THE CURRENCY OF PERSONAL DATA COLLECTION

By YPtK7 | Encryptocurrency BlogChain | 9 Oct 2024

Cookies do not track information about who you are as an individual, the function of cookies are to provide online marketers about your web browser & trends. When other relevant cookies are used & bundled together online marketers possess the ability to create an online persona which can predict consumer behavior & online marketers then begin to look for browsing trends providing online marketers insights into consumer habits which is known as behavioral advertising, cookie tracking holds value in the eyes of online marketers as they are able to learn about who is searching for their product, where people are searching their product from & the likelihood of revisits to their website, online marketers want to find out about who is engaging their content, but in the on-going cookie debate & proponents in favor of cookies we need to look at the dangers, there are online marketers who use cookies irresponsibly & data collection from cookies can end up in the wrong hands with the wrong motives. Let me use an illustration: if I purchased a smartphone device, if I go to Google Play Store there are apps I can download & if we think of these apps as modifications that add functionality to my smartphone device just as adding modifications to an automobile can add functionality & improve performance this is how online marketers view cookies as modifications adding functionality & improving business performance but at the same time cookies are privacy violations.

Think of personalized ads this way: advertising cookies oftentimes are tracked across websites & allows online marketers to tailor ads based on the activity of users.

What are the dangers of cookies? If cookies do not track information about who you are as an individual then what's the problem with cookies? Social networking cookies which allow users to share content from a website to their personal or business social channels, for instance imagine I came across an online article about learning how to source real estate deals & package them to real estate investors & I shared that article on my social network business account, this would provide a beneficial user experience for some of those who follow my business account but social network cookies is the reason behind third-party cookie sharing & the cookie controversy as it's social networking cookies that do collect personal data & present a security risk, this is why you have GDPR & no website is permitted to track cookie data except the user gives explicit consent but the exemption is necessary cookies i.e performance or functionality cookies.

But keep in mind cookie tracking is utilized to allow online marketers or e-commerce websites to see a user's browsing activity & it's imperative to be sure to get in the habit of clearing your cookies on a day-to-day basis as online marketers & e-commerce websites can see your browsing history.

An online multinational brand is regarded as a personal privacy risk but this is also true of an independent business owner running a Shopify store selling handcrafted greeting cards for example & now has the capability to view browsing history to increase website traffic & improve business performance & a lot of browsers are now cracking down on the usage of cookies making it tougher to gather needed user data, but, is that going to stop them? No, they just remain persistent, like hackers, scammers & fraudsters they will persist in seeking ways & finding loopholes, most likely they will embrace emerging technologies such as A.I as a data collection tool the original design of web 3.0 was to safeguard access to personal data & a web 3.0 browser makes it impossible but the only problem with the web 3.0 Brave browser is A.I integration opening a potential door for personal data collection entry into the web 3.0 space, other than integration of A.I the Brave web 3.0 browser would be ideal. Cookie usage seems likely to become obsolete in the web 2.0 infrastructure. Alternatives to cookie usage include Signal A.I allowing brands, online marketers & e-commerce websites to track call conversations & gain insight into customer demographics.

DATA COLLECTION IN THE 1800s, EVOLUTION INTO CREDIT BUREAUS & WHY PEER- TO-PEER LENDING IS A WELCOME DISRUPTOR?

Merchant Associations provided goods & services, encouraged commercial activities, created employment opportunities, facilitated commercial growth & merchant associations were the first credit reporting agencies scoring business customers but merchant associations collected financial data & personal data about various business customers & sold it to lenders, this was a form of consumer data collection & selling consumer personal data to third parties & technically consumers lost their personal privacy rights (without consent) as far back as the 1800s, merchant associations were technically a form of data brokers in the 1800s that collected consumer personal data without the knowledge of the consumers & sold it to lenders.

In the 20th century came the development of credit bureaus which evolved into the contemporary credit bureaus of today, retailers that had credit managers began offering loans & consumer credit products to individuals & the role of credit managers was to gather individual borrower financial data to determine credit worthiness, individual borrowers who were "high risk" were declined. The need for borrowing money grew along with the need for centralized individual consumer data gathering & a more proficient way to gather individual consumer data to assess credit risk, ultimately retailers who had credit managers & offered loans & consumer credit products to individuals banded together & formed a national association with the objective of creating a standardized way to collect, share & score personal information about potential debtors who applied for loans, the outcome was improved credit risk management & lenders had the ability to make informed decisions whether to approve loan applications or decline loan applications, eventually TransUnion, Equifax & Experian who are the three major credit bureaus & financial information data brokers in operation today were formed for the purpose of credit reporting & provision of credit scores.

