Politically High-Tech
A podcast with facts and opinions on different topics like politics, policy, technology especially AI, spirituality and development! For this podcast, development simply means tip, product and/or etc. can benefit humanity. This show aims to show political viewpoints and sometimes praises/criticizes them. He is a wildcard sometimes. For Technology episodes, this show focuses on products (mostly AI) with pros, cons and sometimes give a hint of future update. For Development episodes, the podcast focuses on tips to improve as a human spiritually, socially, emotionally and more. All political, AI lovers and haters, and all religions are welcome! This is an adult show. Minors should not be listening to this podcast! This podcast proudly discriminates bad characters and nothing else.
Politically High-Tech
299- Data: The New Gold Rush With Walter Harrison
Walter Harrison joins us to explore how our data is tracked, used, and monetized in the digital age, revealing the hidden cost of "free" apps and services we use daily.
• Data is the new gold, with companies making millions or billions from our digital footprints
• Every app permission, Wi-Fi connection, and website visit creates a trail of trackable information
• Location data from apps can pinpoint your exact position, whether at home or traveling
• Political leanings can be determined through analyzing places you visit, stores you shop at, and lifestyle patterns
• Small businesses can now leverage data tools once only available to large corporations
• Churches, dating apps, and businesses of all sizes are using location intelligence to target customers
• Finding a middle ground between paranoia and carelessness with your data is key
• Being conscious about what you post online is crucial as AI constantly scans the web
Check out Who Came By at whocameby.com to get a free report and learn more about location intelligence for your business.
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https://www.instagram.com/walterjharrison/
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Facebook to receive updates
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welcome everyone to politically high tech. With your host, the elias, I have a great newcomer. This one's gonna be great. I'm gonna tell you why it's going to be great. This is stuff that you definitely need to know about. Yes, I'm going to make this almost as essential as oxygen. Yeah, because, look, data, data, data is more valuable than before. Ok, it is, I would say, the new goal. And, trust me, advertisers, data brokers, have made lots of cash. Well, if you want to use conservative measurements, millions. If you want to use a higher estimation, even the billions depends on the company, the scale and all of that. I mean it's a lot. I mean data is valuable. And why do you think you sign up to these social media companies for free? You're already paying with your data, okay, so that's the cost, right there.
Speaker 1:It might sound a little creepy to you. It is creepy, let's just be clear. It's very, very creepy. But well, we're gonna talk about what's the not so creepy part about it? Why? Why do you need to track you? Why? Look, I personally feel spooked. Still, you know, I know about this, I would say, over a decade ago, and I had my suspicions, because every time I talk about something, the ad will pop up. I talk about pizza. I want to get a pizza ad. That's another. No, no, no, this is too accurate. I no, no, no, this is too accurate. I miss the days where ads were stupid, used to sell me I don't know, like women's lingerie. I said what a stupid ad. I used to laugh at that. But now it's so scarily accurate and this is how they make money. So I have a guest here who has expertise on data and tech. I'm going to have him elaborate his credentials, expertise and all that. Let's welcome Walter Harrison. And what do you want? I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:I said thanks for having me, elias. I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no problem, I want to make sure that gets heard very clearly. So what do you want the viewers and the listeners to?
Speaker 2:know, yeah, so basically a background in location intelligence, right, so trying to understand consumer movement at a global level, but also primarily focused at the national level right here in our backyard in the US.
Speaker 1:Wow, if you're trying to compete for shortest intro, this is going to be the, this is going to be the runner up for sure. You probably get a silver or bronze medal, but you know, you collaborate a little bit yeah happy to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so our background. Try to understand that you and I, as consumers, are using apps every day the apps that are free, primarily, and what we try to educate people about is there's a cost for those apps. It's really not free. You're really playing an exchange, a data exchange per se how your ads have gotten so targeted. If you're listening to this right now or watching this, think about your Instagram ads and how targeted those Instagram ads are. And how much have you purchased? Maybe you don't want to admit how much you purchased, but people purchase a lot from Instagram and that's because they have so much data on you and I and they can target, really show you the best product or services. Some people say they're listening to me. Some people say they're following me. I'm here to saying all the above is possible in the data ecosystem, so be aware, but ultimately you're playing in the data exchange and so am I.
Speaker 1:Yep, I mean, like I said, I'm going to reiterate I miss the days when ads were very dumb. I am talking about. If I'm going to go back, yeah, I'll say close to two decades ago, ads were just dumb, they just throw whatever at you. But now it's so targeted, the algorithm is so intelligent. I could just ask I don't know if I want to. I'm going to throw a crazy example If I want to cross dress, I'm going to get an ad with woman's clothing.
Speaker 1:Ok, if I just say something like that, is that targeted Because they want to get your money? I mean, that's the bottom line, right, just simple, without getting told the technicalities. Is it creepy? I would personally say so, but this is how they get their money. But how do they? So the first question I have is how can they track you? I mean you already said, by the time you go to, I accept, I acknowledge all that long blah, blah, blah that me and 99 of people don't freaking read we just sell our data to them. I mean, how are they tracking us that effective?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's a great question. There's really a couple ways we're doing it. Let's start with wi-fi, right? So you and I we're at our hotel, we're at our coffee shop, we're at a co-working space. You get on their wi-fi. She's trying to get, just trying to check the box and get to work.
Speaker 2:Typically we're not really paying attention. But in those terms and agreements in the in-user license agreement that we do not read, of course they're going to take your IP address, they're going to take your Mac address, they're going to take your cookies, they're going to sync it and map it and enrich it to all this other third-party data that exists that gives them an understanding of the browsing behavior of you and I. Some of it you're proud of, maybe some of it you're not. On top of that, all these websites that exist across the web have that little meta like button, right. Like why is there a like button at the footer of a shopping website or a random e-commerce website? That gives a signal back to Meta that you and your cookie have been there. So that's kind of how the browsing world exists and it really exists around retargeting. But then back to your actual phone.
