How Your Free Will And Data Are Being Hacked By Micro-Targeting Of Your Personality with Andy Russell

When I was growing up we had news sources we could trust. Under The Fairness Doctrine, news on the radio, TV, and in print was partial and fair. But in 1987 during the Reagan administration, this was repealed, leading to alternative media and more misinformation than ever before. And now with the internet, we are truly in the wild west of sharing information, collecting data, and trying to maintain privacy. Big companies take advantage of that from all angels with their marketing, which is now ultra-targeted (and often in ways you wouldn’t even be able to recognize). Today on The Doctor’s Farmacy, I sit down with Andy Russell to talk about what data really means, who has yours, how they got it, and how they use it. Andy is a digital media, ad-tech, marketing-tech, and data science innovator and pioneer as well as a self-taught Behavioral Economist. He has invested in, incubated, or run over 50 technology companies, including Daily Candy, Thrillist, Tasting Table, Idealbite, PureWow, Zynga, Betaworks, Business Insider, Sailthru, RapLeaf and LiveRamp, SpongeCell, AdRoll, and Bounce Exchange. He is the Founder and Chairman of Trigger Media, InsideHook, and Fevo. This episode is brought to you by ButcherBox and Joovv. I recently discovered Joovv, a red light therapy device. Red light therapy is a super gentle non-invasive treatment where a device with medical-grade LEDs delivers concentrated light to your skin. It actually helps your cells produce collagen so it improves skin tone and complexion, diminishes signs of aging like wrinkles, and speeds the healing of wounds and scars. To check out the Joovv products for yourself head over to joovv.com/farmacy. Once you’re there, you’ll see a special bonus the Joovv team is giving away to my listeners. Use the code FARMACY at checkout. Now through March 29, 2020, new subscribers to ButcherBox will receive ground beef for life. When you sign up today, ButcherBox will send you 2 lbs of 100% grass-fed, grass-finished beef free in every box for the life of your subscription. Plus listeners will get an additional $20 off their first box. All you have to do is head over to ButcherBox.com/farmacy. Here are more of the details from our interview: How much do sites like Facebook and Google watch our online actions and what are they doing with the information? (8:30) Why we have an unregulated internet (14:14) What does data really mean, who has yours, and how did they get it? (18:26) The repeal of The Fairness Doctrine and the regulation that alleviates digital platforms from responsibility for third-party content posted on their sites (24:42) The sale of your information by “Big Data” to Facebook and Google (27:27) How a computer or database can “know you better than you know yourself” (34:04) The current state of our personal data and political digital advertising (39:50) What we can learn from the Rwandan genocide (1:04:51) What you can do to know whether you’re being falsely advertised to (1:09:51) Should Facebook and Google get rid of political ads? (1:17:55)