We are constantly handing out data for free. We do it through nearly everything we do in the modern digital age. Every time we use our phones for something, whether it’s looking up directions, getting on Twitter or ordering something from Amazon, we are giving our data to at least one major corporation, maybe more. At TARTLE we very much want for people to be fully aware of how that is happening and how you can help prevent it.
One of the main ways you give your data to companies is through the use of free websites. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc all rely on you putting your data out there so they can sell it to others. Anything you put on those sites, from your location, your education, pictures of your family, are considered fair game and the cost of using that site. Ask yourself, since the site isn’t selling you something and they keep operating, how are they doing that? How are they making money? They do it by selling you, you are the product.
One of the ways they do that is through all the ads they are filling your feed with. Doesn’t it seem like you can’t scroll more than a few seconds without coming across an ad? That’s because they are and the more you interact with those ads, the more they are tailored to you. If there are particular images or phrases that get your attention, the algorithms pick up on it and adjust accordingly.
Have you noticed all those polls online? Especially those standing between you and the rest of an article you were reading? They are collecting data on all your preferences, learning what kind of person likes to read that kind of article and what sort of information you like to read and will feed you more of it.
Of course, it gets even more granular. Many sites will go so far as to track how your mouse moves around the screen and pay attention to which web designs you spend more time around, allowing them to better tailor things to you. This goes as deep as adjusting the color layout of some ads to something that you tend to interact with more. Even a preference for dark mode is recorded and used to inform the almighty algorithm.
If you spend any time at all on YouTube, you know the amount of time spent watching a video matters, not to mention your likes and shares. If you doubt it, change what you watch for a couple of days. Your feed will change dramatically to the point you might need to specifically search for the channels you were watching before the experiment because they just don’t show up anymore.
All of those customer service surveys, whether on a phone call or on a given website all feed into the algorithms. Anything that can be customized to get you to spend more time and money on particular sites will be used to do so.
Do your devices listen to you? Oh, definitely. Just recently, I’ve been talking about plans for hiking the southern part of the Appalachian Trail this year, specifically mentioning the approach trail a few times. Wouldn’t you know it, articles on the approach trail started showing up in my Google Newsfeed. There are plenty of similar stories out there, and of course, you should feel free to conduct your own experiments.
So, how does someone protect themselves from all of this data acquisition and tracking? How do we stop these corporations from using all of this information to squeeze us into a little demographic box? There are a few steps you can take. One is to use a browser like Brave or Firefox that will block a lot of that tracking software. Another is to get a VPN, allowing you to hide your IP address. Finally, you can sign up with TARTLE and sync your accounts with us so that you can control when, where, how often and why your data is getting shared. That way only you can decide if anyone gets to know anything about you and if you do want to share, you can share things you really care about. And that’s worth a lot.
What’s your data worth?
We are constantly handing out data for free. We do it through nearly everything we do in the modern digital age. Every time we use our phones for something, whether it’s looking up directions, getting on Twitter or ordering something from Amazon, we are giving our data to at least one major corporation, maybe more. At TARTLE we very much want for people to be fully aware of how that is happening and how you can help prevent it.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Tartle Cast with your hosts, Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby, where humanity steps into the future and source data defines the path.
Alexander McCaig (00:24):
Hello everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Tartle Cast. Now that I'm looking directly at the camera, it's weird. I don't know how newscasters do it. When I talk about something, I like to have a conversation and it's easier for me to talk to you. I know looking at the camera, people probably appreciate it, but you, there's something else going on.
Jason Rigby (00:42):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just two people talking, where you're just looking at a camera. But they're looking at a camera because the camera's small compared to the teleprompter.
Alexander McCaig (00:49):
Yeah, teleprompter's huge.
Jason Rigby (00:50):
And then the big news machine, it's just telling them what... They just have to get good at reading.
Alexander McCaig (00:55):
And they're far enough away so you can't really see their eyes tracking.