Speaker 2:You and I are downloading apps and I'm sure we've all seen this notification. This app wants access to your location. You can allow once, you can allow while using or you can allow all the time. Right, and for most of us we're like allow while using, allow once, and maybe some of us are allow all the time, I don't really care, but those three alone will give them permission to get access to your core GPS location, that is, your exact point of your house, exactly where you're at in your house or your hotel, or while you're traveling or driving. On top of that, that's one app, but there's 3 million apps in the app store, tens of thousands of apps that request location. All you need to do is start mapping pieces together on top of the web browsing data, and I got a pretty good picture of Elias, of what he's interested in, where he wants to go, what he's interested in buying and how I can sell him things online.
Speaker 1:Yep. So listeners or viewers, are you still freaked out? I don't blame you. I'm still freaked out, despite knowing this a decade ago. Not to brag, but if I would have said this and this is way before I started the podcast of course I would have been called crazy as are you sure you're not taking your meds or your conspiracy theorists and I was afraid of that label, even though I had a gut feeling I was right.
Speaker 1:But you know, we humans are social beings. If we were logical creatures, we would have been more, far more transparent with truth and facts. But we are social beings and we need approval of others, and even for time. You don't like to be logical and fair-minded, but even at times, as I'm a human being, I'm to falter or be a hypocrite, because I'd rather protect myself from shame and still keep connections with certain people. I mean, we all have done this one shape or form.
Speaker 1:Some are very obvious, some are more subtle, and this is why I will not admit that 10 years ago, even though I had the idea that I was being targeted and this is a time it was pretty smart, it was getting it right. Now it's just practically spot on, spot on, okay and look. It's smart for the advertisers If they know I want something and give me the ad because I'm likely to buy it. You know, we humans, we buy things of needs and wants. And it's very smart, spooky but intelligent. Is it ethical? I don't think so, but it's still effective marketing strategy. You cannot deny the effectiveness of it. But do I like it? Of course not. But this is reality and maybe at some point I'll start going off the grid. I don't know, maybe I'll become an Amish or cave person. I've sarcastically said before if you want to reject AI, become an Amish or a cave person, and I don't think the Amish people will accept you. Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the other thing I would say in reverse maybe you're listening to this and you have a business yourself. Right, you're launching a company. That company or a physical cupcake store or gym or whatever yoga studio. This data works in your favor. Right Now you can target people who are yoga visitors not people who like yoga 20 years ago but who went to a yoga place last week or buys this type of you know bougie coffee or travels frequently. That it works in favor for the business, small to large. But I would say for most of the last 20 years or so, it has helped the largest businesses, the Targets and the Walmarts and those type of companies. But now, as our company is trying to do it, who Came by? We're trying to get that to go down to the small to medium-sized businesses. Give them the same punching power as a lot of the Fortune companies.
Speaker 1:And that's the exception. Right there, despite, look, I got my concerns engraved. But you know what? This is good because this is giving small businesses, which I have an heart for, targeted, very specific and they can help them have a fighting chance to survive. I mean, look, I'm in New York City. It's not very friendly to small business, so this product will be very helpful for those who are struggling and have at least someone who is tech savvy to navigate this.
Speaker 1:Let's be honest, and, of course, I think even better and this is me being a little bit of idealist now, I don't train other, you know appropriate workers. I don't think everyone should use it, I don't know, unless it's the future, but everybody does things differently. You do what applies to you at the end of the day, you know, and I think this is a good tool for small business because they need it, and you're right. And the ones I've targeted me and I'm just gonna list them, this is not to shame for once target, yeah, target has got me pizza hut. Yeah, man, that pizza exam, it was from pizza hut, okay, and oh, and when I was just too lazy to cook my own food, mcdonald's and wendy's were competing and you know, it's it, it's, it's fascinating, but I like this one and this one I like to push more often because small businesses need every help they can get. I mean, just, you don't have to be an expert, you don't have to be a tech genius to know this, you just gotta know by walking the streets, talk to people, just pay attention, just be alert. Okay, then you, you just know what's going on. This is not a, you know, a tech, this is just someone. You know small business and I try to shop small business and small businesses and different businesses normally catch my attention anyways.
Speaker 1:I mean, do I shop big businesses? Yeah, I mean begrudgingly. I mean, you know, I didn't talk about bougie coffee. I do, like me, I can't believe this is slipping me. I think like bloomstone or something like that. Yeah, I drink an aussie coffee. Yeah, that's, but that's definitely the bougie side. But I love the taste. I love it. I'm a stereotypical millennial on that. You know that $7 latte, whatever the heck, I'm proud of that $7 latte. It makes me happy. Deal with it. Deal with it, you haters. But let me just be quiet. My little personal rant. I could just fight against anyone who's anti-bougie coffee. Look, you drink cheap coffee. I'm not going to be against you. Everybody got their lives, whatever.
Speaker 2:You're talking to a bougie coffee guy as well, so I'm not going to complain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, chicago to New York City, there you go. We had a lines there, bougie coffee, look, it's better, it's just better for you. Okay, is it going to hurt the wallet? Yeah, if you spend. Like a drunken sale of me, of course, of course I'm not going to debate that, I'm not going to be in all the Kool-Aid say it's so great to help you make money. Well, if you use that energy productively, that's all I'm going to say about that. All right, enough of my first world issues right there. Now, anything else you want to add before I get to the next question?
