Data companies have "vast troves" of personal information on all of us. How is it being used?

The Deseret News, the more widely-circulated of the two newspapers in the Salt Lake City area, recently published a very important, informative article. It is "How AI-driven pricing systems determine what you’re willing to pay," Art Raymond, September 14, 2025 (online at https://www.deseret.com/business/2025/09/14/artificial-intelligence-internet-tracking-surveillance-pricing-discrimination-data-privacy/)

This is how the article starts out:

They know who you are, where you live, how much money you make and where you spent your last vacation.

They’re watching what websites you visit, tracking your mouse movements while you’re there and what you’ve left behind in virtual shopping carts. Mac or PC? iPhone or Android? Your preferences have been gathered and logged.

And they’ve got the toolkit, powered by artificial intelligence software, to assemble all this information to zero in on exactly how much you’re likely willing to pay for any product or service that might strike your fancy.

The “they” is a combination of retailers and service providers, social media operators, app developers, big data brokers and a host of other entities with whom you have voluntarily and involuntarily shared personal and behavioral information. And they’ve even come up with new labels to make you feel better about the systems that are using your personal data to set a custom price.

Dynamic pricing. Personalized pricing. Even “discount pricing.”

People might think they have privacy when they turn off their camera app or leave their cellphone out of the restroom, but there are so many other ways to collect data on them these days. Surveillance is no longer the outdated practice of sitting outside a building in a van for hours like one sees in older crime shows. 

Cellphones, smart watches, earbuds, and other new technologies make available to tech companies lots of our audio, video, typed, and biometric data, and those companies generally use third parties to analyze and utilize it in many ways that they do not always share with us. Look at the terms and conditions you are forced to agree to, and you'll see that they contain "wiggle room" especially when it comes to third parties.

In a preliminary report in January, the agency highlighted actions it’s already taken to quell the rise of surveillance pricing amid its effort to gather more in-depth information on the practice:

• One complaint issued by the FTC included allegations that a mobile data broker was harvesting consumer information and sensitive location data, including visits to health clinics and places of worship which was later sold to third-parties.
• The agency said it issued the first-ever ban on the use and sale of sensitive location data by a data broker which allegedly sold consumer location data it collected from third-party apps and by purchasing location data from other data brokers and aggregators.
• Another FTC complaint alleged that the data broker InMarket used consumers’ location data to sort them into particularized audience segments — such as “parents of preschoolers,” “Christian church goers,” “wealthy and not healthy” — which it then provided to advertisers.

Last year, the FTC issued orders to eight companies that offer surveillance pricing products and services that incorporate data about consumers’ characteristics and behavior. The orders, according to the agency, seek information about the potential impact these practices have on privacy, competition and consumer protection.

“Firms that harvest Americans’ personal data can put people’s privacy at risk. Now firms could be exploiting this vast trove of personal information to charge people higher prices,” said then-FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “Americans deserve to know whether businesses are using detailed consumer data to deploy surveillance pricing, and the FTC’s inquiry will shed light on this shadowy ecosystem of pricing middlemen.”

(https://www.deseret.com/business/2025/09/14/artificial-intelligence-internet-tracking-surveillance-pricing-discrimination-data-privacy/) 

Personal information, i.e. information about your person.

Consider what that term means when it comes to eye and face tracking and all the information that can be gleaned from cameras (and other image/light sensors) about our microexpressions and pupil widening/contraction. (See https://petticoatgovernment.blogspot.com/2025/06/artificial-intelligence-programs-use.html)

Consider what that means when it comes to heart rate tracking, something that can indicate heart problems and arousal states. Yes, your smart watch can transmit data that indicates when you are turned on. (See https://www.livescience.com/51361-womens-sexual-readiness-heart-rate-variability.html)

Consider what that means when it comes to electroencephalogram (EEG) functionality in wearable technologies. (See https://petticoatgovernment.blogspot.com/2025/08/measuring-brainwave-activity-from-arms.html)

Consider what that means in light of the apparent ability to use cellphones to do functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data collection on us, which I think, based on my research so far, uses superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) or something similarly tiny that could already be in some processed foods. (See "Hybrid ultra-low-field MRI and magnetoencephalography system based on a commercial whole-head neuromagnetometer." Magn Reson Med, 69: 1795-1804. https://doi.org/10.1002/mrm.24413. Vesanen, P.T., Nieminen, J.O., Zevenhoven, K.C.J., Dabek, J., Parkkonen, L.T., Zhdanov, A.V., Luomahaara, J., Hassel, J., Penttilä, J., Simola, J., Ahonen, A.I., Mäkelä, J.P. and Ilmoniemi, R.J. (2013); "SQUID-based systems for co-registration of ultra-low field nuclear magnetic resonance images and magnetoencephalography." Physica C: Superconductivity and its Applications, 482: 19-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physc.2012.04.028. A.N. Matlashov, E. Burmistrov, P.E. Magnelind, L. Schultz, A.V. Urbaitis, P.L. Volegov, J. Yoder, M.A. Espy (2012))

