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There's an artist on Instagram called DrFakenstein, and he does weird short meme videos, like having Snoop Doug's face on a little girl. That is known as a deep fake, and while the memes are hilarious, there are much more nefarious uses for this technology.

What happens when this is weaponized, and used for extensive PR assassinations, or false flag operations by government agencies around the world?

What happens then when the far-left or far-right starts habitually doxxing and attacking people over false accusations?

Do we continue to spiral into chaos, or do we sign all digital media with some sort of blockchain certificate of authenticity?

And let's say there's massive data breaches, and someone gets access to a celebrity or politician's iCloud account, all there photos and videos – or someone pulls an Edward Snowden and releases tens of thousands of government documents – what if 99% of that is real, but 1% is secretly-doctored and that's what the media runs with?

Even if the truth surfaces, the damage is largely done, as the retraction is gonna be buried in the news cycle – and in fact, it'll become a conspiracy theory that the retraction itself is the real fake news.

How do we protect ourselves from being hacked, both in our data, and in our world-views?

That's some of what we dive into today with our guest Jay Smith.

Jay is a Digital Forensic Analyst, Private Investigator, US Army Veteran, and White Hat Hacker based in Louisville, KY – with a degree in psychology from the University of Louisville, and is now an instructor in Digital Forensics and Security at Loyola University.

He currently operates Alliance Investigation Group, where he merges private Investigation services with modern cyber security methodologies to offer support, protection and education to individuals, families and small businesses.

And that is what fascinated me about Jay is how he operates at the intersection of all of these areas and has a uniquely holistic perspective on the current digital landscape.

Some of the topics we dive into are:

• The threat of deep fakes.
• TikTok, misinformation, doxing, and open-source intelligence.
• Anti-doxing legislation and it's implications.
• The weaponization of Reddit.
• Gen Z and their relationship to online identity.
• The long-term effects of social media, echo chambers, and self-referential feedback loops.
• The threat of social credit scores.
• Decentralization, blockchain, and dispersing the power of data.
• Wall Street Bets, Gamestop, and the hypocrisy of the financial institutions.
• The psychology of social engineering.
• The 80/20 of online security and what you can do to protect yourself.
• The illusion of anonymity and permanence of data.
• The emotional weight of working as a private investigator.
• Tribalism and the rise of the binary world.
• And much more.

Links from this episode:

• DrFakenstein on Instagram
• Mail Out Out
• Kevin Rose podcast with founder of Arweave

Connect with Jay:

• LinkedIn: @jaysmith502
• Website: AllianceInvestigationGroup.com

Music by Kirby Johnston – check out his band Aldaraia on Spotify