You know, anyone who has a driver's license, your face is in a database like that or passport.

Your face is in a database like that.

If you're near a mirror right now or just turn on your camera and point it at yourself, do me a favor.

Look at your face.

Look at your reflection.

You probably think of yourself as a parent, maybe a tech worker, a friend, or whatever you might be, a

grandparent. Hey, you're listening to this podcast, so maybe you also see yourself as a tech

genius in the making. But to big tech companies, you're something else. You're a fat cash cow.

I know, I know. It's not exactly a flattering light, but powerful data mining companies can make

a ridiculous amount of money by tracking your data.

I'm not just talking about your web browsing history. That's nothing. Your location data is really profitable, too.

Oh, and don't forget about those shopping lists. That's right. Your buying history is as attractive to data miners as followers are to bees.

Here's an example. Your local grocery store

probably keeps track of every single thing that you buy. That's because selling your purchase

history is a great side hustle for them. In fact, get this, data brokerage is a $200 billion

industry. Gosh, where was I 20 years ago? How come I didn't tap into that?

Okay, moving on. They make these dollars in a ton of insidious ways. Well, that's probably why I didn't

get into it. Now, in case you're wondering, who's buying this data? How about the government itself?

Yeah, the government conceives your digital data. But it can also buy your secrets from a third party. So even though we have constitutional protections for location information, government

agents are apparently exploiting gaps in the law to buy your personal information from brokers.

I mean, honestly, buying your privacy data is so routine today. It's just a fact of life.

But why does this happen?

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