Speaker 2:No, let's dive in. I mean, I definitely would say bougie coffee. You know, you're maybe a powder coffee, regardless, all that is still data, right? There's an audience for bougie coffee, there's an audience for powdered. You know, add it with water and milk. There's an audience for all of it, and they're not the same oh no, they're not, not the same.
Speaker 1:Um, I would like to push this puerto rican coffee that I've been loving right now, but I'm not gonna do that. Definitely in the future, definitely the future. Especially tastes really good. I got to go through my little taste. I'm a bit particular. Yes, the bougie will be a bit particular. The texture has to be right, the color got to be right, the size got to be yes, all of that. Look, I know the cheap coffee is getting you a little iconic cheap Greek design. Just your $2 port. You go, fine, that's yeah. But I'm bougie coffee. Yes, I'm a little extra, if you will, and I'm proud of it. All right, so there you go. Data people have fun with my data, with that one and I don't know give me some japanese coffee, japanese coffee arabic coffee, foreign coffee.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'm very left wing when it comes to coffee. No, american coffee, anti-american coffee. All right, let me stop fooling around now. Now, that's actually going to touch on this a little bit. Uh, and we could definitely expand and said not just politics. I mean, why do I mean? I know, let me not, let me ask that way how these marketers know my political needs more than my parents and best friends and whoever I trust. I mean, how do they know? Besides, I know I gave them a crap ton of data once I agreed to their terms of this. I mean, anything else you want to elaborate on that or add something that most people now know.
Speaker 2:I think this is probably what is most enlightening, and we've done studies like this in the past internally with our company. So the question is how do marketers and the whole ecosystem know your political leanings If you've never said, hey, I'm a Republican, I'm a Democrat, I'm a libertarian, et cetera? Well, I think a lot of the places we go tend to show us and show them your political leanings. Now, you can be a generalist, right? If you say Burger King, mcdonald's and Wendy's, yeah, that could be on both sides of the spectrum. But I remember doing a study back in 2015, 2016, looking at swing states.
Speaker 2:So think about Wisconsin and Michigan, these purple states to your purple logo. If you're trying to find purplish people, how would you do that, right? So in an example, we look at large cities like Milwaukee, or let's look at like Madison, and we think they're conservative, but we don't know for sure. Let's basically geofence, which is basically drawing an imaginary line around a city and find people who are purplish. We're not really sure where they're going, and let's see if they're going to church. Let's see if they're going to gun store. The gun stores in general will automatically say not purple, statistically. Right, we'll put them on the right category.
Speaker 2:Churches could be both ways. So now we're looking at urban or suburban and that could basically kind of give you that answer in conjunction with other data places they go. They go into Whole Foods and Trader Joe's and these type of grocery stores versus your Costco's and your more rural markets as well. So think about all the data that exhausts that you're just kicking off into the world the apps you're using, the websites you visit, the music you listen to, the car you drive, your home value, your zip code all that together on top of where you go, powered ai lies. It's no question. It's no question to understand where someone's political leanings are political profiling.
Speaker 1:There you go yes but yeah, that, wow that is. I mean, that's still pretty enlightening to me. I still say I'm pretty hard to figure out because I'm some. My day will say I'm to the right on some things, it's something, something. So I mean the church I'll go to. They'll definitely label me as a democrat. I do go to a you're out because I'm some. My day will say I'm to the right on some things, it's something, something to do. I mean the church I'll go to. They'll definitely label me as a democrat.
Speaker 1:I do go to a urban um church. I mean it's new york city. I mean, you know, unless I go to I don't know deep upstate or something, I go to that church, then they'll, they'll, they'll label me as more of a republican. But the food stores I go to I think it's's Benefit Mix, because I do go to Foodtowel, but every time I do see a Whole Foods, I'm gravitating towards that. So I don't know, I feel like being a fiscal conservative. I'm bipolar, I don't know. I don't want to go there. I'll go to Trader Joe's instead. Look, I think that they might have an interesting time with me because I am bipolar, yeah, we got to look at where I really lead.
Speaker 1:Good luck with that. I'm going to be changing my patterns, for sure. But yeah, have fun with me on that one. I mean, look, I already said this before Culturally I definitely favor the left. When it comes to fiscal responsibilities, I favor generally the right. That's like the most simplest way I could put it. But even, certainly, even if you dig deeper, even certain issues, I deviate a little bit, depending on fiscal responsibility. So, yeah, no, I'm sympathetic towards, you know, the, the food stamps and that for those who really need it, and that's why I lean a little left on that.
Speaker 1:And then, when it comes to the cultural stuff, I say I, I think you know, it'd be great if migrants could just be I I remove the word assimilated integrate, integrate better to America. I think it's good enough. And I always say the most rational standard will be fourth or fifth grade English. You know that style be my rational standard, the way I enforce it. No, because you know something, you know some. Someone's just not gonna learn and they have, and they got families that will help them out with that, anyways, to be that, that interpreter and all that. So migrants, they find their ways, they're resourceful.
Speaker 1:I tend, I like migrants, I am pro-migrant. A good amount of my friends are migrants, so I'm not foreclosing the border. Yeah, you know a bit left, but at the same time there's times I agree Republicans only against the violent, criminal migrants. Good luck, Figure out, my data is right there. See, there's times I will side with Republicans. Yeah, oh yeah, that vermin right there. Oh yeah, that gang. Oh yeah, do whatever. Use a Republican raft now, but not the poor. Sell, you know, truffles and and icies and all that.
Speaker 1:No, I'm, I'm against it. You're trying to make a living man, exactly, you know you don't think. See, that's the nuances that you know and you know, and I, I will swing, but I always stay to the center. For some reason I always for the left and right center zones. Um, I, I'm anti far, whatever. Well, I'm military because if you, if you're like super mega or far left, I'm easily against you right there.