Jason Rigby (00:57):
Yeah, all the propaganda that they're pumping out. Don't give me started on the news, these news corporations.
Alexander McCaig (01:04):
Listen to the Tartle news. We filter through all the...
Jason Rigby (01:08):
The Tcast.
Alexander McCaig (01:08):
The TCast filters through all the BS you find around data and data news.
Jason Rigby (01:12):
Yeah, if you want to know true data news, we're here.
Alexander McCaig (01:15):
If you need a fresh perspective on life.
Jason Rigby (01:17):
But we do want to make a disclaimer right now. We are not a doctor. Any medical advice we give...
Alexander McCaig (01:26):
Honestly.
Jason Rigby (01:28):
We ask you to please see your doctor.
Alexander McCaig (01:30):
I didn't go to school for any medical degree or anything crazy.
Jason Rigby (01:32):
This is for entertainment purposes only.
Alexander McCaig (01:33):
Yeah, this is entertainment purposes. Do not serve us any sort of lawsuit. Listen, all we're doing is thinking about things logically.
Jason Rigby (01:42):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (01:42):
We're being rational and we're trying to unify and increase the longevity of life.
Jason Rigby (01:48):
Yeah. We're not saying how can we have clickbait data.
Alexander McCaig (01:51):
Yeah. It's that's not what it is. It's like, we just want to talk about something with value. Is that so bad?
Jason Rigby (01:58):
No.
Alexander McCaig (01:59):
No.
Jason Rigby (01:59):
It shouldn't be.
Alexander McCaig (02:00):
Okay. So, that's what we're doing. We're professionals in delivering things of a real value.
Jason Rigby (02:04):
Real value. Speaking of real value-
Alexander McCaig (02:07):
Or fake value, [crosstalk 00:02:08].
Jason Rigby (02:08):
Yeah, yeah. So, there's a list compiled by Stacker of 15 ways personal data is revealed by social media companies. So, I kind of wanted us to walk through this list. First of all, they talk about there's personal data just for the taking.
Alexander McCaig (02:23):
Is this going to upset me?
Jason Rigby (02:26):
Yeah, maybe a little bit, social media companies. Let's clarify this. Whether you're Facebook, which Facebook owns Instagram, there's this big WhatsApp thing, which they're going in a good way on that, and we'll have an update on that, what I've been reading on that.
Alexander McCaig (02:42):
A lot of backlash.
Jason Rigby (02:43):
Yeah, exactly. So, of course, they're going to be like, "Well, we want users on the platform." Whether you're Snapchat-
Alexander McCaig (02:50):
You know when people say users, all I think of is heroin.
Jason Rigby (02:53):
Yeah, well that's what it is, yeah.
Alexander McCaig (02:55):
All the time. When you join Tartle, you're a person.
Jason Rigby (02:58):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (02:59):
You're not a user.
Jason Rigby (03:00):
You're not a user, yeah.
Alexander McCaig (03:01):
We don't want users. We don't want addiction. We want people using a tool when they want to use it. Okay? No users, only people.
Jason Rigby (03:09):
I love that. And so, whenever we look at these social media companies, whoever they may be, and there's a ton of them out there, and there's new ones being created all the time. TikTok now has blown up. Whatever it may be, there's personal data that's just for the taking. Like, in the sense of whenever you sign up, the first thing you're doing when you sign up on any type of platform is you're giving something away.
Alexander McCaig (03:37):
Yeah. The very first thing that happens when you hit their web URL is you give them your IP address. So, that's saying what internet router is the device going through. And then they have this thing called a fingerprint. And a fingerprint is something that sits inside your web browser. It tells you what the device is, how big the screen is, processing chip. It'll tell you what operating system it might be. All these different things are in there. So, now we have an IP address, Mac address, all the internal stuff components that are happening with this phone or tablet, or whatever it might be. So, now we have the first major part of the profile.
Jason Rigby (04:13):
A city and state, country.
