#759 – The Expat Files: Life in Latin America, Privacy, and Data Security

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 up to play and now as 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 You know a lot of people communicating with me and people coming down to Latin America getting boots on the ground say Johnny I just can't hack being up in the States or Canada anymore They say besides being stuck on this treadmill is social media stuffs driving me nuts

[00:47] I gotta get a smaller footprint I gotta get off the radar at least as much as I can I want to have a plan B But I don't want to end up in Latin America Saddled with the same problems and stresses I had back home and it's true when you get down here You can make the same mistakes all over again Of course You won't have to worry about the big brother part because Latin governments are in chaos and even though nowadays You'll see cameras popping up everywhere on street corners and in alleys and elevators and such Take my word for it though The cameras themselves aren't new and first-world and high-tech even high-definition you can bet especially if it's in a public space The maintenance and monitoring aspects are third world all the way meaning for example down here in Latin America They'll build a brand new commercial center You know them all looks just like a first-world mall in every respect modern everything great bathrooms cameras everywhere

[01:38] Everything will work just fine just like a first-world mall up in the States But believe me come back six months later And you're bound to see an elevator or an escalator or two out of order and for sure a few of the automatic Sensor-activated sinks in the bathrooms won't work And if you can get a peek at the guard station where they have the camera TV monitors Count how many screens or cameras are on the blink and notice if the fat slug who's supposed to be monitoring those things is actually Looking up at the screen or dicking away on fake book or twaddle or perhaps even snoozing in fact I've got a few candid photos of guys just slumped in their chairs dreaming away Obviously not monitoring anything I have one photo like that with a guy sitting in front of it's got to be 15 monitors asleep

[02:24] Slumped in his chair head back with his mouth wide open when the cats away, huh? So being that down here in Latin America big brother is either a non-existent or in low gear That means when you come down you won't have any big brother surveillance worries anymore And when lag time finally catches up and I don't take years You'll have already known the game plan from big brother up in the station. You'll be ready for it So as mentioned if you make the break from the first world come down here to Latin America Get that plan be going if you're looking to really downsize your footprint and work it out so that you have a much lower profile I've got a few suggestions for you now personally. I do not have a smartphone I have a dumb phone for one I don't want to own a phone that's smarter than I am and second of all I don't have to tell you what happens when you're loaded up with apps on your smartphone

[03:12] Your business your life your health your habits your bank accounts are everyone else's business, too No matter what you might think if you're on the net unless you've got everything end-to-end encrypted None of your data is safe however these days. You know there are some apps You just got to have especially here in Latin America So the dilemma is if you don't have a smartphone a certain part of life here in Latin America becomes much more difficult I'm talking about just getting around finding places in a car bus train Whatever the fact is practically every gringo and middle-class and upscale Latin person uses a location app usually ways Because as I've mentioned over and over in previous shows Latin cities and towns are not laid out on nice square Coordinate grids the problem is Latin streets and neighborhoods have twists and turns

[04:00] You can't believe and the names and addresses of streets and byways good luck with that It's like throwing the dice and sometimes believe me this has happened to me you could drive around for an hour or two and be only three blocks from a place you're looking for and Never stumble on it when you realize you passed the place maybe six or seven times in the last hour Man, you feel like such a dope, but it's really not your fault Problem is probably a good 20 or 25 percent of the places in Latin America especially in the older sections of town Don't have an address posted outside the building and you'll find a good percentage of roads are unmarked, too Not to mention half the roads that are marked are named after religious things like saints apostles popes martyrs just a name

[04:45] No number and often you'll be driving or walking down a road and you'll find the name of the road the Saints name or whatever Suddenly turns into an avenue with a number on it. So on one side of town It's a person's name on the other side. It's a regular street number. It can drive you nuts Imagine what it's like at night You know, most Latin streets towns and cities are under lit anyway for a lot of reason one They don't put enough street lights to begin with because politicians are always skimming dough So public projects are always underfunded and of course a lot of street lights simply burn out and remain that way for months Or are simply never replaced and there's no rhyme or pattern to that either Except note that if you live in a gated garden community or in an upscale Residential part of town or where the first world malls are or the upper middle class and wealthy verbs