In theory (disclaimer I am not an attorney & this information is strictly for educational purposes only) The Fair Credit Reporting Act which is Federal legislation protects the collection of financial data by credit bureaus & other consumer credit reporting agencies stating solely companies & individuals who can access & view a consumer credit report with valid reason & protections are in place to secure financial data collection & reported to credit bureaus, lenders, creditors, employers & other financial institutions but this is in theory but in practice the question is: does misuse & abuse exist? The answer is if it ends up being accessed by the wrong hands & viewed inevitably misuse & abuse occurs.

Fair, Isaac & Company (FICO) developed a credit scoring model used by the majority of lenders & financial institutions in Canada who use FICO scores to determine mortgage, line of credit, credit card or loan approval FICO scores can also determine if an application is to be declined.

Credit scores & financial reports are utilized to assess borrowing eligibility, credit scores determine if you are approved or declined a mortgage, but zero credit history equals poor credit for instance if you have never been a credit card holder & have never been in consumer debt the harsh reality is you are categorized as high risk because of the fact that you have never been a credit card holder that means you can be declined a mortgage, declined a car loan & declined a phone contract. This is where credit cards are beneficial as credit cards build credit.

A low credit score means if you are approved a loan the interest rates or cost of borrowing is significantly higher than the cost of borrowing for those with good credit scores, a low credit score can deny you job opportunities as employers look at consumer debt as disorganization, an application for a job role involving cash handling can be seen as risk of potential theft & maximizes the chances of the application for the role being declined, but the great news for borrowers is web 3.0 peer-to-peer lending is a disruptor to the lending industry, centralized lending institutions disdain peer-to-peer lending as peer-to-peer lending platforms eliminate the need for intermediaries such as centralized lending institutions & banks that's why peer-to-peer lending platforms are regulated, there are registration requirements for peer-to-peer lending platforms and disclosure of lender & borrower information so the real battle is the battle for personal data & centralized lending institutions & credit reporting agencies fight decentralized lenders to maintain their control of collecting personal data, anytime centralized institutions enter into the decentralization space regulation is enacted & peer-to-peer lending platforms are capped in the single amount lent to a single borrower, maximum investment duration is capped & (in India) for investments above a specific amount the lender must submit a chartered accountant certified net worth certificate. But borrowers can submit a loan application on a peer-to-peer lending platform, lenders choose how to fund the loan, borrowers undergo a credit check carried out by the peer-to-peer lending platform determining credit worthiness & are assigned a risk rating based on credit history & other factors, lenders then choose how to fund loans based on borrower risk & based on expected return, lenders can invest in multiple loans which diversifies their portfolio & minimizes risk, when borrowers make loan repayments the peer-to-peer lending platform distributes the funds to the lenders but the peer-to-peer lending platform may take a cut in service fees if needed, think about it, centralized lending institutions such as banks loan out your deposits at interest & when a bank approves a loan application they invest customer account deposits which is free money for banks but banks charge interest and make money from customer account deposits so if you deposit money into your bank account you are funding the borrower, the banks diversify their portfolio using customer account deposits to invest into many loan applications (subject to credit worthiness) but compared to traditional centralized lending institutions peer-to-peer lending platforms offer borrowers lower interest rates due to no physical branches & low overhead costs furthermore in comparison to traditional centralized lending institutions where borrowers are not eligible for loans based on poor credit & low credit scores, peer-to-peer lending platforms are accessible to borrowers who are ineligible for loans offered by traditional centralized lending institutions, peer-to-peer lending platforms offer a faster approval process due to utilizing technology to automate credit checks & loan approvals so this is where smart contracts further streamlines the approval process as web 3.0 technology can offer an approval process within minutes. But there are cons to peer-to-peer lending which is borrower default on loan repayments & losses for lenders, the amount of money that can be borrowed is capped which may repel certain borrowers, peer-to-peer lending is growing, it's a disruptor of the traditional centralized lending industry, the peer-to-peer lending market is expected to reach $558.91 billion by 2027 but where there is freedom there inevitably exists the fight to protect freedom that means as the peer-to-peer lending market grows naturally there will be the growing need to regulate the peer-to-peer lending industry and A.I not only is a tool of choice for scammers & fraudsters but A.I may be lucrative to centralized lending institutions seeking to regulate the peer-to-peer lending industry which can take like a duck to water in the potential natural habitat of web 3.0.