Alexander McCaig (04:14):
Yeah. Yeah, where you're coming from. So, after we have that, now we have location and a device. Now we can trace that. That's the first free dib. Before you even sign up on an account that's the first thing that hits a server.
Jason Rigby (04:25):
Yeah. And so, that's the personal data that's just for the taking.
Alexander McCaig (04:30):
That's free for them.
Jason Rigby (04:30):
That's free for them. Here we go, right off the bat.
Alexander McCaig (04:33):
By the way, you can use Firefox. You can use Brave and you can use a VPN, a virtual private network so that you can block your IP, right, your real IPA, and you can alter your fingerprint. So, for us human beings, you're stuck with one fingerprint. Well, digitally, you can change it with your web browser so they're unsure. So, you can actually confuse the algorithms.
Jason Rigby (04:53):
That's cool.
Alexander McCaig (04:54):
I would suggest that.
Jason Rigby (04:57):
Yeah. Suggest that. So, second one is what gets you engaged, sells.
Alexander McCaig (05:03):
Yeah. They have this new AI system that came out and what it does is it knows your color preferences. So, it'll take like a Powerade ad and it will retune all the background colors specifically for you. It knows exactly where to hit you in that sweet spot. It's looking at the clothing you buy, those color palettes, all the stuff, how you respond to it. It's like, you don't want to paint a newborn child's room red.
Jason Rigby (05:33):
Right.
Alexander McCaig (05:34):
Right? You need soft, gentle, caressing, unifying, loving, harmonizing colors.
Jason Rigby (05:38):
Well, I mean it's just as simple for me. I love dark mode. So, every website, I always click, they have that button. Tartle needs that, by the way. They have that button where you can choose whether you want it to have like just this bright white or you want it to have just all black.
Alexander McCaig (05:51):
Well, they know that there's a change in contrast now.
Jason Rigby (05:54):
Right.
Alexander McCaig (05:54):
Now, at nighttime, they can deliver you ads of a different color contrast. You're only helping them out by putting on dark mode. You just removed like 25% of their problems in advertising by saying, "I want dark mode."
Jason Rigby (06:06):
Yeah, exactly. I love that. Like on Twitter, it's all black, you know?
Alexander McCaig (06:09):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (06:10):
It just looks a lot better than the... The bright white is like whoa.
Alexander McCaig (06:14):
Well, we have because our new system, our bright white, now that you say that, we have a lot of art.
Jason Rigby (06:19):
We shine bright like a diamond.
Alexander McCaig (06:20):
We shine bright like a diamond. The new iteration of Tartle is like walking into an art gallery.
Jason Rigby (06:25):
Yeah. It's [crosstalk 00:06:26].
Alexander McCaig (06:26):
That's how I would describe that. So, go ahead. What's the next one? That's fine.
Jason Rigby (06:30):
What gets you engaged, sells. Coming from a marketing side-
Alexander McCaig (06:33):
We just did that, didn't we?
Jason Rigby (06:35):
Yeah.
Alexander McCaig (06:35):
Yeah, keep going.
Jason Rigby (06:37):
No, but I want to talk about this one real quick before we move on. So, coming from a marketing side, a lot of people aren't realizing how much data they're collecting to be able to market to you specifically. And we talk about how machine learning is doing a poor job in certain things, and we had a whole episode on that. Don't need to get into that. But you don't realize the amount of information these social media sites are collecting from you because they're not a social media site. They're an advertising agency.
Alexander McCaig (07:02):
That's all it is.
Jason Rigby (07:03):
They make all their money off of ads and they have the social media aspect to try to keep you on... Snapchat, for instance, when I went to their headquarters, had that meeting, their whole idea is to say right when you open Snapchat, your camera's on, first thing. So, we're a camera app. That's what they say. So, they're virtual reality, which they got some really cool stuff. You can go to the France museum and the Louvre, and walk in there, and then they have this virtual reality thing where it brings things alive and then gives you information and stuff.
