely dark yourself. Well, I'm sorry to tell you, the chances of that is probably nearly impossible. That's right. Like I said before, you can download applications onto your computer that block all your cookies, and it's probably going to be a pain. Every time you navigate through your banking site, you're probably going to have to re log in. So other thing is that people said, well, I'll use a VPN, as discussed before the VPN, all it's doing is is masking you from the ISP and making it look like you're coming from a different IP address. But as soon as you authenticate into that social media site, or you authenticate into that merchants website, well, they don't care because they don't need that information anymore. Remember, they're already operating under the guise of the internet is dark. That's why I tell people that you know, to completely get off the grid, you pretty much need to ditch everything electronic, and you probably just would not be able to actually transact business. I mean, even my car, I have an electric car that has a modem in it a cellular modem that's sending information back. How do I know that? Well, I got a letter in the mail that said that I needed to bring my electric car in so they can upgrade the cellular module. With that information. They know my VIN number they know where the car parks at. They know probably the radio stations I'm listening to in the car. Hopefully they've tagged the Globalbob show, podcast. But all kidding aside, there's so much connectivity and so much data that's flowing around about you that it's very, very hard just to go dark. I mean, how do you even access your funds? I know people say that you can have cash inside your, you know, a safer in your pocket. But how many of y'all actually get a paycheck? That's a paper paycheck. One last thing I'll leave you with, I had a very dear friend of mine who's no longer with us anymore. And he was in a trade that he wanted people to pay them with a cheque and he would go to the bank where that cheque was drawn on, and he would cash the check. Now a few years ago, he's been gone for about three years. But a few years ago, he got so upset because he said the last bank that would cash a check for him now wanted him to open up an account. And if he didn't open the account, that they would need his thumbprint. And he would have to pay like a five or$10 transaction fee to cash a check. Well, why is that? Because that's probably what that information is worth to the bank. So if they gave him free check cashing, then they would need to sell his data to make up for those services. So he didn't want to sign up for the account. So instead, they're going to charge him $10 or whatever it is. Now, the whole idea behind this isn't to get everybody scared and spun up. What I want you to realize is just the amount of data that's out there and what the value is of that data. So think about that. When you're signing up for the rewards clubs and you're signing in to these various websites that say click here to log in with your social media card. initials or login with, you know, whatever credentials it is. There's a reason why they're needing that information age, gender ethnicity, because they can package that data up and sell it. So therefore you don't have to pay for it. Like I said, if you're not paying for it, you're not the customer, you are the product. And with that, I like to say to everybody, have a great week. Continue to cruise the highways and byways of the internet, navigate cyberspace and put your digital exhaust out everywhere. But just know that information is worth going. I would like to thank everybody who continues to tune in. You can find me out on Twitter at Globalbob show. We now have a Facebook page Globalbob Show or you can email if you have any recommendations or if you'd like for me to go in deeper with anything I've talked about Globalbob show@gmail.com Get your Globalbob merch at shop not globalbob.com And we will see you all next week.