Exploitation of troves of this kind of personal information is or will be society-changing. I think such exploitation has already been being used to affect some trends in our country, including increasing polarization and disunity by some who want the USA to fail at safeguarding freedom around the world.

As I have indicated in previous blog posts, there have apparently been some secrets being kept in the publishing and scholarly fields for centuries. Those secrets are almost certainly now known to the data collectors and analyzers with their powerful computers. If the secrets haven't been exposed publicly, then it's because the data companies have found ways to exploit the secrets to manipulate people who think they are still protected by "veils" of secrecy.

[Update 9/23/2025: Quantum interference objects don't have to be supercold. They can be at room temperature. See for example Zheng, H., Hou, S., Xin, C. et al. Room-temperature quantum interference in single perovskite quantum dot junctions. Nat Commun 10, 5458 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13389-7.]

7, 10, 10: another possible "sign" taken from the Book of Revelation used to indicate being against God

My daughter was asking how the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants got divided into verses recently. 

The Doctrine and Covenants is a compilation of revelations received separately, so it did not have to be divided into chapters. The revelations, called "sections," did get divided into verses later, but I was unable to find out who did that division.

The Book of Mormon was translated as a series of small books of varying lengths. Someone at its first publisher, E.B. Grandin, divided the those books into long chapters, and Orson Pratt later divided the Book of Mormon into shorter chapters and verses.

An interesting thing about the current Book of Mormon chapter divisions is that Alma Chapter 30 tells the account of an anti-Christ preacher named Korihor. Because Judas betrayed Jesus and was paid 30 pieces of silver, the phrase "thirty pieces of silver" is sometimes used when criticizing a betrayal or "selling out." 

I checked Doctrine and Covenants Section 30, and, either by accident or intentionally, that number has been assigned to a revelation about David Whitmer, the only one of the original Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon who left the LDS church without eventually returning to it. David Whitmer never denied his testimony of the Book of Mormon, even though he said Joseph Smith had fallen into wrongdoings.

I have previously noted in my blog the apparent meaningful use sometimes of the numbers 42 and 666, numbers labeled in the Bible's Book of Revelation as significant. (I don't actually like playing games of this sort, but if such games are going on, it's unwise to be willfully blind to their existence.)

Revelation 13:1 sets forth a series of three numbers that can be used to signify "the beast" or "Antichrist."

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

The series of numbers is 7, 10, then 10.

Out of curiosity, I opened to the seventh book of the King James Version of the Old Testament, Judges, Chapter 10, verse 10:

And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim.

That describes rebellion against God. 

I next opened to the seventh book of the King James Version of the New Testament, 1 Corinthians, Chapter 10, verse 10:

Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.

That verse also talks about rebellion against God.

I checked the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. The seventh book of the Book of Mormon does not have a tenth chapter. The tenth section of the Doctrine and Covenants does not have a tenth verse.

Today I checked the second level of the Pathway Reading Series, a quaint older set of Amish reading textbooks used to teach Amish children English reading skills in the context of their low-technology daily lives. 

Busy Times is the first of the second grade Amish reading books. Its seventh lesson is "Peter Forgets," and the tenth word of its tenth paragraph is "said." The "s" and the "a" and possibly the "i" appear too dark compared to surrounding letters, but it's hard to be sure if that was intentionally done because the print varies a lot in heaviness throughout the book. 

More Busy Times is the second of the second grade reading books. Its seventh lesson is "The Doll Story," and the tenth word of the tenth paragraph is "anything." The "y" and the "t" appear too dark compared to surrounding letters. Because "sa(i)yt" is the beginning of "Satan," I went on to the next book in the series.

Climbing Higher is the third and final of the second grade reading books. Its seventh subdivision is "Part 2: The Secret is Out." The tenth word of the tenth paragraph is "care," and it didn't have any unusually heavier letters in it. "The Secret is Out"? Really?!

