#340 Byron Tau - The Government Doesn't Just Spy on You. It Buys You.

Shawn Ryan (0:00)

If you spend any time off-road like I do, you already know how easy it is to end up second-guessing where you're at, whether you're still on a legal trail, or if the route ahead is even worth taking. That's why I've been using OnX Off-Road. It's an off-road navigation app that shows trails, public and private land boundaries, places to camp, and detailed trail info all in one place. And what makes it really useful is the amount of actual trail data. You can check difficulty ratings, terrain details, trail photos, even recent reports from other riders before you head out there. The other big thing is you can download maps ahead of time. Because once you lose service out there, your phone is pretty much useless. But with OnX Off-Road, everything still works offline. And if you're riding with a group, their location sharing feature lets everybody stay on the same map so nobody gets lost or separated. What I like most about it is it gives me a lot more confidence when I'm exploring somewhere new. I'm not wasting time backtracking, accidentally ending up on private land or trying to figure things out once I'm already deep into the trail system. I can plan ahead, know what I'm getting into and spend more time actually enjoying the ride instead of worrying about navigation the whole time. Search OnX Off-Road in the App Store or Google Play. Again, that's OnX Off-Road in the App Store or Google Play.

Byron Tau (1:33)

ABC Tuesdays, TV's hottest PI is back. You sure you're ready to take on a serial killer?

Shawn Ryan (1:38)

It's like a dozen more likely explanations other than serial killer.

SPEAKER_2 (1:42)

All right, maybe not a dozen.

Byron Tau (1:43)

In Florida, crime has no off season.

Shawn Ryan (1:46)

I just heard you were shot at today with a rocket launcher.

Byron Tau (1:50)

Well, I missed. RJ. Decker, Tuesdays 10, 9 Central on ABC, next day on Hulu.

Shawn Ryan (2:01)

Byron Tau, welcome to the show.

Byron Tau (2:04)

Thanks so much for having me.

Shawn Ryan (2:06)

My pleasure. So like I said, I heard about you in an earlier episode. Your book got shouted out and so it took us a couple of years, but here you are.

Byron Tau (2:18)

Well, glad to be here.

Shawn Ryan (2:19)

Yeah, it's good to have you here. So we're going to be talking about basically digital surveillance, what they do with all that information and all this stuff. This can be kind of a dry subject, so I just want to preface it before we get going. Have you heard about this pricing surveillance?

Byron Tau (2:41)

Yeah. This is a new thing where essentially companies are trying to figure out what the maximum is that you're willing to pay, and try to extract as much money from you as possible through all the data they collect about you.

Shawn Ryan (2:58)

So I just want to paint a picture real quick, because you get a lot of people and they're like, what does it matter about?

I'm not trying to hide anything. So I know Walmart is, I think Walmart, I think there's another big company too. Is it Amazon?

Byron Tau (3:15)

I'd be surprised if most big companies weren't at least thinking about some of this stuff.

Shawn Ryan (3:21)

So basically Walmart is, they want to do surveillance on us all and figure out the maximum amount you're willing to pay.

Here's a little scenario. You pull into Walmart, they got the flock cameras. Flock cameras talk to the internal cameras. They'll talk to each other and then they're going to have these digital price tags on all the products inside the stores that appear when you look at the product. Well, I mean, just through facial recognition, your phones, all these other things, that those, these cameras and these data systems are all going to be able to talk to each other and display the price that they think that you specifically are willing to pay for each individual product within the store. And so, it just falls into this mass surveillance hysteria that everybody is getting extremely concerned about. And so, this is some of the stuff that we're going to talk about today.

Byron Tau (4:23)

Yeah, I think companies, generally speaking, for many, many years now, have started to see consumers as data, right? They want to know about you. They want to know about your purchase journey. They want to know about your background. They want to know about your interests. And they use all of that to... Historically, they've used it to target you with advertising. But increasingly, we're at an... We're in an environment where there's enough data out there about you and there's enough of a consumer profile out there about you, whether that's stuff you put out yourself or your purchase history or things they're inferring about you.