CREDIT CARD REWARDS PROGRAMS OF THE 1980s THE PRECURSOR FOR WEB 2 POWERED REWARDS APPS & GPT SITES

"Buy Now, Pay Later" was a trendy consumer buzz word at one time, but, the idea of today's contemporary form of BNPL springs from the agrarian American Wild West, during the early 1800s merchants used credit coins & charge plates to give farmers credit until their crops were harvested for the season, in the early 19th century & 20th century select Western Union customers were provided metal plates or "metal money" & these metal plates provided by Western Union to select customers gave these select Western Union customers the option to buy or charge now & pay later. Credit cards are thought of as being an American invention which is true of the plastic credit card, except America built the modern day plastic credit card on the ancient Mesopotamian foundation where clay tablets were used to trade with the neighboring Harappan civilization but the ancient Mesopotamian civilization laid the foundation for the contemporary North American (America & Canada) credit card system, during the Bronze Age almost all economic transactions took place on what today in contemporary culture would be considered to be a "line of credit". In the 1920s oil companies & hotels began to issue their own forms of credit cards, metal money was obsolete by 1946 & a Brooklyn, N.Y banker by the name of John Briggins invented the "Charge-It Card" which was a closed-loop credit card where merchants were initially paid by the bank for consumer Charge-It Card purchases & merchants were then paid back later by the owner of the Charge-It Card (anyone familiar with the idiom "charge it to my card")? In 1949 Frank McNamara was dining as a guest at Major's Cabin Grill Restaurant in New York City & when it was time to pay the bill Frank McNamara realized he left his wallet at home & Frank McNamara signed that he himself will pay the bill the next day, cut to the chase this was the idea for Frank McNamara & his business partner Ralph Schneider to create Diner's Club in 1949 which was the first credit card we know of this very day. But one good thing about web 2 powered apps such as Revolut & Koho is the prepaid card became a disruptor to the credit card industry & comes with the same rewards programs as the 1980s credit cards before web 1.0 came on the scene such as cashback & airmiles. But today we think of plastic cards which brings up negative idioms such as "slaves to the plastic" because the borrower definitely is a slave who is in servitude to the lender or the lending company being the credit card companies AMEX introduced the first plastic credit card in 1959 & in 1969 the contemporary magnetic strip credit card was birthed.

The first credit reporting agency began with the 1841 Mercantile Agency, Mercantile Agency employees called correspondents collected information about borrowers & lenders all over America, today credit card companies sell consumer data to third parties & major credit card companies such as Mastercard, Discovery & Visa have formed partnerships with pornography sites which provide video content of real life rape & sex trafficking, credit card companies can sell consumer debt, there is a difference between debt hiring where a third party debt collection agency is hired to collect consumer debt & debt buying where scam debt collection agencies pose debt collection agencies & are known to buy consumer debt, the consumer debt industry is unregulated yet fingers point to cryptocurrency as being unregulated when the very idea of decentralization is to safeguard personal data. The credit card landscape is moving towards biometric credit card payments & the integration of cryptocurrency.

LOYALTY CARD REWARD PROGRAMS

Verizon Up is one example of a rewards program allowing you to accrue credits for every $300 spent on monthly bills and other products & services Verizon offers, when you accumulate enough credits they can be redeemed for a coffee at Starbucks, live concert tickets & a variety of other offers, but to sign up for Verizon Up you consent to enroll in Verizon Selects which is a targeting advertising program that shares your web browsing & your app usage history with other third party companies (data brokers).

WHAT IS CREDIT CARD FRAUD?

Whenever someone utilizes methods with the objective of obtaining another person's account & credit card details, then once the account & credit card details are successfully obtained, account updates & transactions are made without the knowledge of the legal account holder this is credit card fraud and this creates one danger of A.I technology merged with biometric payments, think of a credit card fraudster as a mechanic & think of A.I technology as a highly sought-after tool of illegal trade for credit card fraudsters.

