Apple cash

There’s been a few times in my life that I’ve looked at a product and thought to myself, ‘this is the future’.

I got that feeling when Steve Jobs first pulled out the iPhone (okay, and when I first tasted Wizz Fizz).

And I got the same feeling when Apple released the latest version of its Apple Watch a few weeks ago.

In and of itself, the watch was a minor upgrade to the last Apple watch.

What got me (a father of three, almost four kids) excited was a service Apple launched called ‘Family Set Up’.

Basically, it’s an Apple Watch for your kids, that’s controlled by the parent’s iPhone, and I think it could transform the way families manage money:

Parents can instantly text their kids money via Apple Cash. 

The kids, in turn, spend that money by flashing their watch at a store. 

And when they do, their parents get a notification on their iPhone alerting them to what they just bought. 

Seriously, I could see this becoming how families could do pocket money.

There’s just a few things standing in my way:

First, the idea that I’d give any of my farm-reared kids a $400 watch is absolutely insane.

(What’s the time Mr Wolf? *Shrugs shoulders* WHERE’S YOUR BLOODY WATCH?!). 

Second, Family Set up is only available in America … for now.

Futuristic, huh?

Well, Apple may be vying for your wrist, but Billionaire Jeff Bezos is groping lower.

Yes, right now you can walk into one of Amazon’s Seattle convenience stores and pay for your stuff simply by scanning the palm of your hand as you walk out. 

It’s called the ‘Amazon One device’, and it uses biometrics (the lines, and veins in your hand)  to create a ‘unique palm signature’ that’s matched to a card that Amazon has on file. You’re done and dusted in 300 milliseconds. 

High five!

(At this point you’ve got to feel for those geeks who jumped the gun and had microchips injected into their bodies).

Amazon said it chose to use palm-scanning because people ‘consider it more private’ than say eye-scanning or facial recognition. Still, I’ve got sweaty palms about giving up my privacy.

My view?

You don’t need to be a palm reader to know that COVID has sped up the inevitable death of old-school, analogue cash and coins. Yet in the future, we’re all going to have to balance our privacy against our payments.

Tread Your Own Path!

The Double Rip

Hi Scott,

I need you to look into a company for me.I was on the phone talking with a "Financial advisor" from a company called TradeMote. I first encountered this company in March this year when I saw a clip on Facebook. It was of an interview on Sunrise (Channel 7). They were interviewing an average bloke who happened to invest in a Bitcoin company and in a very short time had amassed a small fortune.

I am 62 years old and had recently retired and had withdrawn my Superannuation. I thought I would try this investment because it was only around $200 investment. I was contacted by a lady who sounded quite genuine. She asked me what my financial goals were and I told her a figure I made up on the spot.

In a very short time the investment she required from me turned to $5000 to "secure" my position. A few days later another $5000 was required to "secure" my position. I was able to log on to my TradeMote account and saw how fast the account was growing. Then they wanted a $20,000 investment to "secure" my position.

When I tried to transfer the funds my bank (Westpac) contacted me and said they weren't going to allow the transfer as the account I was transferring to was on their watch list. When they contacted me again to see why I hadn't transferred the money I told them about the banks response and I also said I wanted to take the profit out. They eventually said I could do that but they needed a copy of my Passport and a bank statement.

I told them there was no way I was going to supply those documents and why couldn't they just transfer the funds to the account I had sent the funds from? I stopped answering their calls and in a very short time my account was virtually zero!

Then, I was contacted a few days ago by another advisor who said he was concerned that I had lost that money and for an investment of $10,000-$20,000 he would work to get my money back. I haven't been able to find this company on any scam lists but their website certainly looks real?

If you can check this company out I would be very grateful.Kind regards

Dennis

The number of people who contacted me in a similar situation to Dennis was frightening.

I call this scam the ‘double rip’:

The same scammers contact the victim (posing as a different company) and offer to help get their money back … as long as they deposit more money.

Another version of this is where the victims are contacted by official sounding lawyers (also the same scammers) who say they are conducting a class action on behalf of victims, and they require seed funding to take them on and get back their money.

This scam works because they’re targeting victims that easy targets (they’ve already been duped once), and in many cases they’re highly emotional and are intent on chasing their painful losses.