Alexander McCaig (07:36):
[crosstalk 00:07:36] here in New Mexico has got a whole new place in Albuquerque that's all their virtual reality. You can sit and have a meal, and as you're moving your fork, it's changing the table dynamically. That's cool, that's cool.
Jason Rigby (07:48):
Yeah. See, that's cool. Yeah. That's super cool. So, these companies, these social media companies are advertising companies. So, when we realize that, and we're on this platform and they're hitting us, like Facebook has gotten like it seems like every four or 5th post is an ad.
Alexander McCaig (08:03):
We're just becoming used to seeing ads.
Jason Rigby (08:05):
Yeah. And I find myself clicking on ads because sometimes they're really good at it. The machine hits me.
Alexander McCaig (08:12):
Like, wow we nailed that guess.
Jason Rigby (08:13):
Yeah, exactly, yeah. Like, they would know you right now if an ad showed 60% off Patagonia, you may click it.
Alexander McCaig (08:23):
I'm there. And I'm going to say, guess what? I'll take the 6% off and also give you 20% back because I care about what you're doing.
Jason Rigby (08:28):
Yeah, exactly. So, number three is giving them attitude data.
Alexander McCaig (08:33):
Yeah. Your attitude, so likes. If you go on LinkedIn, you can clap, applaud, curious, thumbs up, thumbs down. It's giving them how you feel about things now. Just in a button and in just pressing it.
Jason Rigby (08:47):
Or time watched on video.
Alexander McCaig (08:49):
I don't know how many people will go to large gas stations on the side of major interstates. If you go into the bathroom, it has like these buttons, how was your experience, was the bathroom clean. It's got three smiley faces. They're collecting all that stuff so that they can analyze it. You just gave it to them for free. [crosstalk 00:09:06] it was. By the way, you also bought a Snickers on the way out and you gave them 45 bucks for gas.
Jason Rigby (09:11):
Yeah, so they know all that.
Alexander McCaig (09:12):
Yeah. Good job.
Jason Rigby (09:13):
So, and then they can average it out to how many people what's the average because they lose money on the gas side of things. They make all their money on the convenience store side.
Alexander McCaig (09:21):
It's all in the convenience. That's why they go nuts on doling out the convenience.
Jason Rigby (09:23):
Yeah. And then having the right shelves to hit you, like there's some candy.
Alexander McCaig (09:26):
No, no, petroleum's a scam. Okay?
Jason Rigby (09:30):
Yeah, we don't want to get into that. So, attitude data, when we think of attitude data, and we think of clicking the like button, and this is the problem that Facebook has had some heat when it comes to politics because what it's basically doing... But I want to take the heat off of Facebook and I want to say this.
Alexander McCaig (09:47):
Yeah, there's so much focus on them.
Jason Rigby (09:48):
Because there was a comedian, Ari Shaffir was his name and he's been kind of controversial, but it was really interesting. So, he opened up a YouTube account and all he did was like happy puppy videos. That's all he did. So, you know what the machine learning algorithm did?
Alexander McCaig (10:07):
It gave him a Trump ad?
Jason Rigby (10:09):
It didn't give him any of that. It gave him all dog stuff, dog food ads, puppies, and then every time he opened it... But he wanted to show that it's our responsibility. We're liking this, and I'm going to use this word, shit, this divisive stuff, and we're doubling down, whether it's a Trump ad or a Biden ad, or whatever it is, and we're telling the machine learning. The machine's just reacting off of what you're like and it's serving you more.
Alexander McCaig (10:37):
Polarize me. Polarize me. Polarize me. Polarize me. That's all you're doing when you're hitting the like button.
Jason Rigby (10:43):
Not to get too philosophical, but-
Alexander McCaig (10:45):
That's what it boils down to.
Jason Rigby (10:48):
... this attitude data is showing what type of person you are.
Alexander McCaig (10:52):
Yeah. In an observational sense if I'm going to sit here on the outside and just observe you throughout your day, Jason, I'm going to be like, "Not a good guy."
Jason Rigby (10:59):
Yeah.