Speaker 1:And I don't, and I don't mind being aggressive, um, at times, especially trying to shove the agenda against most people that are not going to agree with wackiness on both sides of the aisle. But you know, one of them recently called me I'm a militant middle, you know what? Maybe I am, but I'm not going to stick to that for too long. But that is interesting about political leanings and where they could target you. Ok, I think there's a bit of left here. Let's just throw some more whole foods. I did have a few whole food ads, so I mean no surprise right there, right, people? Anything else you want to add? Before I get to how this is even being utilized?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I would say on the political side number one we don't really do political stuff at all, just full caveat there. But I would just say, like it's happening right as a consumer and I'm a consumer as well I think we should all be aware that this exists in the world. And, as a consumer, if you want to stop that, there's ways to stop it. But let's not be naive to understand like and how did they know that I was interested in buying that or going there? My political leanings they know. And honestly, you're kind of giving that information away and if you want to change that, you can, but otherwise you're playing a data exchange and so am I, whatever I evolve, so have fun with that.
Speaker 1:I'm not, I'm not the. I mean overall, I'm not the most, uh, not alarm, but I'm not. I'm not too worried about that. But you know, I still find it just generally spooky. But am I afraid become paranoid? You just want to get off the grid? Absolutely not, that's, that's just not practical people, yeah, but look, support, support people who are pro small business.
Speaker 1:Okay, this is a pro small business podcast, anti-corporate, you can say I'm pretty left on that one. I do agree with the big corporations not paying their share and all that thing is utterly ridiculous. Yeah, now, when you can label me a left, what comes to like big corporations, small businesses, I'm definitely pro small business. I just think you know, whatever policies work for them, I'm more in favor of that, sometimes agree republican than democrat. So I'm a little I'm a little interesting on that. I'm a little more interesting on that. On that issue comes to big businesses, oh yeah, I'm definitely with the democrats pay their fair share, raise their taxes. That's just me, that's just me. Um, and look, I know somebody's gonna be asking these questions in the, but I do throw a little space sprinkles.
Speaker 1:I've been feeling myself little by little, and sometimes I am going to change. I'm going to change, you know cause. I've been doing this for five years, so some change is going to happen at some point. I'm not going to stay the same exact guy forever. It's ridiculous. I want to get my tech skills so I can just find out. I'm not that interested. But if you tell me your political needs, I don't discriminate people based on political needs. I will discriminate based on character. It's more that, not political needs, because I have friends with left, right, center, even libertarians. Now, I don't really care your political needs, that doesn't bother me that much. I would love to have conversations with those and I could disagree, you know, and disagreement doesn't equal hate, it's just different points of view. We gotta know how to talk to each other.
Speaker 1:The tribalism is out of control, okay, and and it has continued to, I'll say, for the most part, get uh, not better. I don't know about worse, maybe it's getting worse, I think it's more uh. Room for that argument. And me, I'm, I'm, really am a purple. People just can't figure me out. Oh, I thought he was a Democrat and I even switched things and look, if this certain guy makes it, I'm not voting for that one. I don't listen, I go for. I'm not a partisan loyal person. I voted Democrat, I voted Republican. I even have voted independent. I go by the person and the ideas because they're red, not because they're blue. We have to stop doing that and, in my honest opinion, I don't care where you're at in the spectrum. Go for what you think is going to work best for you. If you know you need government benefits, oh, that's easy. You go Democrat.
Speaker 1:OK that's an easy one. You've got rights. You know which party to go to, all right, which, whatever is visible, whatever is most important issue, all right, enough of my yammering. Anything else you want to add?
Speaker 2:No, I think that's right. I think, on the data privacy world, politically, I think that's kind of one of the few areas where there's kind of alignment right. I feel like the left and the right. They both use the data. They both spend billions of dollars during the election season on meta properties and location data and stuff like that. The privacy angle one minute they like, meta, the next minute they don't. I think meta kind of is favoring Trump right now and rubbing his back and there's like a Trump alignment right now. So they're kind of like in favor with them. But companies are thinking shareholder value, their fiduciary duty and they'll kiss whoever they got to at that time to continue growing. And that's not a hot take. I think it's just the reality. Survival is for a lot of these corporations are doing. I agree.
Speaker 1:I agree. I said look some of the turn to Trump, because it's just where the political witness going, where, where the power is at, they're going to do just like you said. They are beholden to their shareholders. Wherever it can increase the profits, they're going to kiss a blue butt, red butt, whatever political butt you're going to kiss. No, they're going to do that and that's why I told you to protest. Why are you going to align with these companies? They're going to just do whatever is good for profit and they're going to betray you as soon as things get inconvenient especially when things turn.
Speaker 2:All right, so stop.
Speaker 1:Well, especially with company support protests and protesters liking that say yes, I'm going to be honest, you're stupid, you're not a real protester. A real protester's got to fight for you know, not physically fight Okay, don't twist my words now but you know, fight, as in protests, constructive. Can you be annoying when you protest? Yeah, you can be. I might not like it at times, but, yeah, you can be annoying. You need to generate attention, but I, of course, I'm against the violence and all that. I don't care if it's left, right or center protests, you know, and sadly, their fringes are violent as heck and I'm sure there's data on those folks too. They try to hide it. Trust me, there you are being watched, there you go, let me, let me spread that spook to you, especially extremists. You. This is why you get caught, all right. So there you go, weaponize that spook. Weaponize that spook, especially the extremists of left, right. Um, I look, I guess I don't. I don't believe in partisan loyalty. I just think it makes a person um dumb. And, just like you said, these tech companies are kissing the Trump butt right now because that's where the power is. I'm sure let's fast forward to 2028, if not 2032, a Democrat's going to come. I'm going to do the same thing to the Democrat.