OFFLINE DATA COLLECTION & SCAMS BEFORE WEB 1.0

The days when I used to commute to work I avoided hard sellers like avoiding a plague why? Because one thing that irks me is someone in my face pitching me. Usually hard sellers work for multinational corporations & most commonly charities, paid commission for every referral & before online referrals this was a form of offline referral marketing but hard sellers on the street was also a form of offline data collection because hard sellers invade the privacy of commuters & begin to aggressively pitch which is a violation of private property rights or an uninvited intrusion into someone's personal space, hard aggressive sellers violate personal boundaries, before social media algorithms decided what content users can access & cannot access & numerous irrelevant and unwanted suggested/recommended content whilst scrolling social media feed pages, hard sellers were the real-time irrelevant & unwanted suggested/recommended content whilst commuting through malls browsing different brands looking for Starbucks, but hard sellers obtained personal information - after all they're aggressive referral marketers or intermediaries paid commission by a national corporation, multinational corporation or a non-profit organization for every sign up, submitting personal data & once personal data was collected it was sold to data brokers & the outcome was most likely junk mail in your mailbox but there are hard sellers who are bootleggers hard selling "pirate" music CDs & DVDs which is hard selling of copyright protected content without permission & illegal because it's copyright infraction but maybe there were those who purchased & resold or flipped it at profit which is still illegal since the product is copyright protected & permission to resell was not requested from the copyright holder & since this was before web 1.0 this was before web 3.0.

IP ADDRESS

To send data & receive data, to use a web browser requires an IP address which is a number assigned to a device that identifies you when you are online, other usages of an IP address are for: identifying other devices on a network & sharing information, as aforementioned online marketers use cookies. Think of your IP address as your physical home address, thieves attempt to break into homes to steal valuables, in like manner cybersecurity criminals are seeking to break into an IP address - to the mind of cybersecurity criminals an IP address stores valuables.

As much as I enjoy reading content here on this Publishox space which is a wealth of information there are times during the day where I enjoy reading articles outside Publishox where I find great blog post content, however there are online advertisers who now have changed their gameplan & when you read articles online & come across ads many online advertisers embed tracking programs through ads in online articles & this enables online advertisers to record your IP address & based on your browsing send you targeted ads, why is it that local services begin to send emails? This personalized spam is the outcome of an online ad with embedded tracking whilst reading an online article. An IP address (and even Internet Service Providers & Mobile Phone Network Providers) can restrict access to certain services, your IP address let's YouTube know your location & YouTube restrict ads to your location

In a previous blog post I mentioned biometric payments merging with A.I which can lead to false arrests for crimes a person never committed, but I should have been more specific: a skilled hacker possesses the capability to use your IP address to impersonate you online by routing activity via your address instead of their own address & ultimately what this can enable a hacker to do is to frame you for buying drugs, a hacker can frame you for downloading child pornography & a hacker can even frame you for creating a national security threat.

BIG TECH COMPANIES, COMMERCIAL BANKS & SCAMMERS

The argument of centralized finance is that decentralized finance is filled with scams, when in reality it's in fact big tech companies & banks that collect personal data, control personal data & expose people to scammers, But there is a weak spot in the world of web 3.0: cryptocurrency wallets which are web 2.0 browser extensions that comes with the same risks being data leaks (recall earlier online marketers & e-commerce sites use cookies which provides information about your browser & trends), account spoofing, phishing scams & theft. Brave Wallet is one example of a secure wallet where users can buy, store & swap assets, users can manage their portfolio & connect other wallets, the Brave Wallet is the first that is built natively in a Web3 cryptocurrency browser that requires no extension, however, the only problem with the Brave Wallet would be the integration of A.I technology, eliminate A.I take back control, own your personal data, own your digital assets & be your own bank.

DATA COLLECTION & THE FORMATION OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES

How do nations become powerful? By the secret collection, storage & profiling of personal data, national intelligence agencies communicate secret information with other national intelligence agencies to warn of potential national security threats. But citizens can be spied on by their national governments.

Cuba during the Castro communist regime monitored American phone traffic & sold data from American phone traffic to countries America would consider a national security threat, this was before the days of a smartphone device that came with on-screen caller I.D & this was before cellphone network service providers were logging phone call duration, date & call recipient to generate monthly bills, this was before cellphone phone network service providers were monitoring internet traffic & selling user personal data collected from phone & internet traffic to third parties & government. But before web 1.0 households had a landline phone & telecommunication companies were logging caller ID, date, call duration, call recipient & call recipient location identified by area calling code & international calling code & selling caller personal data to third parties & government agencies, a lot of people were targets of phone scams & telemarketing specifically if a landline home phone had no screen indicating caller ID & the only way consumers were able to access call logs was when they received their phone bill, but today a user of a smartphone device can view these details on-screen but given phone plans can be pre-paid or pay monthly so can the smartphone network service provider logging call data.

