Cybersecurity, Corporate Surveillance, & Crypto: How Safe Are We?

An overabundance of fake news, paid political advertising and trolls gaslighting the facts have turned most social media sites into cesspools of misinformation and click bait to boost engagement and profits.

There is little or no regulation to protect the privacy of the unassuming public or to ensure the accuracy of information disseminated through social media. Consumers are left to ferret out scams and misinformation on their own.   

The highly unregulated landscape of Internet-based commerce and finance is the ideal breeding ground for risky, questionable get-rich-quick schemes. 

Enter cryptocurrency, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and blockchain.  

Maybe you have heard these terms, but you don't know exactly what they mean or you're not sure why you should care.

Today's podcast covers Internet privacy, cybersecurity and their relationship to cryptocurrency, NFTs and blockchain.

My guests today are two of my colleagues in the Arizona House of Representatives. Serving LD10 in Tucson, Rep. Domingo Degrazia is a lawyer by profession, a Certified Information Privacy Professional, and drafter of the proposed Arizona Data Privacy bill. He is Whip for the House Democratic Caucus and serves on both the Judiciary and Rules Committees. Serving LD18 in Maricopa County, Rep. Mitzi Epstein is a computer systems analyst by profession. She worked for Olin Brass Manufacturing and in the Treasury Department at Citicorp Mortgage. She is Ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee and also serves on the Rules Committee and the Land, Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee.

Time Stamp
PPH Commentary 00:42
Interview with DeGrazia and Epstein 05:26
Privacy and Security on the Internet 06:08
Are People too Trusting? 08:36
Are Devices Listening to Us? 09:52
There Is Little Government Regulation. Tech Regulates Itself 10:11
Personal Information Was Used Against People in WWI, WWII 11:03
Radicalization and Misinformation Spreads through Social Media 12:52
Outrage Algorithms Build Anger and Profits 13:58
European Internet Regulations 14:34
Regulation Is Patchy or Nonexistent in Most US States 15:40
Is It a Good Thing that Some Apps Track Your Every Step? 16:53
Some of Your Data Is Being Collected and Used by Other Countries, including China 17:23
Deleting Apps that Track You 18:33
What about Cryptocurrency, Nonfungible Tokens, and Blockchain? 19:23
Blockchain Is Just One Tool 20:46
Which AZLeg Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Committee Members Are Invested in Crypto? 22:42
Cryptocurrency Is Built on Nothing 23:03
Nonfungible Tokens (NFTs)