Are You Being Tracked
The other day I got a call from an acquaintance. After catching up, Paula confided she was unsure about the COVID-19 vaccine as she was told it allowed the government to track you. Paula asked what I thought.
Paula was surprised as I told her she is definitely being tracked. However, it is highly unlikely that any vaccine is facilitating this. She asked for more details.
In the “old” days, you tracked someone by knowing where they live, their phone number and pulling a credit report. If really serious you hired a private investigator to follow someone and go through their trash.
Today, tracking people is accomplished with keystrokes and maybe buying access to a few databases. As I said this Paula asked what I meant.
Consider this, you’re shopping for a custom widget. You go on Amazon and find one, but it will take two days to arrive. Instantly, you start getting pop-up ads for widgets.
You search online for a local maker of custom widgets. The oldest widget maker in Texas is in a nearby shopping mall. Their website indicates they have five widgets in stock.
Due to construction, you are unsure of the best way to get there. You plug in your destination in Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze.
As you drive, the car’s navigation system tracks your movements. Street cameras observe the flow of traffic reading license plates. As Your activity is monitored as you speed through a toll booth. Other cars monitor your trip while your phone pings off cell towers.
Once you get to the mall, you buy your widget while stopping at other stores and making credit card purchases. Another store offers “cash back” if you apply for a store charge card.
While in the mall, you stop by the food court. Amazingly, your cell phone sends notification that your favorite drink at the Beverage Barn is half off. This is because the rewards program you entered months earlier accrued enough points to “earn” a discount.
As you sip your beverage, you check a few emails on your cell. You watch a few videos on YouTube and TikTok. It is amazing how they always know what I’ll love. Thirty minutes later you have been on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin.
On your way home you stop by the local car dealership. Upon completing the credit application, the convincing salesman guarantees you are pre-qualified for a great payment plan. It could easily be an app for a home mortgage or any other financing. Easy money is minutes away.
Once home, you check your new fitness watch to see how many steps you got while at the mall. The fitness tracker syncs with your phone and keeps a variety of interesting information at your fingertips.
Next you order dinner to be delivered via Grub Hub. You can taste that monster burrito already!
Once dinner has been devoured it is movie night. You go on Amazon to order a movie. You stay up late and watch a documentary on Netflix.
At this point I stopped and pointed out to Paula that this is typical in a “day in the life of a person being tracked.”
I added that if we are truly concerned about the federal government tracking us, they also have access to our tax records and military grade satellites.
Virtually every aspect of what we do is tracked, evaluated and sold. This is not because of conspiracy theories, but rather because the harvesting and analyzing of data is a multi-trillion dollar business.
As such, recognize that if you don’t pay for a product, then the product is you (and your data). Every app you download and each website you visit is tracked.
As we finished our conversation, I admitted that I don’t have the knowledge to know if anyone can track an injected vaccine. However, it doesn’t matter. There are so many readily available ways we are tracked that we happily volunteer for. As such, the government doesn’t need a nefarious science-fiction plot to track us as we already give them everything they need.
Given this, it is worth thinking about how you are tracked and who you give information to. Recognizing that criminals also use our information, pulling your credit report at least annually is smart.