WHAT IS PHISHING?

First let's define who a scammer is:

The objective of a scammer is to fully persuade someone that they are: 1. A genuine person or 2. A genuine company. Once the scammer has successfully persuaded someone that they are genuine the next objective is to obtain personal data (data collection) that is categorized as confidential information & obtain money, a scammer is an identity thief.

Phishing is when a scammer attempts to target someone & get the individual to disclose their:

1. Personal information &

2. Financial information

through emails & websites that appear phony.

COMMON SCAMS

1. Emails from a foreign country:

A foreign email can be in the form of get rich quick schemes

2. YouTube & Tik Tok Clickbait Scams:

Usually some vloggers create & sell hype, a lot of vloggers seek "views" & use clickbait. One popular arena of YouTube & Tik Tok hype is the "Copy & Paste" method. A YouTube thumbnail titled "From Zero & Homeless to Billions in a Month" featuring a private mansion, swimming pool, luxury car in the driveway and dollar notes raining from the sky is another obvious red flag.

A lot of content creators make embellishments & exaggerate the claims, one rule of thumb which is a cliché idiom in a sense: "if it sounds too good to be true, it isn't". If the content creates a sense of urgency pressuring you to take action persuading the audience they are missing out, you need to pause for a moment as this is a sign of a scam.

3. Charity/non-profit scams

4. Work-at-home scams

5. Health & wellness scams:

A certain nutritional product that promises an obese overweight individual an athletic six-pack physique in six months just by taking a spoon of powder in a cup of water before bed every night does not work.

6. Phone scams; two common examples include callers pretending to be Canada Revenue Agency & FedEx, phone scammers located in Southeast Asia (mostly India) target English-speaking countries America & Canada being the top two primary targets & I'm unsure if this was the outcome of the early 2000s when multinational corporations began outsourcing call center work to India but phone scammers in India operate from call centers, with the emergence of fully remote work & drop servicing (once common in the construction industry) using independent freelancers on sites such as Fiverr, a company based in Europe does not need to outsource work only to India but can now outsource work to any part of the world, but in relation to phone scams which can be in the guise of telemarketing, the vulnerable are targeted & phone scammers are known to threaten arrest unless money is paid, but A.I technology & phone scammers definitely is a new potential marriage on the horizon, but, in India (& even in Canada) phone scams are categorized as organized crime, but did you know law enforcement officers, & even politicians are involved in phone scams taking a slice of the money made from phone scams? Phone scam rings can operate in India & London (the money laundering & organized crime capital of the world which phone scams are part of) & the vulnerable in Canada and America end up as targets of phone scam rings based in India & London.

DATA BROKERS & TYPES OF DATA BROKERS

Data brokers are companies we do not have a direct relationship with, but data brokers collect both online & offline data ranging from in-store credit card purchase history, social media profiles & even cellphone app tracking activity, data brokers sell location data & share location data.

1. Financial Information Brokers: the big three are Experian, Equifax & TransUnion who grew out of retailers & credit managers offering loans & consumer products to individuals that banded together into a national association. They collect data from lenders & credit card companies, but are not limited only to collecting data from lenders & credit card companies but they have even extended into collecting payment data on cell phone bills, utility bills & collecting rent payment data. If you make an in-store credit or debit card purchase the NSA collect credit & debit card transaction data.

2. Risk Mitigation Data Brokers: in this data broker category companies offer products verifying identity, provision of background checks for employee & tenant screening, for instance, a company that offers employment screening provides background & verification information such as credit history, education, professional license verification & employment salary to employers and even non-profit volunteer organizations, non-profit organizations such as a 501(c)(3) non-profit collect personal data. A background screening company can provide tenant screening reports to consumers upon request.

3. Marketing & Advertising Brokers: help brands, e-commerce websites & online marketers who use website cookies engage in targeted marketing & can even provide a person's physical address & purchase history, Internet Service Providers use marketing & advertising data brokers to target new customers by obtaining lists of homeowners in a specific geo-location. Marketing & advertising data brokers provide phone numbers, ever wondered how someone in Pakistan called you, telemarketed you or texted you in America & pitched you? Possibly using the assistance of a marketing & advertising data broker for a fee.