Scott

The Day My Dad Got a Viral STD

Hi Scott,

Recently I noticed my elderly father had gone downhill, was very quiet and was looking a bit depressed.

When I asked him, he told me that he was on a website he ‘probably shouldn’t have been’ on when the screen started to flash “YOUR COMPUTER HAS BEEN INFECTED WITH A VIRUS — DO NOT SHUT DOWN AS YOU WILL DAMAGE YOUR COMPUTER PERMANENTLY”.

He was directed to ring an overseas number to remove the virus. When he rang, they sounded professional and said they could certainly help him. He gave them remote access to his computer and requested his credit card. They charged him around $800 for the ‘virus removal’ and a further $1,200 for ‘repairs’.

Naturally he was distressed. The next day on reflection he decided to cancel his credit card. For a couple of days thereafter he was suffering from guilt and worry about any further money he might lose. Luckily, Commbank were great — they got the bogus charges refunded and gave him a new credit card. We also got his computer checked over. I always feel sorry for the oldies that don’t have someone to protect them.

Lisa

I wonder what website he was on that he ‘probably shouldn’t have been?’

Maybe collingwoodfc.com.au? Though on second thoughts, I reckon he was looking at birds ... but maybe not magpies.

I included this question because of the sheer number of people who wrote to me who’d been caught out on similar websites. (Another version of this scam happens via email, where you’re instructed to deposit a substantial amount of money to a bitcoin account within 35 days or they would release video of you watching porn, to your entire contacts list).

This scam exploits the emotion of shame and humiliation. The scammers hope you’ll pay the money, and never speak about it again, which I assume some people do. After all, can you imagine how embarrassing it would be to tell your daughter you’re a Collingwood supporter?

Scott

The day I got scammed on Bitcoin

“Mr Pape, are you ready to make a lot of money?” a stuffy British accent asked me over the phone.

“Maybe, but I’m not feeling it”, I replied.

“Mr Pape, are you aware that Bitcoin is currently surging? My other clients made 63% … just last week.”

“I want you to get me … motivated”, I whispered to him. “I want you to yell … at the top of your lungs … ‘I will make you reeech’.”

Silence.

“I will make you rich”, he nervously repeated.

“Louder.”

“I WILL MAKE YOU RICH!” he yelled, so loud that he forgot to sound British, and revealed his Nigerian accent.

Now I was motivated!

Yet I’m getting ahead of myself, so let me take you back to the beginning.

A few weeks ago my mate Tom Gleeson won the Gold Logie. Yet that wasn’t the only (dubious) award he won.

Tom unwittingly became the latest celebrity to be used to front a fake crypto scam called ‘Bitcoin Profits’.

The scammers not only stole pictures of him (and Waleed Aly), but they also nicked the ABC’s logo (and the logos of other media outlets) to fool people into thinking they were on the ABC News website.

Truth be told, this scam has been around for years.

They’ve used me in their ads before. And Kochie. And Richard Branson. And James Packer … but now a comedian?

So I decided I'd have a bit of fun with them.

I registered my mobile number with the scammer site, and dutifully received a phone call within 15 minutes from a man calling himself ‘David Clark’ (how Anglo a name is that?) -- the man who would eventually (with some encouragement from me) scream “I will make you rich!”

From the get-go, David was trying everything he could to get me to place a trade with his automated crypto trading program. David assured me (in his best British accent) that I was “absolutely guaranteed to make money”.

Of course, I didn’t take the bait.

Yet a reader, who I’ll call Bill, did.

Bill runs a small family business in country New South Wales and works gruelling 90-hour weeks.

Late one evening he read the Bitcoin Profits article, and the tales of instant easy riches, and thought to himself,

why not give it a go?

Like me, a few minutes later he was on the phone to a fast-talking ‘British’ account manager.

Unlike me, Bill gave over his credit card details and made his first trade.

Guess what happened?

The automatic crypto trading program worked: he doubled his money!

Bill was told to immediately top up his account with his credit card, so he could make even more money.

This process of winning, and topping up his account, kept going for the next two days.

All up, Bill transferred $28,000 into his trading account … while his winnings climbed to $50,000.