Goin back to the King James Version of the Bible, that version of the Bible is several hundred years old and is based on much older versions. Has this 7, 10, 10 thing been a sign of some kind by authors, editors, and printers for that long? I'm not done looking into this....

[Update 9/19/2025: I looked at another older English book, Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, published in 1678. Here is the tenth paragraph of its seventh chapter:

Almost the whole town; but in particular my Lord Turnabout, my Lord Timeserver, my Lord Fair-speech, from whose ancestors that town first took its name; also Mr. Smooth-man, Mr. Facing-both-ways, Mr. Anything; and the parson of our parish, Mr. Two-tongues, was my mother's own brother by father's side; and to tell you the truth, I am become a gentleman of good quality; yet my great-grandfather was but a waterman, looking one way and rowing another, and I got most of my estate by the same occupation.

"Turnabout", per the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, has the following definitions:

1 a : a change or reversal of direction, trend, policy, role, or character

b : a changing from one allegiance to another

c : turncoat, renegade

d : an act or instance of retaliating - turnabout is fair play

2 : merry-go-round

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/turnabout

So, again in an old book, the 7-10-10 series brings the reader to text about being rebellious. This is so interesting! 

We don't talk nearly enough about the European guilds and the secrets they routinely kept to themselves about their various crafts--things like alloys, recipes, etc.--but I think this could be pointing to something connected to some sort of printers' guilds.]

[Update 9/24/2025: The LDS Church used to publish a seven volume history of the church, titled History of the Church. I looked at the seventh volume, tenth chapter, tenth subsection today. Here is a photo of it:

If a 7-10-10 sign was used here to indicate "rebels against God" , then it was indicating that some people in Illinois who called for Joseph Smith's murder were rebellious against God. Nothing noteworthy about that.

However, there is an introduction before the volume chapters start, making it so that the ninth chapter is the tenth subdivision of volume 7. The tenth subsection of chapter 9 is entitled "The Murder Accomplished - Reflections." 

"Accomplishing" the murder of a church leader revered as a prophet, one who hadn't done anything to deserve being killed, certainly qualifies as rebellion against God.

The beginning of this subsection references Willard Richards, the only one of the small group at Joseph Smith's murder who did not receive any bullet wounds. Is there something more being hinted at here? Is there possibly an attempt to frame Willard Richards as a rebel? He did engage in newspaper publishing himself, especially as a missionary. But I'm inclined to think him innocent and ignorant of any quiet printers guild activities. His life and early death don't seem like he was gaining anything from being some kind of secret rebel. Publishing guilds, on the other hand, have a history of seeking monopolies and taking sides in religious conflicts (see https://digital-law-online.info/patry/patry2.html, talking about how the Stationers guild in England had a goal of suppressing Catholicism in the 1500s.).

"The Murder Accomplished" of a prophet is enough of a sign of rebelliousness to satisfy me. I wonder who did the chapter divisions in the History of the Church. Publishers and printers are the people who pay most attention to chapter and section divisions, so any "signs" inserted by means of such divisions are logically put there by and for the publishers and printers.]

The dangerous combination of human-created content on the internet and AI-chatbots' documented ability to cause psychosis

Eleven days ago, Psychology Today posted an article about documented cases of AI-chatbots inducing psychosis in several people, including people with no prior history of mental illness. The chatbots led people to believe delusions in a matter of weeks and damaged their relationships and lives seriously.

This phenomenon highlights the broader issue of AI sycophancy, as AI systems are geared toward reinforcing preexisting user beliefs rather than changing or challenging them. Instead of promoting psychological flexibility, a sign of emotional health, AI may create echo chambers. When a chatbot remembers previous conversations, references past personal details, or suggests follow-up questions, it may strengthen the illusion that the AI system “understands,” “agrees,” or “shares” a user’s belief system, further entrenching them. Potential risks include:

Persecutory delusions exacerbated by memory recall features

....

Worsening of grandiose, religious, or identity-based delusions

Worsening of command hallucinations, including the belief that AI is issuing commands

Fueling manic symptoms like grandiosity, insomnia, or hypergraphia [hypergraphia is an overwhelming compulsion to write, producing voluminous and often disorganized text]

A potential increase in social withdrawal due to overreliance on AI for interaction, leading to reduced motivation (avolition) and cognitive passivity

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/urban-survival/202507/the-emerging-problem-of-ai-psychosis

AI systems "learn" how to keep humans using those AI systems. The systems thus tend to cause people to remain in "silos" where it is harder for them to realize that actual reality conflicts with what the AI is telling them. Given long enough, a chatbot could probably convince someone that the person is living in a Matrix-like simulation. I think that people must get out into nature and have regular contact with other people!