[05:34] You won't have such problems It'll be your local homeowners group that'll call the electric company get them out there and they'll change the bulbs as they burn out I've seen that in action and it happens fast as I've mentioned many times before there are beautiful first world gated guarded communities and Subdivisions and such that are in perfect shape and have great lighting Why because they don't count on local governments for anything But back to that ubiquitous problem of badly marked streets roads and houses and buildings Well, that's one of the big reasons mailman don't stop everywhere in Latin America Fact is but unless you live in a decent part of a big city That means gated community residential tower or business and commercial area. The mailman is not gonna stop at your house Though of course the mailman

[06:21] Thank God here in Latin America, you don't have to say mail person will stop and deliver at regular business offices So that's why I always say you should make a deal with your lawyer so that you get your mail at his office So in a way, it's a very good thing for privacy that the mailman does not make regular stops Unless like I said you live in a high-rise gated gator community or busy residential area in a big city So even if you're living in an area where the mailman stops My advice is never give that address out to anyone unless you absolutely have to yep I'm talking about you friends and family up in the states if you give out your real address and the mailman does hit that neighborhood You're getting back on the radar again Don't you see and really when you come to think about it how much snail mail is going back and forth these days

[07:09] It's certainly on the way out and probably won't exist in that form in a few years not for correspondence Anyway, and of course for any real valuable documentation You might be sending back and forth to the states from Latin America like legal papers and financial stuff You want to use DHL or FedEx or one of the local secure mail forwarding services? Which are a hell of a lot cheaper than DHL or FedEx? Because you know a simple letter or folder by DHL or FedEx could be 60 or 80 bucks from somewhere in the US to Latin America where I was using one of those my jammy mail forwarding services sending that same letter of file maybe two or three bucks and you wonder how safe and secure are they as compared to let's say DHL which is more than a

[07:55] Thousand percent more expensive. Well, I've been using those mail forwarding services for years now And I've never lost a single item though in either case whether it's a courier or the mail forwarding service I wouldn't send anything really valuable like a lot of money either way Maybe I should take a second here to remind you new listeners what one of those mail forwarding companies is all about as mentioned in previous shows every Latin country has a few of those services where you send your letters or packages or you order stuff from Amazon or eBay or wherever and have it sent as your mailing address to a place in Florida Usually it might jam me or thereabouts then when that service gets it They have their own transportation and they fly it off to your country and you've usually got it in your hands within a week

[08:40] That's how most smart gringles and expats get their packages from eBay and Amazon and such and that's where they tell their friends and relatives In Seattle Cleveland and Milwaukee to send packages and letters. They want to send to you, too So when you give those friends and relatives in Cleveland the address in my jammy It's important to instruct them not to send or forward any junk mail Please because once it ends up in my jammy It'll get forwarded to whatever city you are in your Latin country And you'll end up paying for that junk by how much it weighs, too And that's no good cuz you'll just toss it so tell them no reader's digester Publishers clearinghouse junk even if the letter says you just want to date with that midget from Game of Thrones Hmm. Can I say midget just did but I guess technically he's a dwarf, right?

[09:26] Can I say that snow white said that seven times? Hmm. Let's see today up in the states That would be snow white and the seven little people, right? Man, am I glad I'm down here in Latin America, but I digress anyway When you land in your Latin country and you open up one of those mail forwarding services And it doesn't cost anything by the way to open it up They'll just ask you for your email and send you a notice when a parcel or a package comes in Then you could go down and pick it up at their office or pay another Something like two or three bucks and a deliberate right to your home, but as for me I don't want them to come to my house I don't want them to know where I live nor do I want them to have my real email address either That's why I have a start mail account, which allows me ten aliases So I can give them an alias and then just wipe it out whenever I feel like it and it no longer exists

[10:15] Why do you want anyone to know your address? That's the point of this rant so you can stay off the radar as much as possible down here You know you can have privacy once again, just like people had it in the 60s 70s and 80s up in the states But as far as those mail forwarding services people ask what if you live a long way from a big Latin city? Where these guys have their office and your packages are starting to pile up at their warehouse Well what a lot of gringles and expats do is they give the forwarding service the address of their lawyer And you know if you have a Latin lawyer that you use on occasion, you know need them for various things, you know residency opening bank accounts Obtaining SA corporations doing title searches on properties You're interested in buying rental contracts buying a new car or checking out the paperwork on a used car Etc etc. Anyway as mentioned if you have a good relationship with a Latin lawyer

