#752 – The Expat Files: Data Privacy, Credit Card Security, and Cultural Insights

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border, down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came out to play And now that I wonder Hello there all you expat wannabes I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to The Expat Files, living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live, work, play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good, the bad, the ugly and the great And it's all right here so let's get started Before we get started today I'd like to mention to all you folks who've been reading me emails over the years saying Johnny why don't you have have fakebook Why don't you have Twaddler, LinkedIn or any of that anti-social media stuff And you know what I don't even have a smartphone

[00:46] Though even the dumb ones are kind of smart these days right People even say Johnny what are you a Luddite? Well just the fact that I'm doing this radio show slash podcast Using the internet and fairly high tech equipment Proves I'm not that much of a Luddite So then why don't I go for all that anti-social media crap Well for one thing I hate Google I never use it Well I take that back I actually use it all the time like everyone else Except I do my searches through startpage.com And their search engine is directly linked to Google So when you search anything your IP address is stripped off So Google has no idea who's doing the search So they can't catalog you, do a timeline on you And store and track your location Did you know that every time you turn on your smartphone Or check anything on Google

[01:31] Google stores that timeline from the very first day you started using Google on your phone Or on your computer I don't like that Another reason I hate Google and use it only through a startmail search Which strips off my IP address Is that I hate the idea that Google stores your search history across all of your devices On a separate database So even if you delete your search history and your phone history Google still stores it all Until you delete everything on every one of your devices And still it's really never gone And always available for them to sell to marketers In fact they'll market to you themselves Another thing I hate is Google creates an advertising profile on everyone It never goes away and they sell it to the highest bidder So they've got your location, your gender, your age, your hobbies, your career, your interests, your relationship status, your weight

[02:19] Your buying preferences of course And that's really valuable to them And they've got the information on every app and extension you've ever used How often you used them, where you used them, who you shared them with The people you send links to and interact with Who you talk to on Facebook What countries you speak with and to whom and what time you go to sleep at night Not only that, Google stores all of your YouTube history So they know whether you're going to be a parent soon If you're old, if you're conservative If you're progressive, if you're Christian, Jewish, Muslim What kind of self-help topics and psychological issues you're interested in If you're depressed, if you're suicidal, if you're anorexic What drugs you order, which ones you're checking out All of that becomes part of your profile, like it or not And thus your personality is cataloged with sweeping generalizations based on that data

[03:08] By the way, just recently there was a guy who decided to check what Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and all of them Were storing on him or anything related to him He wanted to see what data they had available to sell to the highest bidder So he went directly to Google and asked them if he could have a download of his file And guess how big it was? 5.5 gigabytes That's huge! That's roughly 3 million average Word documents So he was able to download all that information Google had on him Through something called Google Takeout, and you can do it too He found out this link included his bookmarks, his emails, his contacts, his Google Drive files His YouTube videos Every photo he's taken on his phone and every photo he's ever received

[03:55] The businesses he's bought from, all the products he's bought through Google and Amazon All the special dates he's bookmarked on his calendar The Google Hangout sessions he was involved in Including the audio data and his location history too Every time he did a Google search Including every audio clip and piece of music he's listened to The Google books he's purchased All the organizations and groups he's been in contact with All the websites he created All the phones he's owned all the way back to the early ones Plus all the pages and PDFs he's downloaded and shared with people And the pages and PDFs people sent him too And believe it or not, all the physical steps he's made through each and every day Meaning all of his day to day movements since he's been using Google

[04:42] Can be plotted on Google Maps So now you know how Google can have 5 gigs or more of data on each and every one of us By the way, did you know that repulsive little Schmuckerberg's Facebook Has a similar app where you can download all of the information they have on you For Facebook users, they have an average of 400 megabytes on you Enough for about 100,000 average Word documents That includes every single message you've ever sent or have been sent Every file you've sent or have been sent All the contacts in your phone, all your phones And all the audio messages you've ever sent or were sent Not only that, Facebook stores what it thinks you might be interested in Based on things you've liked and what your friends have been talking about Like for example, pizza, baseball, the World Cup,

[05:30] Penis extenders, Viagra, and Colombian girls So if you're thinking, you better be careful about what you post Well, it's too late for that The privacy ship sailed a long time ago Not to mention for some really dumb reason They also store all those stupid little smart, happy, and sad emojis You ever sent anyone on Facebook Surely there must be an algorithm they created That determines by your emojis whether you're psychologically deranged or not And also like Google, Facebook also timestamps and locates you every time you send a message Worse yet, they store all the apps you've ever connected to on your Facebook account They log what you're interested in based on certain keywords Like politics, gold, prepping, World War II, cryptocurrency, whatever