4. People Search Data Brokers: for a fee offer full background checks which includes arrest, criminal records, misdemeanors, felonies, warrants, police records, evictions, foreclosures & more, employers operating in the caregiving & childcare sector can use people search data brokers to obtain background checks on potential employees & even on existing employees

5. Personal Health Data Brokers: collect consumer health data and share it with pharmaceutical companies & health insurance companies one of the methods they use to collect data is to collect over-the-counter weight loss supplement transaction data & possibly collection consumer health data from grocery store loyalty rewards cards - loyalty rewards programs share consumer purchase data.

GREEN (BEAST) ENERGY SMART METERS

You most likely are told how beneficial a smart electric meter is, you can save on energy bills right? Not so (especially if you end up with an inaccurate bill), one problem: you're being sold hype & what you've not been told is that when a smart meter has been installed, a smart electric meter collects, stores & transmits granular data from the smart meter & sells it to data brokers which includes financial information data brokers, this means an electric smart meter can potentially wreck your credit score if you default on rental payments because as mentioned earlier financial information data brokers collect data from utility bills & credit card companies including Mastercard, Discovery & Visa who partner with pornography sites. Smart meters can identify individual appliances that means smart meters can access device IP addresses, a skilled hacker as I said earlier needs an IP address and the question emerges can a smart meter lead to a false arrest & false accusation of criminal activity? If a skilled hacker can obtain your IP address a hacker can frame you for criminal activity, smart meters are integrated into the Internet of Things which can subject the electrical grid to hackers & hackers could find ways to obtain an individual IP address from smart meter data meaning hackers would need to hack smart meter data & additionally online marketers & e-commerce websites are seeking non-digital data collection to drive traffic & the question is would they use smart meter data? If it helps drive traffic to their website & it proves lucrative naturally they'll embrace it. The real power struggle & warfare is the battle between data collection versus the right to personal data privacy & now you should understand another battle or power struggle: centralization versus decentralization, these two battles go hand in hand & can be interchangeable as the centralization versus decentralization warfare is data collection versus personal data privacy rights warfare.

SCAM MONEY MAKING APPS DEFINED

There are many money making apps that are legit but on the other hand there are scam money making apps.

When we refer to scam money making apps this can be correctly defined as unscrupulous data brokers who persuade users to give personal information & one example is if a coin or points currency system consistently increases the minimum cashout or when you reach the minimum cashout threshold and you need to earn more points to cash out which is accomplished only to find out you need to earn more points on the second attempt to cash out these are indicators of an unscrupulous data broker creating a database by putting up a money making app & creating ads that exaggerate & falsify claims, other indicators are ads claiming users can cash out to PayPal, the user signs up & earns the minimum coins or points cashout threshold only to discover there is no cashout to PayPal option or even an option to redeem points for gift cards on the user dashboard, no app reviews on Google Play Store is another red flag.

CONCLUSION

Data collection has been around since the Roman Empire began collecting household census registration data, personal privacy rights were never surrendered with the introduction of closed circuit television cameras in public square & extension of use into the workplace, personal privacy rights in America were taken away in the 1800s by merchant associations without consumer consent & sold to third party lenders, merchant associations were data collectors & data brokers, data collection & selling personal consumer data to third parties began in the 1800s, personal data collection & selling personal data to third parties poses security risks, personal data collected can be subject to misuse & abuse at any level of collection given the scandals, corruption & shenanigans taking place behind the scenes, when you share confidential information you confide in someone who is a close trusted friend, trust is earned & no right-minded personal will share personal confidential information about their life with a stranger who they have never met but this is what happens when personal data is collected. Web 2.0 browsers create personal data leaks & expose people to phishing scams, cookies collect data & cookie data is valuable to e-commerce business sites, independent e-commerce businesses & online brands who can misuse cookie data, to use a browser requires an IP address & opens users to third party cookie sharing which represents a gold mine to hackers given the fact that to use a browser requires an IP address, smart meters can identify individual devices & IP addresses, smart meters are subject to hackers & A.I technology is a tool skilled hackers can use, web 3.0 peer-to-peer lending platforms are a disruptor to the centralized lending industry. The real power struggle is for collection, control & sale of personal consumer data, control your own personal data, control your assets you create independence which will be an ongoing battle to maintain as there are downs but there are ups & there are always technological disruptors that disrupt centralized intermediaries which eliminates their need & puts control of digital assets & personal data back into the hands of the individual consumer creating independence & personal freedoms.

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