Alexander McCaig (11:00):
Or that seems like a half-decent person. But I never had a conversation with you. I don't really know. What was your thought process? It seems like it's a good way to define people, but it's not very truthful.
Jason Rigby (11:12):
No.
Alexander McCaig (11:12):
Just because of pressing a like button, whatever. Some people like stuff just because they just support their friends.
Jason Rigby (11:17):
Yeah, exactly.
Alexander McCaig (11:18):
Or maybe educationally-
Jason Rigby (11:20):
I think Netflix is a good indication, like how their machine learning served you up. You watched these 10 documentaries so it'll serve you up another documentary that just came out. You know what I mean?
Alexander McCaig (11:30):
I'm cool with that because that's basic. That's not polarizing me. It's just like, yeah, I've been watching documentaries. Maybe that's what I want to binge on right now. The other day, I didn't realize this, I had Netflix on and... No, Disney+. I was watching that WandaVision with Vision and Wanda.
Jason Rigby (11:47):
Everybody says it's horrible.
Alexander McCaig (11:49):
No, it's not. I think it was just a little above their head when they started. I think Disney got way too creative for a second, and people are like, "Gross." You know what I mean? They didn't get it. People don't like black and white stuff anymore in a four-by-three aspect ratio. So, after I'd watched the first episode, I think it just assumed I was going to binge, skipped all the credits, bam, the next one started immediately. It's just like preloaded. I didn't have to do the thing that says skip intro. It just immediately skipped it for me.
Jason Rigby (12:19):
Why do they need to click that button? They don't click need to click that button. He automatically binge watches other shows so why can't we just assume that he's going to binge-watch this one.
Alexander McCaig (12:27):
That's precisely the point. The thing is I wasn't bingeing anything. Amanda was.
Jason Rigby (12:31):
Hmm, yeah.
Alexander McCaig (12:33):
She's watching other stuff, but their algorithm's like, "It must be the same person, skip." I like the intro. I like the music.
Jason Rigby (12:39):
Yeah, exactly.
Alexander McCaig (12:40):
I like the artwork.
Jason Rigby (12:41):
No, there was a show I was watching and I watched the intro every time because it's so creative. I don't remember what the show was, but I know, I like intros too. Especially if they're done well.
Alexander McCaig (12:50):
Well, you know who had a great intro? Game of Thrones.
Jason Rigby (12:53):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (12:53):
Because as the actual storyline developed, so did the initial map. The intro was dynamic with it.
Jason Rigby (12:59):
Yes. So, the James Bond movies are that way too. You always want to watch the intro.
Alexander McCaig (13:03):
Oh, you don't want to skip the initial Bond intro. It's got the cool music.
Jason Rigby (13:06):
Yeah, it's got all the artwork. It's got like inkblots.
Alexander McCaig (13:10):
You know when you go into an art museum and they have the good exhibit way in the back, but they have all these, not the top artists, but good artists, you channel through that first. What if you just hit a button and you just transport right over to that?
Jason Rigby (13:19):
Yeah. It kind of ruins the moment though, the anticipation and all that.
Alexander McCaig (13:23):
Come one.
Jason Rigby (13:23):
So, attitude data, we have to realize that take 100% responsibility for that. Behavioral, that's kind of same thing, behavioral data easily collected.
Alexander McCaig (13:31):
Yeah. Behavior's just, again, it's just like, well, what are they doing over. What are their patterns? That's all the behaviors are. Show me the pattern. But it doesn't give you the why to the pattern. I don't know how many times we have to say this. Just because you're tracking behaviors, you don't know why those behaviors are occurring. Just because I bought, say for instance-
Jason Rigby (13:53):
Nike shoes.
Alexander McCaig (13:54):
... Nike shoes. Okay. I have never been into a Champs. I walked by it and I saw this on the wall. It caught my eye because it's the first time I walked into a Champs.
Jason Rigby (14:06):
Yeah, because you like [crosstalk 00:14:06].