[06:15] And you know, Windows 10 does pretty much the same thing Unless you go into the settings and turn off all the snooping features If you don't, they'll track where you are What apps you've used, what you've installed, and what you use them for Microsoft will have access to your webcam and microphone at any time They'll have all your contacts, your emails, your calendars, your call history, your messages, anything you've received The files you download, the games you play, your photos, your videos, your music, your search history, your browsing history Even what radio stations you listen to and all your Skype and WhatsApp information too So bottom line, when people say, Johnny, what's wrong with you? Join the modern age, you're going to have to get a smartphone Get on Facebook and Twitter for your own good Oh, and you'll definitely need LinkedIn

[07:01] You know, in my defense, I'll sometimes tell people That is, when it's worth actually saying anything Because most of these people are absolutely addicted to their devices It's been proven over and over again And it's a fact that people actually have withdrawals Like an addict, if they're without their devices for even just a few hours Anyway, whenever I'm with people and a subject comes up Usually after they've asked me for my Facebook or WhatsApp And they find out I don't even have a smartphone When I'm in that situation, I don't criticize anyone for using that stuff Though sometimes, if the person's smart and receptive Especially if they're cautious and informed in other areas of their lives Like anti-fluoride, GMO, they're concerned about their environment Watch what they put into their bodies and all that Then I just might bring up those points I just did with you

[07:49] But I phrase them in a different way I might say something like, tell me, would you let the US government or any government or a corporation Or your boss at work, or let's say your landlord or your car dealer Put cameras or microphones in your house or car Would you let anyone put location trackers on you 24-7 Would you let your government, landlord or boss read all your personal emails Would you let the government, your boss or people you don't even know Look at a list of everything you've ever bought or searched on the internet Well, the average, or I should say above average person Over, I'd say, 30 or 40 years old will say, no way, are you nuts? However, the younger generations, people under 30 Ones that were practically born with a smartphone in their hands They have to think about it a minute Because they were brought up in a surveillance state

[08:35] Though they don't see it that way and are used to it They're the, I've got nothing to hide generation Which shows they obviously don't know what the hell they're talking about Yep, the old fallback position for technology is, I've got nothing to hide But what I failed to mention in that previous rant On purpose, I might add The number one search topic on the internet Which can and will come back to bite millions upon millions of people in the ass Porn, of all stripes and colors So then where does the under 30 crowd get off saying they've got nothing to hide When their porn search histories are all over the net You know, it's the under 30 crowd that are most likely to be actively interviewing Don't they realize that's the kind of homework Corporate headhunters and human resource departments are actively sifting through

[09:22] Not to mention human resource departments are checking out social media platforms To both monitor existing employees and prospective employees too These days they have that information before you even walk in the door for that face to face interview And often that's why you get a rejection letter instead of a face to face interview Bottom line, the consequences, the secondary and tertiary effects Of having all your debts out there in the ether Out there for any hacker to get Available to governments and for sale to the highest corporate bidders Could really complicate a person's life and affect things behind the scenes That in many cases a person would not even be aware of Too bad all those smartphones and devices are like hydras You cut off one head and two more grow back You've seen that movie, right? Jason and the Argonauts?

[10:09] Now there's a retro guilty pleasure Watching old Ray Harryhouse in stop action movies from the 60s Ah, those were the days of the Saturday matinees for kids You'd leave the house at 9 in the morning Your mom would give you a buck You'd go to the Orpheum Theater And watch bad Roger Corman, Vincent Price and Ray Harryhouse in movies You'd watch those movies with your grade school buddies Whose moms also gave a buck to each of them And as long as you were back home by sundown everything was cool And it was always cool Oh and back then a buck covered the show Some popcorn, a soda, a hot dog and some milk duds Of course today it would cost at least 10 bucks But if a parent did that today That is shove a 10 or 12 year old kid out the door at 9 All by himself in the big city For sure someone would call child services

[10:56] But I digress as usual anyway Speaking of guilty pleasures Just in the last couple weeks Watching a red faced Mark Schmuckerberg Being flayed all over the internet For that gigantic Facebook data breach Well I'm not gonna say I told you so Well guess what? My data was not available to get breached How about yours? You worried yet? You should be But you know this is a show about living in Latin America right? So what about Latin Americans? Well as mentioned in previous shows They're absolutely addicted to Facebook, Twitter And even more so to wassup However here's the thing When you read about the data of an American or European person Being worth around $10,000 To marketers and ad men that is Well just like food, medical costs and a lot other things here in Latin America