Speaker 1:They care about one color, the green, the dollar. Okay, that's what they care about. The red and the blue, that's separate. It switches, it switches, okay. So that's what you need to know.
Speaker 1:People, these companies are just they're loyal to the shareholders and the bottom line, okay, which is the green, red and blue, is just a different. You know that's just like the switch or the power. Okay, blue, okay, kiss the different. You know that's just like the switch or the power. Okay, blue. Okay, kiss the blue butt for these four years, kiss the red butt for these four years, whatever, or if it's two term, of course, it's eight years of that butt kissing, and then we're going to revert. Okay, that's just how it generally works. People. So don't expect them to be loyal. They're not going to be so. And I want to say this for you for the butt kissing you. You kiss so much, but get your head out of your butts, protesters. Get it out and just see for what it is. Okay, you know this is. And I love that example because that's a very profound and obvious example. If you don't know, this is because you're not paying attention. You need to really pay attention. They came up with the bottom line in the shareholders.
Speaker 2:Because if we're not doing a good job, that boy will do whatever they can to get rid of that. I mean, look at that target on ceo recently. Yeah, very good example. Yep, target nike ceo, left starbucks ceo. I mean like they don't really care. If you're not providing value and bringing our stock up into the right, you're gone yeah, this is not a left blue talking point, this is business.
Speaker 1:So she had executive, high level leadership, highest leadership. You're not making them, have you not providing by? Like he said, they will rally against you real quick. You're gonna pressure you to quit? Oh, they're gonna vote your butt out. So that's the pressure that these ceos are in and other and other people in the leadership.
Speaker 1:Ok, so let's keep that in mind. You don't need to win everybody over. That's what I've said. Some were encouraged by that, a little too encouraged. Hope I don't encourage the wrong people. One of them was almost like a socialist. Oh really, I don't need everybody. No, you don't America, you know, I think you just need like a chunk of america. You don't need all of america to agree. If they reject, just go to the next person. That's what I learned how to do. You know, rejects used to hurt me when I was much, you know, when I was in my teens and early 20s. Okay, you know, that's how you should be tough. All right, all right, all right. Now I'm getting. Now I'm getting too much, I'm getting too political here. Eli, get back to the tech stuff.
Speaker 2:Is that what that?
Speaker 1:is Well, yep, that's it. We're going to stay on the tech track. I mean, I can even mix in spirituality. But look another thing about spirituality the churches. You know, if you love God, they're going to sell you some Bible and all of that.
Speaker 2:There you go. Yeah, I mean churches. I mean we know, I mean we can talk about churches. I get like a lot of churches use location. I see the mega churches like the churches of thousands and tens of thousands of people. They're advertising on social media. They're doing SEO and AdWords and Google. They want to be the number one church in their city and their zip code and bring in more people and help families. I think their intention I don't really know their intentions, but it seemed like they're in the right place but they also need data. Data, as you mentioned earlier, is the new goal. Data is the new oil. Data is powering all the AI that we all use every single day. It's training on exhaust that you and I kick out.
Speaker 1:It's kind of how it works. Yep, so climate change people, you got a new complication these ai generated centers. I mean, look, I'm for the climate change. I generally side with the left on that one. I might disagree to a solution, but I do agree with their general diagnosis of things. And you know and I'm still open to it I just disagree in their execution. I just think we need to build more infrastructure, make it easy for people to pick more clean energy resources. That's just my thing. I criticize the left on the execution, but I think they have a a good idea. That's where I lean, that. You know when we need. Look, if you want people to get on electric cars, we need a lot more electric charge stations. They need to be producing mass so they can be cheaper, more affordable for a regular American, instead of, you know, the upper middle class or higher socioeconomic status, people could just buy them and, of course, get an EV tax.
Speaker 1:Oh, I forgot, trump took that out. So you know, biden, that was a good time. You know to be pro biden and all of that. You know I one of the few things I prayed. I said, okay, that's a all right, that's a good thing, I guess, um, that's not. That's not the issue I was criticized by. I'm criticized by it in a lot of things, but not that one. So um and trump, I'm doing the same thing, I'm criticizing the crap out of him with a whole bunch of stuff. I think I never started with so much criticism, with the tariffs and all of that, and it's affecting all of us, whether you like it or not. We all suffer through that pain, whether you like it or not. If you're super wealthy, you ain't gonna feel that pain and you know in the millionaires not against you, but you know just the stated facts here. That's what I'm going to say about that. All right, all right, come eli. Why are you doing? What are you doing?
Speaker 2:get back to the tech stuff but this is, you know, relevant.
Speaker 1:So don't, they would add, about omega churches. I think I give them the doubt of the benefit. Yeah, I'm flipping that around because they're they're just about money and all of that. Yeah, I got my criticism with mega churches. I'm flipping that whole thing around. But, of course, like they want money, they want to bring more followers, want to be the number one. So I agree with your analysis. I'm just giving my, I'm just bringing my opinion on on that, but you know it's on point.
Speaker 1:So what do you think? You think your host is crazy, you think walter is spirit? Conspiracy theories, and that's your activity right now, especially for the haters. Go at it, I will disagree, but remember, whoever sends youtube senses you, not me, and trust me, I've got some hate comments. I don't delete them. Youtube will take. Take them out. So once I put it on Rumble ironically a safe space you could throw your crazy comments there compared to YouTube.