Alexander McCaig (14:07):
Now they're dishing me up Nike stuff. But this is not my behavior. My behavior, it's almost like erratic. I never go in here. But they're like, "Oh, there's a change in his behaviors. What's going on?" All they know is that is I was-
Jason Rigby (14:20):
Can we double down on this change? Will it be worth it to us?
Alexander McCaig (14:24):
All they know is that I was in the Champs and I bought the shoe at a specific price. They have no idea in my brain what caused me to actually change my motor function, turn sideways, and go inside that store. They have no clue. They're just assuming because I bought the shoe, that's why I wanted to be in there. Why did I need the shoe? I wear my shoes down so there's like holes in the thing. I don't like consuming more than I have to.
Jason Rigby (14:49):
Yeah. If they served you bright-colored, latest, greatest Nike's-
Alexander McCaig (14:53):
I don't need 30 pairs of them, right, Jason. Right?
Jason Rigby (14:58):
Oh, that's funny. Yeah. I have some that just sit there. So, it's like it's silly. So, behavioral data, and I want to get into this behavioral, when we look at behaviors. A behavior is different than attitude.
Alexander McCaig (15:15):
If you're a good psychiatrist and you are trying to help someone with some sort of psychiatric issue, trying to solve it, it's not just you solving it for them. There has to be a partnership between the person that has this mental illness and yourself. I can't just sit here from the outside and just look at all the behaviors. I need to actually speak with that individual and ask them their input in the why to that behavior so we can get down to the root of it so we can help solve whatever the disease is in their mental capacity. Does that make sense?
Jason Rigby (15:51):
But we know as well as I do thoughts control behavior. So, whenever we're looking at, as we're consuming-
Alexander McCaig (16:00):
I'm sorry, are we a top golfing team yet?
Jason Rigby (16:03):
Yes. It's happening right now. Can you feel it? Huh? Huh?
Alexander McCaig (16:07):
I can feel it. You set the tee real high, and I got a big old driver here.
Jason Rigby (16:11):
Yeah. So, whenever we're looking at our thoughts and those thoughts control our behavior, and then we're online, these companies and this machine learning, this algorithm is not looking at it and saying, "Alex, we know you're been divorced right now, and so you downloaded this dating app because..." All it knows is that you're on a dating app. It doesn't know that you're depressed or that you're feeling the best you've ever felt in your whole life. It knows you went to a gym. There's so much on our behavior. It's like when we looked at those decentralized team maps, and it's just like everywhere, it looks like all these little just... It's so complex. Our behavior is so complex because it's based off of our thoughts.
Alexander McCaig (16:58):
But their algorithms look at us as though we're so linear.
Jason Rigby (17:00):
Yes. We're not.
Alexander McCaig (17:01):
Like we're this inflexible creature. That's a joke. It's a joke. Don't put me in a bucket I don't belong in unless I tell you I belong in that bucket.
Jason Rigby (17:13):
No buckets. And at tartle.co, how do we bucket people?
Alexander McCaig (17:17):
Oh, wait a minute, we don't. You bucket yourself. You say these are the assets that I want to build up that define who I am, not a company deciding for me. And then I can share that to them, and then they can properly put me in the right bucket.
Jason Rigby (17:31):
When you want to share it, or if you don't want to share it, you don't have to.
Alexander McCaig (17:34):
Your control, your time, and your decision of how much. That sounds like a nice win. In a broad statement, we've always seen that if you're using something for free online, you're paying for it somehow else. When you use Tartle, we're not taking anything from you.
Jason Rigby (17:48):
Nope.
Alexander McCaig (17:49):
So, in that broad sweeping statement, don't put us into that bucket.
Jason Rigby (17:52):
No.
Alexander McCaig (17:53):
Is that fair?
Jason Rigby (17:53):
Yeah. We're in no bucket.
Alexander McCaig (17:55):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Thank you for listening to Tartle Cast with your hosts, Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby, where humanity steps into the future and source data defines the path. What's your data worth?
