I was paying bills using the billpay feature on my account when I noticed some upgraded features such as being able to check your credit score. Anymore, this is a common feature at credit card sites and etc but is something new for the credit union I use. I have loan for a new used car I bought a few months ago. The credit union did an analysis of all debt and seized upon the car loan and offered a refinance at a rate nearly 2% below my existing loan. They had all the details on note amount, interest rate and term. (I'm not sure if they got this from the other lender and how they did so. There's a possibility that they just backed into the calculations). I went with it and applied right on line. Since the loan isn't that big, the savings is somewhat minimal but I figured it would be better off in my pocket, so why not.

However, this brought a couple of things to mind. First, the credit score thing is really a marketing hook to sell financial product driven access to your financial data. Because I don't keep all of my accounts in one place, they don't have the big picture but they're trying. For example, one enhancement they added was the ability to link your external accounts to the credit union ostensibly to facilitate transfers. I'm not so sure that there's not information shared in terms of actual balances and details in external accounts. The credit union has an arrangement with some financial consultants to sell product. Even if outside balances weren't available, a credit profile is enough to target people.

Of course, none of this is nefarious but it has the potential for that as your information can be shared or otherwise used without your knowledge.

We are an information-based society.

As an investor, maybe we should be asking who the real estate owners with a credit scores that are below 520

Most info is volunteered / self-inflicted,

through an overworked pie hole.

My old car was relatively "dumb". It had an OBD diagnostic port but that was about it. This one has lane departure assist and a few other bells and whistles that come with even base models today. It doesn't have satellite radio, but that's accessible via Android Auto on my phone. Someone like me is definitely trackable and can be shut down.

There's a number of ways you can be shut down even if you aren't a heavy user of technology. For example, unless you're making deposits in "Banco Backyard", your accounts can be shut down or seized. Even if you're using Banco Backyard, it's very difficult to function with actual cash nowadays unless it's small amounts. Any bill over $ 20 is scrutinized like you're a drug dealer. Running around with thousands can make you suspect.

I just wish that my CU would step it up a little more, technology wise.

Couple years back my daughter was talking about how she just takes a pic of a check to deposit it. I thought wow, they are making progress. I tried doing that with one of the two checks I get and nada.

Called the CU the next day and found out they stopped allowing businesses to do that. Ugg. No Zelle either.

You could look into the Tor Project that has been advocating privacy for online browsing for over decades. They use an encapsulating feature that they once compared to an onion, the data being at the core while the skin offers protection.

RB indeed, people willingly offer their data via browsing using "free" products and participate in social media sites.

"f you bought your car on a payment plan, likely has a GPS transmitter secretly installed so the dealer can report you to a repo man with your location."

I've an interesting anecdote. The car I bought was a repo. As a matter of fact, I was considering another car in the same price range that was a repo as well. Both were low miles and in good shape. While anecdotal, it does indeed raise the question about the GPS thing. Maybe I should have my car checked for a hidden one and remove it.

"Vandana Shiva noted that speculators no longer made huge windfalls from mining the Earth so they mine our minds. Data crawling tools catch every email address even if stored on web linux servers"

The general public has always been a giant petri dish; a sort of controlled environment where behaviors are studied and shaped. The difference now is that the feedback data is in real time. Everything is sold from ideas to consumer goods. I keep that in mind whenever I'm inclined to make an emotional purchase of anything. For example, I tend to view polls not as a measure of opinion but as a measure of how effective efforts have been to shape your opinion. The same applies to consumer behavior.

NO! Absolutely not.

What do you think AI is really for?

" ...they don't have the big picture ..." Yes, they do.

AI is a learning machine. Yes, indeed it is. The problem is what (who) it is learning.

Let me give you a recent example of technology control. As time goes on Microsoft does updates on the computer. These are mostly "security" updates, right? Part of the problem with this is that it causes problems with your older computer and slows it down as it gets overloaded, especially since it is installing AI now, thus creating the need for a newer computer. Planned obsolescence? Since this has become an issue with my laptop I decided to remove some recent updates back to a previous time, or so I thought. Supposedly, support stopped for Windows 10 back in October. As I went to remove some recent updates Microsoft started installing a new one at the same time. But wait, I thought Windows 10 was no longer supported? Why, it even says so right on the update systems page. I said "ok then, I will uninstall that one too". Guess what? It reinstalled it instantly. I went to uninstall it again and it kept popping up that there was a problem and it couldn't uninstall it. It did this several times. And, since then, it has installed 2 more updates on a system that is supposedly no longer supported. For the last couple of months before this, as it was nearing the "end" of it's support, Microsoft was constantly "updating". More like, destroying your computer so you need a new one. Do we really not think this is planned? And for what real reason? Marketing at its finest, as you well took note of with the whole credit report thing.

Ray, are the cats strange or just the videos?

I understand that all of the electronics available now allow me to be tracked.

But when I see a place online that I want to investigate in person it is nice to send the coordinates to my phone, which then syncs to my truck.

Getting text messages while I am driving or hands free phone calls are both perks as well.

As much as I liked running a manual transmission I love my back-up camera now.

Also is nice while I am out and about and I get a notice that someone filled out a new application.

After all I have done in life I would welcome only having to push one button a day.

Remember reading "Amazing Science Fiction" from the 1930s where writers predicted a "Jetson" lifestyle. One writer did not - he predicted a future where most people lived in broken down shacks and slum like downtowns with large cables running into them. When the time traveler entered one of these dilapidated apartments, he found a man lying on a broken down couch, in the middle of the day, with electrical cables going to a helmet over his head, thrashing around as if he were in pain. The Time Traveler rushed to help by pulling off the helmet and the hippy looking man became enraged! Why are you harshing my video game - I'm busy man! LOL

Here's the thing though--can anyone truly be offline? Even if you're not into social media and the latest technological gadgets, your data is still out there. The only people off line are the uncontacted groups engaged in subsistence living completely off grid in the backwaters of the world. Our business and many other activities force us into the system whether we want to be or not.