Speaker 1:Ok, that's what I'm going to say and I keep giving that because I think people like to play convenient dementia or amnesia. You're not Biden, I'm graceful with that. I try not to criticize that. Could the judge say he was unfit for office? So don't play that, don't play that, especially like 20. Stop, don't do that, don't do that, don't do that, don't don't, don't speed certain things up, don't do that. All righty then. So now, if I get to this question, after all this political church being weaponized, and and you know what? I know I'm talking about dating, but you know, let's do it because it affects politics, politics, policy and even dating apps yeah, I mean, I think there's a trend right now.
Speaker 2:Everybody's talking about that t-app. Uh, you heard of that. Yeah, and from started on the I mean obviously at king. It started from a good place with women trying to figure out who's safe to date in a city, and you know, does this guy have this, this, this or whatever going on, and some Reddit guys got upset and there was some hacking and some doxing and it just no bueno at that point. So that's one example.
Speaker 2:I do think, though, data has helped the data ecosystem, right, so we've actually helped participate in some studies by MIT and others that showed like, hey, how is Tinder and Bumble or Hinge or whatever, how has that changed the whole dating landscape? Well, I think there is some benefit, right. So if you're living out in Podunk, wisconsin, right, hundreds and hundreds of miles away from the city center we keep talking about Wisconsin, for some reason you can now date people in Milwaukee, right, and they can show up instead of just dating the people that you prior already know who was in every third grade class you had out in the country, as an example. So that's a benefit, but I obviously think there's some downsides, because I think you can, from a data perspective, learn a lot about the people you're dating and try to use that against them in a pretty bad, manipulative way. So I think, as a consumer navigating through all this, you should figure out what data do I want about me to be out there and the stuff that I don't want out there, don't post it. Do not post it.
Speaker 2:Obviously, there's a whole AI tools, whether it be like Gemini Anthropic or ChatGPT, that just sit and scour the web all day long. That's their whole job, and to understand and give people answers. That's the good side of it, arguably, but there's also why wouldn't there be negative AIs? Why wouldn't there be, like this black box doxing AI that does the same thing from an equivalency, and I just feel like people should be a little curious there. I think, as we get closer to political things and maybe you're a high target data can and has been weaponized against people to the public leaking phone numbers, leaking emails, leaking photos, all that kind of stuff but there is protection that you can understand the apps that you're using.
Speaker 2:Go to the app store, play store, read the nutrition label, which are now. It's all there. This app has access to my financials, my contacts, my location, my bank, my all other information and say do I want that, do I not want that? Go in your settings and change it. You have full control. I think that's what we need to do more than ever. But, elijah, as I keep saying, but, elijah, as I keep saying, the app is so good though, right, I love TikTok, I love Instagram, I love whatever app you're using, and you don't even think about it because somebody sent you something hilarious and funny and you want to share it with your friends and be the first person to share it. Just automatically, just send breadcrumbs over and over and over again. So you're in a data exchange. Just make sure that exchange is continually worth it for you.
Speaker 1:Yep, continually worth it for you. Yep, so even if you do your vpn or your cleanup once, you once you just say I accept, you just undid the thing and that's what I've been saying. That's why I just said you know what? I'll just do a little cleanup every once in a while, and just I. You alluded to this, but you didn't say these exact words. Be more conscious what. What you post, you're going to be ashamed of it. That is wisdom. That is just internet, social media, wisdom 101.
Speaker 1:If you're going to do a course, gen Z, you need that, believe it or not, because you're the most vulnerable. You're just almost as vulnerable as the boomers Tank. Yeah, because you surf the web so much, you think you know everything. Yeah, because you surf the web so much, you think you know everything. I would say the millennials and even the X. We are the least vulnerable because we know and we have like a foundation to experience. Sometimes still, you know professional learning and all that, but let's do personal experience. I mean me.
Speaker 1:I started using the computer when I was five and I was in the 90s. Yeah, I made myself a little bit, but I you know. And then the Internet came a few years later and I learned to do that as a teenager. So I already have. You know, I'm kind of a I don't want to say Internet has stressed to a egotistical, but I live through the transition. Let's just say I live through that transition. I was like the last. You know, my kiddie days was like the last of pre-internet days to, of course, when I got older, internet evolved with me. So it's, you know, as a millennial, it's interesting to go through that transition. And no nostalgia trip.
Speaker 1:I will criticize you. Look, we in a new era. Is it tough? Yes, but you know, I think this is why the millennial and the X are welcome. I mean, the X were like the real big, major consumers of the Internet. Let's be real. I mean, millennials weren't old enough to use a computer, most of them, all right, and a lot of the I would say the first was a tech grads. I would say, like the major cohorts, if you will, were X. X not millennial, because I mean x is the one that produced a lot of this stuff. Well, not facebook, but the stuff prior to that, the stuff prior to you know the fate, like the myspace, for example.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, we're going real old there so they were the pioneers, like second generation gen z's, like the third you go are. You could debate that against me if you want, go right ahead. But a lot of boomers do struggle with the computer. So just saying, just saying, it's not ageist. I've trained my mom to use it. She's become pretty wise with it. She asks me questions when she don't know. She just don't assume things. So I'll give that credit. And I had to learn to develop patience. I was that stereotypical man and I was just I don't, you get it and I was like okay, let me calm down. She came from a different time. I got to remember that Pre-way, pre-internet days, okay, and we got to be more empathetic and sympathetic with that. It was not born with the internet. Us younger folks were, so let's just keep that in mind. I don't know why I'm flanking them in the boomer election.
