The Karol Markowicz Show: The Deep State and Your Privacy with Jason Chaffetz
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and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio. My guest today is Jason Chaffetz, an American politician and Fox News contributor and the author of the new book, They're Coming for You, How Deep State Spies, NGOs, and Woke Corporations Plan to Push You Out of the Economy. Jason, so nice to have you on. Hey, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

a terrifying title and why do you want us not to sleep at night? Who are they and should people be concerned? If you saw recently, you saw that Doge really uncovered all the money, the waste, the fraud, the abuse, the hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money was going out the door.

What this book lays out there and examines and reveals is how much data, it's the data side of the equation. Most people, I think, understand that they're going to trade a little bit of their privacy away to increase their convenience so they can find their local coffee shop easier, that sort of thing. What they don't understand is how pervasive it is in understanding everything about you.

facial recognition, your hair color, your propensity, your sexual preferences. All of these things are now being collected by the government, sold by the government, and used by the government that they would never be able to use otherwise. And that's what's scary. And you have to be worried about it. And you combine that with artificial intelligence and the deep fakes and where we're going. It is a scary world.

But there are blueprints out there to see where this is going. You think of China, think of other places. A lot of people, they want them to be debanked. They want them to be pushed out of the economy. And that's what's scary. Does the average person understand what's coming? Or do you think that it's still so far away from normal life that it's hard to convey to people that they should be worried about this threat?

Well, what I worry about is that the data, that's not a genie that's easy to be put back in the bottle. What I really worry about are these young kids that are growing up. You know, I'm a little bit older now, but they're growing up in an atmosphere where everything is captured. But what really bothers me is how our government is dealing with this. Because, for instance, law enforcement would have to have probable cause or articulable suspicion or have to get a warrant in order to do things.

In order to profile you and track you and understand who you are and what you're doing. But in order to get around that, they just sell data and then they buy it from a data broker. And then once they buy it from a data broker, they feel like they don't need a warrant in order to track you. And you think, well, wait, I haven't done anything wrong. I lead a clean life. You know what? Yeah.

But what's happening, even literally in the last 48 hours, the Federal Reserve has said that they do bank exams. And they used to require banks to minimize reputational risk. And what that meant for banking is if you do business with people who shop at Cabela's, who buy maybe a Trump hat, maybe they went out and they went to a rally.

then you should be tracked and you should not allow to be to have a banking relationship or you should pay a rate or you should if you went to Cabela's and bought a gun, even though that's legally and lawfully allowed.

You can only have a certain percentage of those people in your banking portfolio. So like they didn't like meat and poultry. And so the meat and poultry producers of this country, they were being debanked. They couldn't use the banking system. Melania and Barron Trump were pushed out of the banking system. So it's pretty scary what they're doing.

You were in the U.S. House of Representatives for almost a decade. Is there anything that Congress can do to stop this? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Because first of all, the best disinfectant is to expose it. And Donald Trump has done a masterful job of starting to tear this down. I think there's a reason why literally the Federal Reserve just got rid of this requirement. But we have to know about this. For instance, in the state of Florida,

When you're 16 year old, maybe you have a 16 year old daughter went and got her driver's license for the first time. Did the people know that when she got that driver's license, she put in her height, her weight, her hair color, took a picture of her, that the state of Florida sold that information? They actually profited from it. You paid to get the driver's license, then they sold it. Well, as soon as things like this get exposed, people say, wait, what? Who did you sell it to?

And did you know that there's a company out there, for instance, called Clearview AI? I'm not saying they did anything illegal, but they have billions of photos. So when you walk down the street or you walk into a shop or you post something on Instagram or Snapchat or maybe you just post a profile picture on Facebook, did you know that's all being what they call scraped and built into a profile?

And then maybe when you get in your car and you start driving.

They're going to gauge your speed, how often you look into the rearview mirror, what speed. These are rolling computers. We detail how the car companies, they sell this information. You know who wants to buy it? Insurance companies. But you don't get permission to do that, did you? But once you know all this stuff, then you start to open your eyes and say, wait a second, this is not who we are. So I think Congress has to

understand it, and then they're going to have to put some guardrails on it. Well, as somebody who has a 15-year-old daughter who did just get her learner's permit in the state of Florida, it makes me feel kind of helpless that this goes on and I can't do anything about it. Is there anything we can do on a state level?