[11:05] He'll certainly let you use his business address as the drop-off point for your mail forwarding service though in reality most Gringles and expats I know that use those forwarding services They just go down to their warehouse when they get that email and pick up whatever's come in Even if they live far away from the pickup point eventually You know every expat and gringo who lives out in the boonies gets to the big city and they hit the usual suspects Costco Walmart Krispy Kreme and the mail forwarding office though as mentioned They'll deliver it directly to your door no matter where you are in any Latin country But then you're starting to get on the radar again and certain of your dads are out on the internet So again, it depends how far you want to go with this and it's not that I don't like smartphones themselves But that's the weakest link in how your dad's get loose in the ether though here in Latin America

[11:55] That smartphone comes in real handy if just for that ways travel in location app That could shave hours off your travel time every week And of course we all need a search engine you do have to look up stuff when you're out and about But you've heard me say before I'd never use Google I use instead one of the alternative search engines when I prefer is start page It's a hundred percent Google all right, but at first strips off your IP address So Google doesn't know it's you that's searching and you'll never get a pop-up window or any ads or emails related to one of your searches That's unlike Google itself, which is like an octopus and you're connected to practically everything you do on the net So my advice never use Google and when you get down here to Latin America by two cell phones one dumb phone what they call a free

[12:42] Olero here because the word for holy means being and those are small phones that look like beans in fact What I always do at my expat insider seminars is give everyone a phone on arrival not a smartphone But a dumb phone loaded with some minutes so they could use it to call anyone even back to the United States or Canada It's what you call up in the states of burner phone. That's the kind I use all the time now speaking of my upcoming expat insider Seminar you can still get in on the early bird discounts until June 1st So for all the sign-up information and details just go to www.thenewexpat.com and click on Johnny's seminar link again That's for my July 2018 expat insider seminar in and around Guatemala Yep, come July attendees will be getting that fire hose treatment once again, but where were we oh?

[13:33] So my advice when you get down here get a smartphone and a burner phone use that smartphone and load in an app Like ways to figure out where you're going and you start pager another one of the more anonymous search engines instead of Google You use your dumb phone to talk to people in text message and that smartphone to do searches and find your way around And maybe you want to load in a few more apps that don't require you to give up a lot of your personal info Now you've heard me mentioned before that everyone here in Latin America seems to be using that what's up app It's ubiquitous down here even shoeshine boys seem to have it because you know though a dumb phone might be 15 or 20 bucks The next step up you pay 30 or 40 bucks You can get it kind of a low IQ Smartphone wannabe would be kind of like a George Bush jr. Phone and that phone is dumb

[14:22] But what's up capable which is why you see so many people working for minimum wage or less Talking on what's up. They've moved on up to a bush phone that way They can call all their friends and relatives virtually for free because it's going across the net like Skype So the question is as a gringo or expat down here in Latin America with two phones a smart one and a dumb one Should you be using the what's up app? Well, you can but you're now starting to lay your tracks all over the net again, by the way I do think it's nuts. It's kind of crazy to put head shots of yourself up on the net Why would you want that available to everyone in the world put your cat or your dog your goofy neighbors ugly mug on there? But really don't put your own face out there. I know I know you just can't help it, right? Everybody else is doing it and people say where's your picture?

[15:09] Why don't you have one up there? Like expat Eddie says no one's really interested in looking at your face or your kids faces out there Not unless you're mr. Handsome or drop-dead gorgeous least of all No one's interested in what you had to eat at the restaurant last night Or your Italian Riviera vacation pictures deep down, you know, it's an ego thing It's about you but you know, the net is full of bad guys, too And they're very much interested in what you look like after all if you're stupid enough to put a lot of your dad's out In the net and they've got your picture, too You could very well be the next victim of identity theft or worse, but you knew that already, right? So bottom line if you do things right when you first get down here, you could lower your profile dramatically By the way, I've met a few people just in the last few months who have been victims of identity theft