Speaker 1:You, young, you bring some points when it comes to this weaponization of of data, that even some positive points to it, I know. You know weaponize is generally a negative connotation to it. How do you use it against you for? For dating politics? Oh, let's just use me, for example. They look me up. Oh, this guy's a radical lefty. He supports Black Lives Matter and all of that. I'm a bit you know. Know I support the nra. I don't want to date that I was like a loser anyways out. So you use that data against you and all that. Yeah, well, what about in politics, in um policy, how they able to um do they?
Speaker 2:do they just target people to join political groups or yeah, I mean, if you think, about the last election I mean I think it was you probably know better than I do it was was like 100, 200,000 people actually were the key people determining the election. So you want to hyper-target of those key people? Right, I'm in Chicago, illinois. We already know how we're going to vote. We know how New York's going to vote, we know how California's going to vote, wisconsin is, michigan is Pennsylvania. These are the states that we really cared about. So let's hyper-target on not only those states, the counties within the state, the people within the state, and those are the biggest. And also, as we go to like the Iowa and as we begin a political process, let's see how people are going to turn out well with these Republicans or Democrats from, like the primary perspective.
Speaker 2:Let's, just before we even run an ad, let's do some geofencing and see how these people mesh. I mean, it makes sense. It's a low cost, pretty quick way to meter something or someone. So in the data world it's kind of cool because you can like, test something at low cost, like and iterate and learn pretty quickly. And politics is the same thing. Let's test this person out, see how they, you know, meter, and if they meter well, let's run with them and we'll give them the next test. So it's happening a lot Lots of geofencing, lots of trying to buy voter data, the voter file, see what you voted. People who've gone both ways, kind of like yourself, elias are kind of interesting to these groups because, oh, he was a Republican here, democrat here, who knows what he's going to be or she's going to be on the next one. Let's try to get an inkling of that before we even get to the midterms, because this is what we're all talking about right now, and try to do some AI modeling on it, powered by data.
Speaker 1:Well, this is my prediction. I'm going to say for the second time for Republicans barely keep the Senate Democrats take the House.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's a good, that's a safe prediction.
Speaker 1:I can see that by how many seats is where it's going to get interesting. I'm going to go with five seats majority for Democrats.
Speaker 2:Democrats take the House to keep. Republicans keep the Senate.
Speaker 1:Okay, and from my prediction, Republicans I think they will lose one Senate seat. So it's going to be like, yeah, that's my prediction. I mean I like to predict these things. Could I be wrong? Of course I could be. Feel free to chime in if you think I'm crazy or I'm on to something. I mean this whole Texas rediction thing. This is why it's happening, because they know they're going to lose the House the way they're doing it. They know and I've already been critical of the House of Representatives I'm not going to get into it.
Speaker 1:I've said it in previous episodes. I didn't talk about the rejection sheet that much. I want to do an episode on that, about how each state are handling that. I mean California's putting that in the ballot for the upcoming election. Let's see how that goes. They're predicting that they could flip four Republican seats, but Texas is not going to have five, so five. So see if colorado's gonna join. I think jb plitzker even expressed interest of that as well. So we'll see how they do. Sometimes, you know they talk tough but they don't deliver, and that's something I pay attention to people it's actually generally speaking, generally speaking yeah, go ahead I think it's an actual natural good tie-in.
Speaker 2:so let's talk about g Newsom, for example. Whether you like him or dislike him, that's not really the plan, but from a data perspective, he launched a podcast. He's talking to people on the left, right, middle. The guy is running for president and one of the key things for winning presidency is familiarity. Trump like him or hate him is everywhere 24-7, trying to control the news constantly, and Gavin's like huh. You need more of me, Just recognition, recognition, recognition. Yes, there's things in his record. He's got to fight against the state he represents, good or bad, or wherever you're at in that political spectrum. But from a data perspective, all of us listening and watching someone's trying to put themselves out there. That much. There's truly an agenda behind it, that is for sure.
Speaker 1:Of course, and if you say otherwise, especially you in the comments section, you're drinking the Kool-Aid or you're on deep copium. Alright, that's all I'm going to say to you. Come on, he's definitely running for it and, as of, of course, these hypothetical polls, he's the lead right now. He's trolling Trump right now and he knows that's the way it works. Do I agree with his political discourse? Hell, no, but so far it seems to work. Is it going to lead him to victory? That's a good debate, that's a good predictive debate right there, and we'll see. We'll see.
Speaker 1:So far, jd Vance is the default coronation, assuming everything goes normal. But we all know politics is weird as heck these days. So I don't know what Gavin Newsom put up. That maybe, maybe, but like you say, yes, of course, show off his achievements and defend against his weak record, and that's going to be interesting because it could go out of the way, if he adapts really well, that he could win it and I'll call it an upset. But if he can't defend the fires and all the other policies that went bad, he's gonna go down, and republicans are vicious. I'm telling they are vicious.
Speaker 2:So they are. Yeah, you also don't want to be. You also don't want to be ahead too early. We've seen that on the republican side, the people who are ahead early and, like you think, like you know, the governor of florida, like you're like, oh, this guy, I mean this anta is, like you know, even when trump won the first time, he wasn't ahead early. So we don't want to. You want to peak too early.
Speaker 1:That's never typically a good sign oh, you know, that's a very profound point. You see, you don't need to be in politics to be wise. You can just zoom from the. You zoom for the outside. No, that's a very good point if you peak too early. Yeah, because it was pushing the santas, the santas, the santas. Trump knocked the living bleep out of him all right, early too, mind you, and it was nicki haley, nicki haley, nicki haley, you know, she, she, she resisted for a while, but the inevitable was gonna happen. It was trump, trump, trump, trump, trump. Even though he lead in the polls, he's an exception to the rule. I will not use this whole trump 2024 thing as a normal predictor, because you know he's interesting, he's an oddball. You should not peak too early. Who peaked early? Oh, for 2016. I think you had Jeb Bush. It was about Jeb Bush. He knocked him down, he knocked, he was aggressive, he kept targeting the next one to peak, peak, peak and then he became Cruz and then he went down the list.