Yeah, you have to expose it. And I think Florida ultimately has done the right thing. Most people don't understand that about half of our states, they also trade all this information to the FBI. So you're suddenly in a database and you just think, well, why? And then you think, well, wait, they haven't been able to keep this data.

Right. Yeah. They haven't been able to protect it. So the amount of data that's out there is is so massive and so big and there's really no way to pull it back. And it's think of it this way. The government knows almost everything about us and we know very little about the government. Right. That's so upside down. Right. We're supposed to be private citizens. They're supposed to be the public citizens.

And and but it's the opposite. And that's what's wrong. That's why I wrote the book. They're coming for you because they are going to use it to manipulate you. And we talk about how they use it to manipulate elections, voter turnout, all of these things. Who gets benefits? Who doesn't? Who gets to go banking? Who doesn't? Who gets to see what material? Who doesn't? We're going to take a quick break and be right back on The Carol Markowitz Show.

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You're great at protecting your own personal information. You probably even use things like two-factor authentication, strong passwords, and a VPN. But as much as you try to be in control of how your information is protected, there are lots of places that also have it, and they might not be as careful as you are. That's why LifeLock monitors millions of data points every second for identity threats.

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So you can focus on scaling up.

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This is LeVar Arrington from Two Pros and a Cup of Joe. The Toyota Tundra and Tacoma are designed to outlast and outlive, backed by Toyota's legendary reputation for reliability. So get in a Tundra with the available i-Force Max Hybrid engine, delivering exceptional torque and towing capacity. Or check out a Tacoma with available off-road features like

We'll be right back.

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And how pervasive and incestuous it is with our federal government. Days after Joe Biden took office, he signed this like $500,000 contract with Clearview AI. Well, why? Why was that such an importance of the White House to have this contract, to have all this facial recognition? Because they wanted to get a picture of everybody that was going to a Trump rally. Everybody that showed up on, you know, at certain places. Everybody.

Unbelievable. And that's where it started really in the Obama administration, where they, Operation Chokepoint, that's what they called it. They thought they could choke off guns in this country by not allowing people who own guns or wanted to buy ammunition from being able to have a banking relationship. So that really shocked me that it's best I can tell it's about a $350 billion industry on data brokerages. And that's growing exponentially.

Did you enjoy your time in the house? Oh, I loved it. Your handle on Twitter X is Jason in the house. I always still think of you as in the house. That's because nobody can pronounce Chaffetz, right? So, you know, I love policy. I love digging my fingernails deep into public policy and exposing because what I find is most people are like, wait, what?

Yeah. If it was exposed, we would never have done it. And I love that part of it. Right. But maybe actually you're being even more effective on the outside by writing books like this because, you know, Congress is a little slow to action a little bit, you know, they don't, they don't really move that quickly, but you know, your book, um, they're coming for you. There's really no, no way to misunderstand it or, uh,

to not want to take action once you read it. Do you feel like that's true? Yeah. Look, we have 450 references. It took me a year and a half plus to put all this together. Wow. And then the other thing is people with kids, if you want to understand like how the big movie studios manipulate your kids, how, um,

How in California in particular, they hand out free computers. Oh, look how good we are. We're so nice. We hand out all these computers. That's so they can monitor you 24-7. And they are. They're taking that data and then they're selling it. That's what's crazy about it. They're monetizing it and selling it.

And it just makes me mad. And this is the best way I can find to kind of put it all together. So somebody can either listen to the audio book or read it for themselves and say, I've got to do something about that. I've got to make sure my local city doesn't do this or my state doesn't do this. So a question that I ask all of my guests is, what do you worry about? Is it this?

This really is. I think this generation, I have six grandkids at this point. My wife and I are blessed. Are you serious? We got three kids. You look like you're 35. Yes, we have six grandkids. And I look at those little kids and we're taking videos and pictures and, you know, the phone is so great. I can always capture it, but they're going to grow up in a world that's so weird, right? Artificial intelligence, deep fakes.