[15:58] Of course, they were gringos and it happened up in the States They were not Latinos the identity theft problem has not much Proliferated Latin society yet, but it will lag time and all that I expect it will be quite a big thing in the next couple years because Latins are so free to give away all their dads I've seen it for myself. I've watched Latinos at Internet cafes Give up practically all their personal information to a pop-up window that says fill in your debts and give us a selfie And get 50% off your next Domino's Pizza. I'm not kidding. Oh, man. Well, they'll learn. All right It'll take some time, but they'll learn a lesson and it'll be a painful one now I know for probably 99% of first world people getting off the Google habit is like getting off booze cigarettes or drugs

[16:46] I mean really people embrace Google like it's the all-knowing and powerful Oz by the way How many times did you Google something today or yesterday fact is I never use Google unless I'm on someone else's computer But let me tell you Google fake book Pwaddle Instagram all the anti-social media sites You name them are using you a hell of a lot more than you're using them I know I know you've heard of Google and Facebook spy on you and sell your info and all that But you ain't heard nothing yet. Just listen to this. Here's an article just came out called 33 ways you are being bought sold and tracked by Google and Facebook And I'll paraphrase as usual to speed things up and add my two cents whether it's necessary or not You know, I can't help myself. It starts want to freak yourself out

[17:34] I'm gonna show just how much of your information the likes of Facebook and Google store track and utilize without you even realizing it number one Google stores your location every time you turn on your phone and You can see that timeline from the very first day you started years ago Now when was that 10 15 years ago? Then the guy who wrote this article explains how you can download everything Google's got on you I have the link here and it's kind of long Just send me an email the expert files at gmail.com if you want to try this yourself But don't do it if you cry easily Now he's just kind of regular guy who blocks a lot and he found out the file Google has on him is so big It was around 50 gigabytes Massive around 50 full-length movies worth so you better have 50 gigs of free space on your computer

[18:24] If you try this yourself worse yet He said Google had so much data on him that it took 20 hours to download So if you try it, that's what you're in for so he did it and here's what he found on himself In addition to number one the timeline I just mentioned got number two every place He'd ever been in the last 12 months the time of day He was at a location and the time it took to get to that location from the previous one Including a downloaded map of the world that shows every single place He's been for the last year number three It showed his search history across every device he's ever connected with so even if you delete your search history and phone history Google still stores it all until you go to every single device you connected with and delete the information there Which is something that's virtually impossible to do number four

[19:12] You've got a Google ads profile to including your location gender age hobbies career interests Relationship status travel preferences income weight height food preferences health status, etc Which is why for example, if you happen to be 20 pounds overweight You'll get ads for weight loss stuff and exercise equipment number five Google stores information on every app an extension you've ever used how often you use them where you use them Who you use them to interact with who you talk to on Facebook? What countries you're connected with even the average time you wake up and go to sleep based on your connections to Facebook and Google? Etcetera, etc. Number six Google stores all of your YouTube history They know whether you're gonna be a parent soon if you're a conservative liberal progressive if you're Jewish Christian Muslim

[19:59] If you're feeling depressed pseudicidal if you're anorexic if you're scientific sports gambling pot or porn or obsessed if you're a bimbo Superficial hmm, that'd be based on Cardassian searches, right? What kind of hair you have? You got nail fungus your pets and pet status any and all things you've ever checked out on YouTube number seven Google offers an option to download all the documents you've ever written received or searched in this guy's case there were three million Word documents whoa not to mention they have all the bookmarks You've ever cataloged all of your emails all of your contacts all your Google Drive files naturally and all your YouTube videos The photos you've taken on your phone every single one of them

[20:45] The businesses you've bought from and all the products you've ever bought on the net and or searched number nine Google has all of your calendars and lists all of your Google hangout sessions your Location history all of the music you've ever listened to all the books You've purchased online the Google groups you're in all the websites You've created all the cell phones you've ever owned all the numbers all the web pages you've ever shared That's what you get when you use Google and have Google Chrome as your search engine that won't happen You know if you use another search engine like for example Firefox But you must go into the settings and turn on all the privacy options anyway this guy downloaded all his Facebook data, too Blew his mind when he found out there were roughly 400,000 word documents