[11:44] Marketers and ad men or is it ad persons now? I wouldn't know I'm not PC you know Anyway they value the debts on the average Latin American At about one fifth to one tenth of a first world person's debts It's all about income, disposable income and spending habits of course And as mentioned previously Latinos will give up their debts for a slice of pizza Seems like the only Latinos who have any concern at all for the privacy issue Are ones who've been extorted by cell phone A lot of that going on And or Latinos who've had their credit or debit cards cloned Or saddled with false charges on their credit card statements Because someone hacked their numbers I hear that story over and over again I don't think there's a single person here in Latin America with a credit card

[12:29] Who hasn't been screwed around somehow And why not since Latinos with credit or debit cards Use them for practically everything In fact I've seen them charge as little as $1 on a credit card Just go to McDonald's or Dunkin Donuts and you'll see what I mean Yep they've got Dunkin Donuts all over the place here in Latin America now It's amazing most establishments do take credit cards Yet very few of them have a sign that posts a minimum charge I don't know what the minimum charge is up in the states But I think it's at least $10 right? So anyway if you're into credit card tomfoolery Hmm does anyone but Charles Dickens use that word anymore? Must have been a very bad con man dude named Tom Way back when huh? Tom foolery aside you know there's a million and one ways To get someone's credit card number here in Latin America

[13:15] I mean every time you hand your credit card over to a lowly cashier That's a weak spot in the credit card security apparatus Especially for example if you're at a restaurant And you hand your credit card over to the waiter And he walks off with it Because you know in a lot of restaurants they have to sweat the card at the cash register Or it could be on the other side of the room or in a different room altogether Another vulnerability in the credit card security apparatus That's how they can get that supposedly secret little three or four number code on the back of the card You need that you know to order stuff online So my advice yes I have a debit card I've had it for years I've never had it cloned And I've never had an unauthorized charge And you want to know why? So far I've only used it to withdraw cash at ATM machines And even when I withdraw from an ATM machine I have a certain practice that I stick to

[14:01] Unless it's an absolute emergency I will not withdraw money from an ATM machine Unless it's either attached to a bank outside of a bank or right next to a bank I know you've heard me say this before But it bears repeating because credit card fraud is growing by leaps and bounds That's why I always avoid ATMs that are out in the middle of nowhere Or stuck in a little cubby hole somewhere on the street So I stick to that Although once a very strange thing happened I went to an ATM machine And it wouldn't allow me to withdraw any money However the machine did let me check my account to see the balance Next day I went down to the bank and they told me My card was reported stolen Then I pulled it out and said this is stolen How could it be? It's in my hand She said a couple days ago we blocked it Someone called it in as stolen And I asked who reported it stolen

[14:49] She said I don't have that information right now So they took the old one And I had to wait a couple days for them to reissue a new one with different numbers The mystery here is how'd that happen? And later when I picked up the card I pushed I said come on you gotta tell me Who put the call in? To do that someone would had to call in with a lot of personal information She agreed and left her little cubby hole desk For around a half an hour and came back and said We think someone at the bank here May have inadvertently pressed the wrong button And blocked it Which makes you wonder who can you trust? If bankers behind the scenes can make stupid mistakes like that All I can say is hip hip for Bitcoin and cryptos Because in the end they eliminate banks completely No wonder all the big banks in the world are scared poopless By the way most ATMs in Latin America

[15:35] Will let you take out up to $300 a day US and around $300 in the local funny money Now I don't know what your spending habits are But if you try to stick close to my plan That is don't use your credit card except to take money out of the ATM The thing is if you can't live on $300 a day Or a lot less I got a feeling you're smack dab on the gringo tourist trail Costa Rica Panama City Cancun San Miguel Allende Medellin Colombia Rio de Janeiro You know the drill The fact is if you're here in Latin America and you're single And you can't live on less than $100 a day Of course I'm talking about if you're renting and not in a hotel I'd say you're definitely doing something wrong Alright let's move on but before I forget I want to mention that if you go to the new expat.com

[16:21] You can click on Johnny's Seminar link And find out all about my July 2018 Expat Insider Seminar Again smack dab in the Altiplano 5,000 feet above sea level Perfect spring weather all year round just exactly The place most gringos and expats absolutely prefer to be That is if they've even heard about the Altiplano Because it took me 5 years here in Latin America Before I got clued in The places we'll be visiting at the Expat Insider Seminar Are only about an hour and a half by car Away from the ocean, the beach, the sand, the sun, and the fun So you can live in the Altiplano And yet be a short drive from the beach Sweating your butt off For some that's what vacations are all about Now you've heard me talk about the Altiplano And you've heard me say there ain't much of it I'd say only about 3% of Latin America And you know all the ancient cities