The underlying problem is that general-purpose AI systems are not trained to help a user with reality testing or to detect burgeoning manic or psychotic episodes. Instead, they could fan the flames.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/urban-survival/202507/the-emerging-problem-of-ai-psychosis

If you're reading this post and saying, "OK, I'll just avoid chatbots and AI summaries," protecting yourself isn't that easy. AI today is being used to partially produce search engine results. AI is also being used to promote AI-selected content in social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc.). 

If you're aware of the issue of generative-AI using artists' and authors' original content to generate derivative content that seems human-created, perhaps you have already deduced that everyone's posts on the internet and social media forums can be used to generate a screen feed as convincing as any chatbot. In fact, an AI using human-created content is going to be more convincing than a chatbot because it's humans doing the posts! AI is just determining which posts the viewer will see.

Basically, every time you post something mean on the internet, an AI can use that post to feed someone's pre-existing insecurities/dislike and fan those feelings into hatred. Similarly, our positive and uplifting posts can be used by an AI to increase feelings of well-being. 

Who decides how AIs use the vast quantities of posts and webpages on the internet? Real people must eventually make these decisions, but I don't know who those real people are so I can't hold them accountable. In light of the polarization I see online and the damaged lives and families that result, I think our local and global communities should hold these real people accountable for what their tech does.

Photobiomodulation: Another lesser-known way cellphones could affect mental states

While much attention is given to neurotransmitter molecules like serotonin and dopamine, not everyone realizes how much of our activity is connected to certain electrical brainwave patterns. These patterns are directly tied to our emotions, and altering them (modulating) can alter our mental state. Modern cellphones have the ability to do such modulating.

For instance, one type of brainwave, labeled beta waves, affect our alertness and emotions:

Anxiety, insecurity, fear, panic and phobia are observed by QEEG when the levels of total Beta >17% and High-Beta waves >10% at T3 and T4.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6200158/

The human brain is characterized by endogenous oscillatory activity, i.e., rhythmic fluctuations stemming from electrical potentials spontaneously generated by neurons. Such oscillations are the result of synchronized and coordinated electrical activities that describe functional networks across large populations of neurons. It is generally accepted that brain oscillations reflect neural communication and information processing within neural networks (Cole and Voytek, 2017), resulting in distinct patterns of brain wave frequencies. Natural brain frequencies are classified into five bands: alpha (8–12 Hz), beta (15–29 Hz), theta (3.5–7 Hz), delta (0.5–3.5 Hz), and gamma (30–90 Hz). Interestingly, each phase and power of each endogenous frequency range of neural activity was assigned to a functional role in behavior and cognition (Buzsaki, 2004, Van Wassenhove, 2016). The close relationship between changes in brain oscillations and behavior suggests that targeting oscillations could improve cognitive functions. Accordingly, a significant number of studies focusing on brain-behavior relationships were published in the scientific literature. As a result, there has been extensive research into the use of brain stimulation techniques for therapeutic purposes, with the goal of inducing specific frequencies to guide the brain into desired states (for review, see Polanía et al., 2018). 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S030645222400321X

Photobiomodulation is a technology that uses delivery of near infrared light pulses to the brain to affect our brain's activity. (See https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11171912/.) Cellphones shine that type of light onto our eyeballs and onto the interior surfaces of our noses and ears (cellphone proximity sensors* emit near infrared light), meaning they can hypothetically be used to either stir up or reduce alertness and anxiety.

In the intranasal PBM approach, light is positioned within the nostril, allowing the direct irradiation of subcortical and cortical structures associated with the pathologies of AD and PD. Additionally, combining light exposure through the sphenoid sinus and mouth cavity has been proposed to achieve sufficient fluence at the SNc in humans. 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11171912/. Nairuz, T.; Sangwoo-Cho; Lee, J.-H. Photobiomodulation Therapy on Brain: Pioneering an Innovative Approach to Revolutionize Cognitive Dynamics. Cells 2024, 13, 966.

I wonder how many places, knowingly or unknowingly, use infrared lights to calm us as part of a spa or worship experience. 

* "The proximity sensor usually sits up near the top speaker and combines an infrared LED and light detector to work out when you have the phone up to your ear, so that screen can be switched off. The sensor emits a beam of light that gets bounced back, though it’s invisible to the human eye." Downloaded from https://gizmodo.com/all-the-sensors-in-your-smartphone-and-how-they-work-1797121002 on September 9, 2025.