Speaker 2:Marco Rubio went down the list kept going, yep.
Speaker 1:So, even though you know this is a slight nostalgia trip, but politics, rather, you love them or hate them, that's irrelevant. But the, you know that. But he does bring up a very good point and yeah, that's why I said maybe, but that's why I always leave, maybe because, look, things are finicky, it could fit, it could go down real quick. You know, who knows, if aoc capullo upset, you never know, you never know. Okay, or someone else out of nowhere, a dark horse. So you know that. And it made for the rip. And I'm not sure about the republican side. It looks stable for now, but you never know, it could be another dark horse. As against jd v Vance, I'm going to run. I'm the real MAGA successor. You never know, you never know. And I'll be more interested in the 2028 election because I'm tired of talking about Trump. To be honest, I'm tired of it the.
Speaker 1:MAGA train is too much for me, to be honest. But hey, anything you want to add before I wrap this up.
Speaker 2:No, I mean, I definitely think from a data perspective, my job as a data person who deals a lot in this data is to be a communicator. I think there's one side that says privacy is dead, it doesn't really matter. They know everything about us. Don't forget about Snowden and the NSA and all that. A lot of people are just like. I will make sure they know nothing about me. And you mentioned tinfoil hats and VPNs constantly and reset my identifiers and clear cookies and all that kind of stuff. I think there's like somewhere safe in the middle right, there's somewhere in there where you don't have to like be a you know box troller constantly trying to like reset everything at the same time. You're not going to be like, look at me, here's everything about me.
Speaker 1:So there's a happy medium somewhere. Oh, that is a great fertilization for a debate. Is there a happy meeting with data? I mean, that's it, you know. I'll be interested to see how that goes the the pro data miners versus the anti-data miners and then who knows the third campus, the, the moderate data miners.
Speaker 1:We'll see, that'll be interesting. That would be, you know, I'll be interesting debate. I don't know where I would lean, I think I think I think for practical purposes I think I'm leaning towards whatever. I just will not now search for certain things Again, just that, my behavior from there, based on what I learned. That's all that's I'm going to do, and you should. I recommend you do the same stuff you're not so proud of. Once you're proud of you know, keep doing what you need to do, so All. Once you're proud of you know, keep doing what you need to do, so all righty, then let's do that shameless plug in and he alluded to it at least a couple of times. So check out Walter Harrison especially, who came by dot com. Check that out. That is very low. It's very local data mining and it's not creepy at all. It's just business, pure business. Ok, this is the more the ethical side of data mining and it's not creepy at all. It's just business, pure business.
Speaker 1:Okay, this is the more the ethical side of data mining because, even though the big companies do the same, but they give you this deceptive terms of service, that that is so tiny and not easy to see, and they have, like these super biblical paragraphs about your legal data that 99.99% of us do not freaking read because we don't got the time and our, our attention is no better than a freaking goldfish. Okay, so let's be, let's be honest about that, all right, and you also got our Instagram and a LinkedIn page as well. Anything else you want to add before, before I do the finale?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Do you guys want to learn more about who came by? You can go to who came bycom get a free report. Do you offense anything in the U? S? It's not a sensitive location. Learn more about the people who go there just for free. Come on.
Speaker 1:I've been, look, I've been pushing more affordable products. Okay, I know a few of my stuff's like a thousand, two thousand. Yeah, that's valid criticism. I'm not going to defend against. I say, yeah, good point. If the criticism makes sense, I'm not going to argue against it. But this is nonsense, hysterical, and I say calm the hell down, you don't make sense. Go to therapy or something or go express your anger at reddit or something like comment, subscribe for YouTube. You know notification bell, click on all if you want to be caught up and get all the notifications. All right, and remember, if you comment on YouTube, I would say be a little more cautious if you want to be sensitive, it's not me.
Speaker 1:I believe in freedom of speech and even though that shouldn't be a left or right thing, it should just be protecting rights. On that one, ok, and don't say free speech like right wing thing, because both parties have failed on that, on that aspect. Both of them, both of them. And I could tell you about how the Republicans failed on free speech, especially about canceling certain medias and using anti-Semitism as a cancel word. I mean, that's how the right wingers fail. I already told about how the left wingers fail multiple times and I agree. No, no, no, no, no, no. All right.
Speaker 1:So, oh, and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. I leave a review on apple podcast. I don't care about spotify view. If you leave a review there, I will happily um, ignore it, okay. And if, if you have a little extra green, that was up to you you donate minimum three dollars a month and you get access to my old cringe content, I'm going to start thinking about posting some exclusive stuff and this is where I'm going to go off the rails and you can think I'm the most craziest person in the world, or maybe there's a method to my madness, we'll see. But that one uh-uh, that one I'm not putting that on YouTube publicly because there's going to be certain opinions.
Speaker 1:I got that I would consider radical to some people and you go behind the vault for that one. This is the more public entrance to it. Like the front of the mafia let's use the mafia example. It was a laundromat to it, you know. Like the front of the baffi let's use the baffi example. You know, like it's a laundry mat, but behind closed doors or something else. Think of it like that. Except that you get mild elias behind the vault, you can get a uncensored. Um, elias, okay, and there you go, I will, I will, I will just do that. So it's just. This is a different versions of me, instead of just a legal business within a legal business. It's both legal, legal, okay. So whenever you complete this audio or visual journey, you have a blessed day, afternoon or night. Bye.