[17:07] The Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans had At least most all the really big ones Were in the Altiplano Nope they weren't stupid Not by a long shot In fact you know if you ever visited Mexico City Not my favorite place I mean it's one of the most over populated cities in the world And the most pollution too And of course the usual terrible Latin City planning If you could call it planning at all anyway That's smack dab in the Mexican Altiplano Of course the metro area's got 20 million people now Vastly overtaxing the resources I don't even want to think about How they're getting their drink in water And you know this is Latin America It's only about 1 in 3 houses or businesses Properly treats their sewage run off Anyway not to ruin your appetite here There's Altiplano and there's Altiplano

[17:53] The kind you don't want to live in Like Mexico City, Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Lima, Peru Then you have dozens and dozens of medium and small size Latin cities in the Altiplano That are absolutely great for expats and gringos Where the plan be So come down to my July 2018 Expat Insider Seminar And see it for yourself It's Saturday, July 7th through Thursday, July 12th It's a guaranteed fast-tracked education For gringos and expats you'll never get anywhere else So again just go to www.thenewexpat.com Click on Johnny's Seminar link And find out how to get in on the early bird discounts That means for a single person attending You save 500 bucks off the regular cost And for two people sharing double occupancy You get a thousand dollars off the regular price

[18:40] And while you're perusing that info On the newexpat.com website You'll also see how to kill two birds with one stone By coming down to the seminar And at the same time Spend a few extra days in Guatemala Applying for your permanent or temporary residency That'll save you a lot of time and money Over trying to do it at a later date Plus you know the windows of opportunity Are closing on those residency programs Already just in the last year or so Many Latin residency programs Have gotten tougher There's more hoops to jump through With none of them having been made easier Only more difficult And I guarantee you in time The same thing's going to happen At Guatemala's residency program In fact it looks very obvious That the US State Department is putting pressure On Latin countries to make it tougher For American citizens To leave the proverbial barn

[19:26] You know what I mean Oh and while you're checking out the info You'll also see those famous John Galt pre and post seminar trips And on those journeys you'll be staying at The most beautiful lake in the world Lake Atitlan Hey, you don't have to believe me When I say it's the most beautiful lake in the world Check it out on the internet There are thousands of world travelers We'll testify to that fact And as for the value of going on one or both Of those John Galt trips If you're interested at all in starting a brick and mortar business Or an internet business Selling local items around the world You'll see dozens and dozens of very cool Locally made items Sure to spark a lot of ideas Involving the export of products Think Amazon, Ebay, Overstock.com, etc So whether part of your plan B Is looking for business opportunities or not

[20:12] You'll really want to go on one or both Of those John Galt trips Which means you'll have to tack on Three or four days To the beginning or end of the seminar Or both Believe me, you won't regret it Alright, here's something that gringos and expats Have sent me emails about When they're here in Latin America Especially on the gringo tourist trail Or in Mexico The locals have seen lots of gringos And are emboldened by that So they'll try their English on you However, when you're south of South of the border As I like to say That means south of the Mexican border There are very few places Where the local Latins Know enough English to converse with you The exceptions being Costa Rica Where everyone wants to speak to you in English And Belize Where English is their main language And Panama Where especially if you're in Panama City Practically every little store owner

[20:58] Has enough English to converse with However, in the rest of Latin America South of south of the border that is The average Latino or Latino Will only know a few words of English Even though a lot of them Say they take English at school And some schools is mandatory too But Just like you were forced to take French or Spanish In high school or junior high Well If you only took a semester or two And your heart wasn't in it And you didn't have a native speaker Teaching it to you And when the semester's through You've got no one to practice with Forget about it After a while it just fades away I know what I'm talking about In high school I took French for a year And when I went to France The locals wouldn't give me the time of day In fact I think they were laughing at me behind my back Of course the French are snobs personified Especially in Paris But still it didn't take long For me to get embarrassed

[21:44] Into never using it again And slipping right back into English And most French people understand English But they won't acknowledge it They'll ignore you Anyone who visits France Knows that already Now here in Latin America There's none of that language snobbery And off the gringo trail Where Latinos rarely see gringos They feel a bit embarrassed To try an English out on you Generally you have to prod them Or get to know them a bit And believe me their vocabulary is Sometimes not more than 20 words Even though every last one of them Has t-shirts and sweatshirts With English sayings on them Now a couple of decades ago When I first got down here Off the gringo trail The only English phrase Most all Latinos seem to know Was nice to meet you And then I noticed as the years went by And 50 or 100 stations of US cable TV