And I just I worry about how bizarre the world's going to get in the next really in the short while, next five to 10 years. It's it's going to be a very different place and not one we're going to want to live in if we're not careful. But I wonder if they're going to see it as weird. My kids already, you know, just their technological use is so different from mine. Will they see all of this is odd or will they be able to spot, for example, deep fakes very easily?

It's just their way they're going to grow up. But what are they going to do for jobs? That's a whole other... My three-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter, she knows how to grab her mom's phone, hit the four buttons, and then hit FaceTime video. And once a day, I get a call, and I just know that that little girl is going to be calling me. And of course, I'm going to answer it. But yeah, I mean, think of how...

That's just how she's grown up. What advice would you give your 16 year old self having to, you know, kind of think about doing it all over again? Well, if I was living right now, I'd say put down the phone and have those experiences. And my 16 year old self who didn't have mobile phones when he was growing up, right. It didn't have, I just cherish those outdoor, get out there, go do whatever, be safe, be smart. But, um,

I felt like I tried a lot of things. I would have tried even more things. Like, I wish I'd done more surfing. I wish I had learned how to golf. I wish I had done like, there's so many. But the things that I did try, they changed my life. And I would just, I would turn up the volume on that, if you will, to do even more.

I love that. I really feel like people are living too much online and on the screens. It's, it's, uh, you know, this is a show about largely about living better and improving your life. And it's one of the things people say all the time. I wish I could put down my phone. I wish I could get off the screens and then they don't do it. Um,

I think that's really a good lesson for people. Well, I love this conversation. The book is called They're Coming for You. You can buy it anywhere books are sold. Jason, end us here with your best tip for my listeners on how they can improve their lives.

Love your neighbor, love yourself and love your, love your family. It's okay to just pick up the phone or go drop by and do the old fashioned thing and knock on their door. And when you walk by your neighbor, you know what? Say hello. It just makes a world of difference. And I, I just being sincere in your heart. I just, I think that's, I saw a neighbor the other day and seen in a while and it was just great. And I, it's because I stopped and paused and it,

I don't regret those 10 minutes at all. In fact, I cherish them. And I think we as a community, as a people, as a nation, we just need to do more of that. I love that. He is Jason Chaffetz. Bye. They're coming for you everywhere books are sold. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you.

So you can focus on scaling up.

When it's time to get growing, there's one platform for all business. PayPal Open. Grow today at paypalopen.com. Loans subject to approval in available locations. This is LeVar Arrington from Two Pros and a Cup of Joe. The Toyota Tundra and Tacoma are designed to outlast and outlive.

Backed by Toyota's legendary reputation for reliability. So get in a Tundra with the available i-Force Max Hybrid engine. Delivering exceptional torque and towing capacity. Or check out a Tacoma with available off-road features like Crawl Control. It can take you beyond the trails. Toyota trucks are built to last year after year, mile after mile. So don't wait. Get in a Tundra.

Get yours today. Visit buyatoyota.com for deals and more. Toyota, let's go places. You're great at protecting your own personal information. You probably even use things like two-factor authentication, strong passwords, and a VPN. But as much as you try to be in control of how your information is protected, there are lots of places that also have it.

and they might not be as careful as you are. That's why LifeLock monitors millions of data points every second for identity threats.

If your identity is stolen, a LifeLock U.S.-based restoration specialist will help solve identity theft issues on your behalf, guaranteed, or your money back. Plus, all LifeLock plans are backed by the Million Dollar Protection Package, meaning LifeLock will reimburse you up to the limits of your plan if you lose money due to identity theft. You might not be able to control how others handle your personal information, but you can help protect it with LifeLock.

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Chef-prepared meals, safety and security, transportation, resort-style amenities, and high-quality care. Everything you need is here. Discover more at brightviewseniorliving.com. Equal housing opportunity. What if your top salesperson was a thousand times more efficient? And what if a limitless digital workforce helped your number one find leads? A super team working 24-7 on their behalf.

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