[21:33] Including every message he'd sent or received every file He sent and received all the contacts in his phone all the audio messages He's ever sent or had been sent as well as his likes and dislikes and what he and his friends were talking about like for example Restaurants concerts TV programs food sexy underwear Viagra chlamydia sexy underwear I said that already right well, it's worth repeating Facebook and Google also Stupidly store all the stickers and memes you've ever sent all the happy sad and evil little faces you attached to your cute little Messages and Facebook like Google stores every login where you logged in from what time and from what device and like Google You can download a world map that pinpoints every place you've ever been when you've logged in or sent a message

[22:22] Wow, if I was a bad guy man Would that be of interest to me if I for example wanted to rob your house steal your car or kidnap your kids? number 15 Google and Facebook store all the Applications and forms you've linked to while using those accounts like for example insurance government and healthcare forms So they can instantly guess that you're interested in politics graphic design Teslas butt implants nipple piercings coffee enemas whatever in this guy's case He said Facebook knew he was single between X and Y period of time that he'd installed tinder and checked out dating sites And had his phone service upgraded, which is why by the way every time you buy a new phone device computer Whatever you should always go into the privacy settings and disable the location feature

[23:09] Just uncheck it when you want to use the ways app But as the article says it's near impossible to disable all the tracking features for example He says if you have Windows 10 installed the privacy options have 16 Different sub menus which have all the tracking and monitoring options enabled by default come on How is the average non-technical person ever gonna go in there and figure all that out? I know for a fact that many people are afraid to go into their settings fearing. They'll mess things up Are you one of those hmm? So with Windows 10? You're automatically being tracked and it's got access to your microphone and camera Access to your contacts your emails your calendars your call history Including the files you've downloaded the games you've played the photos and videos your music your search history your browsing history

[23:59] Even what radio stations you listen to and the craziest thing you know is how? Millennials especially accept and even embrace this just so they could post their selfies their likes and dislikes and Google stuff And it's true when quizzed we would never let the government or a corporation Put cameras and microphones in every room in our house and let them put location trackers on us instead We went ahead and did it ourselves by making fake book twaddle Instagram and Google our Virtual best friend partners and confidants of course I mean everyone else not me You know Google and social media platforms are just like the kid in school who couldn't keep a secret We all know someone like that. You know tell Johnny and you tell the world sort of thing By the way, this guy also downloaded his search history off Google and Facebook and found

[24:49] 90,000 different entries then he says he downloaded his Google Drive Which included various personal resumes for job hunting even though those files and other files were deleted and other things He deleted were still there his monthly budget student loan stuff his codes his files his websites even bank info Even his PGP private keys for encryption and other things. He's absolutely certain He deleted then he says he downloaded his Google fit data Which shows all of the steps he's ever taken and the location and paths where he walked Then he found a downloaded file that had every email He'd ever deleted including every image or photo He's ever searched and saved every location he've ever searched or clicked on every news article

[25:37] He's ever searched or clicked on or read and every single Google search He's ever done since 2009 so in effect it seems like Everybody's probably on an FBI watch list now and probably a hundred other government lists, too You can see now with the help of Google and antisocial media The government can build a case against anyone if they want they could set you up lock up your bank accounts and ruin you So don't fool yourself the information they've collected on you has Millions of nefarious uses and violates multiple human rights doesn't it but you've got nothing to hide right boy Have I heard that a million times? Are you a terrorist? Well, they can certainly make it seem like you are How come you were googling ISIS sites? Oh you say you're not a degenerate pervert Well, then why are you googling midget transgender pole dancers?

[26:26] And look if you're one of the tens of thousands of people working at Google or any of the social media sites and you're suspicious of your husband or wife Perfect. Just look up her location and search history You can even download a high-definition map with checkpoints. Hey, if you manage to gain access to someone's Google account Whoa, you have a chronological diary of everything that person has done for the last 10 years It's an extortionist and blackmailer's dream now That's not to say fake book accounts aren't useful if you have a business I hear it's a great way to sell products But to use it daily or even hourly as a way to connect with your antisocial media fantasy friends Is that a terrible waste of time or an addiction or what? Which reminds me of a funny photo that expat insider seminar attendee Matt just sent me

[27:12] There's a picture on the left of astronaut buzz Aldrin and the caption says went to the moon Took five photos and next to that there's a photo of a girl in a bathroom Taking a selfie in the mirror and the caption says went to the bathroom took 37 photos now that says it all 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 Get the perfect plan B blueprint by going to the expat files comm Academy