[22:30] Hit Latin homes Translated of course A few other English words and phrases Started to come into common usage Not many, just a few For example My god Dios mio in Spanish My god That's something you never heard 10 years ago But you see lately Especially in the last couple of years It's become very cool To know a few English words Just a few Not to use with gringos particularly But to use amongst themselves Like for example Only a year or two ago You never heard Latin people say Okay And now it's so common You even hear the cleaning ladies And the shoeshine boys saying it That's right The simple word okay Now in Spanish You'll hear the words Muy bien Over and over again That means very good Or just bien Meaning good In fact You almost can't have a conversation With a latino

[23:15] Without him throwing in a few Muy bien Or bien Bien And that's their version of okay But these days Just in the past year or so I'm finding I practically can't get through A Spanish conversation without The other guy saying okay By the way the origin of okay Or the very first usage of it Goes back to the 1830s But I remember once Having to talk with my dad He said no no no That's an old war term Means zero kills So when you went on patrol And you came back And your CO said How many casualties? If you said okay That meant zero kills A very good thing So okay morphed into A word for good Anyway I had that conversation with my dad Way before the internet Thus way before

[24:01] You could look it up on Wikipedia Anyway he died in the mid 80s So I never got to lay that on him But he liked that story And I liked it too It's a lot cooler than the real story Of some guy putting it in a newspaper article In the 1830s Yep, zero kills I like that a lot better Even if it's wrong Which just goes to show a lot of stuff Where firmly convinced is true Is mierda del toro But I digress as usual Oh yeah Talking about English words That somehow creep into the Spanish vernacular Well here's one that'll blow your mind It just started creeping in In the last couple months The word picky Now a lot of times The few English words that seem to Permanently creep into the language here Come by way of popular Spanish music And for young people today

[24:47] The most popular Spanish music genre Is that deplorable ragueton Man does it suck And they blast it out everywhere Bars, discos, weddings Quince anos parties, malls, gyms You just can't avoid it Oh and did I tell you that it sucks? Man does it suck And if you like me Think rapping hip hop really sucks Well let me tell ya Ragueton lyrics make rapping hip hop lyrics Look like Shakespeare You see the missing links that make this Violent sexist, misogynist crap They call it ragathon They like to stick a few English words in there Because that's all the fashion these days Let me see how can I explain this Alright here it is Just picture the most monotonous rap song You can think of with George Bush Jr. on crack

[25:33] Writing the lyrics Anyway right now there's a big ragathon hit Sweeping through Latin America called Picky Picky And that's why the English word picky Is quickly disseminating through Latin America By the way almost all the big ragathon hits Are recorded guess where In my jammy Because as it turns out Most of the big time ragatoneros The so called artists Man what an insult to artists everywhere They're more like Fartists Anyway most are illegals in the US Or their parents Came there illegally And they live in big city Latin barrios in the states And how do I know that? Well they interview these guys On the music channels Here in Latin America all the time And they're more than willing To tell those stories They're the blinged out Neck tattooed Gold tooth rack type Who if they hadn't of gotten lucky In the music biz

[26:19] Would be ganged up Selling drugs Stealing cars And knocking up your daughters That's exactly what they preach In their songs Speaking of drugs We were speaking of drugs Were we? Well maybe not But speaking of drugs I was at an Easter party They call it Samana Santa here And I was sitting around with some Latin college kids And one of the girls said You know I never tried marijuana I want to try it she says But I'm afraid to Then she said It must not be too bad They're legalizing it up In the Estados Unidos correct? And I said Yeah that's right Then she said What's it like? And then one of the Latino guys Jumped in and said I can answer that When we smoke it He was talking about Latinos We can drink more But when gringos smoke it They become more calm And easy going And they shift

[27:05] Into mañana time And I thought Man you know He's a hundred percent right Then I said Are you insinuating gringos Are high strong and uptight? And he said Yeah well the ones I've met are For the most part So I said Maybe every gringo getting off the plane At the airport Should get a complimentary doobie He smiled and said That would work By the way This wasn't your typical Latin kid His parents were rich He'd been to a university Up in the states And had us down cold You've been listening to the expat files Living in Latin America If you need some help with your own plan B You can schedule a one on one Phone call with me But first Download my free plan B questionnaire At www.thenewexpat.com Better yet If you want to get your plan B going From right up there in the states Just sign up for my 9 hour expat essentials course

[27:52] Get the perfect plan B blueprint By going to expatfiles.com Slash Academy Most famous