The Building (Ch. 38) – Bionic Bug Podcast Episode 038

Bionic Bug Podcast

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 38. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on January 13, 2019. No personal update today except that we’re stuck inside in the middle of a beautiful winter snow storm. Let’s talk tech. I have one headline for this week: “I Gave a Bounty Hunter $300. Then He Located Our Phone,” published on motherboard on January 8. I talked about the power of location data a few weeks ago. As a nation, we are behind the curve in understanding the power of data. Many Americans still believe that data without direct connection to identity is somehow anonymous. Policymakers have failed to address privacy issues for data and issue proper protections. Private sector companies who gather your data are selling it off. If this article is true, it’s possible for anyone to pay a couple hundred bucks to geolocate your smartphone. In other words, anyone can find you wherever you are because of your handheld tracking device. How is this possible? I thought even the police need a warrant to track cell phones. It’s possible because the cell phone companies are selling access to their customer’s location data. Scary stuff, eh? Let’s turn to Bionic Bug. Last week, Lara realized that Fiddler had fooled her about his true intentions. Let’s find out what happens next. The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.