So, Bill had made a quick $22,000, right?

NO! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? CAN’T YOU SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING?

Bill had been scammed.

When he twigged, he felt physically ill.

Then he frantically called his bank, Westpac, who traced the funds to a company in (of course) Nigeria.

He then reported them to the NSW Police, who basically told him there was nothing they could, or would, do.

“I just wish they would at least warn people about this scam … there’s another lady I know who lost $60,000 the same night as me!” lamented Bill.

I promised Bill I’d do everything I could to help.

Okay, while that stops short of going to Nigeria, I can ask you, my readers, a favour.

Let’s collectively give these scammers a Hard Chat: tell everyone you know to avoid Bitcoin Profits.

Tread Your Own Path!

Introducing … Zuckbucks?

Facebook is set to launch its own crypto-currency next year, the BBC reported this week.

(The article referred to the new currency as ‘GlobalCoin’ … though I much prefer ‘Zuckbucks’.)

So, will this be yet another crazy crypto coin?

Not a chance!

My bet is that ‘Zuckbucks’ will be as boring as your Aunt Betty’s status updates.

See, Facebook is already lame (but incredibly lucrative), so they’re doubling down on something even lamer (and equally lucrative): payments.

And that’s because Facebook’s end game is to become the WeChat of the West.

Hang on … what’s WeChat?

It’s the Chinese version of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Google. All rolled into one ‘super app’.

However, WeChat’s big dumpling is mobile payments. In China you can order a meal, split the bill with your mates, pay your share, and take a photo of your dish to impress your friends ‒ all on WeChat.

This immersive experience throws off a lot of personal data, and that is what Facebook really wants. Oh, and so does Google. And Apple. And Amazon. And thousands of tech companies that you and I have never heard of (yet).

Now think about your current humble little bank account.

Yes, you’ve got an app on your phone … but it still looks and feels pretty much the same as it did 20 years ago, right?

It’s all still BSBs and account numbers, and plastic cards you carry around with long numbers printed on them.

Well, ‘big tech’ is coming for your wallet … and our banks know they have one almighty battle on their hands.

It really began a few years ago when Apple Pay arrived with the promise of ditching your silly plastic card, and allowing you to make payments with your iPhone (in return for Apple sharing a clip of the transaction).

“Bugger off!” said the big banks.

The only problem was their customers wanted Apple Pay.

And so, one by one, they’ve each folded like a cheap card table: first ANZ, then the CBA (who announced this week they’re spending $5 billion on updating their tech to fend off tech competitors), and this week NAB.

And that leaves Westpac, who are gallantly continuing to produce their own ‘Apple lite’ white trash wearables, which they call ‘Centsitive Objects’.

(Geddit?)

Yet my all-time favourite banking bling is the Bankwest payment ring. No jokes. It’s really a thing (and yours for just $39!)

Here’s how Bankwest describes it:

“Our award-winning payment ring is as easy as tap & go – just grab the things you need, fist-bump the terminal and you’re done.”

(Yes, they really said that.)

This week Morgan Stanley estimated that the rapid take-up of smart wallets (payments on your phone) could cost Aussie banks $22 billion in lost revenue as the tech titans move in.

Fist bump to that!

Tread Your Own Path!

Reminder: I first wrote about this years ago and highlighted the low costs. Today there are better deals on offer. How do I know? Because my readers constantly email me about them! So before you do anything, do a quick google.

The fine print on Apple’s new credit card

Sir Richard Branson leaned across the table, smiled, and winked at me.

“It’s pretty sexy, right?”

In his hand was a credit card ‒ a Virgin credit card ‒ with an aesthetically revolutionary ‘clipped corner’.

That boozy night happened, from memory, about 16 years ago. At the time Branson was banging on about his card helping people, while simultaneously sticking it to the ‘fat cat banks’ (and making himself a boatload of cashola).

This week Apple announced it’s launching a credit card (only in the US to begin with), simply called ‘Apple Card’.

And it’s titanium, baby.

As in metal. Laser-etched. There are no numbers on the front ‒ which coincidentally makes it safe to show off on Instagram, if you’re so inclined (and the people who get this card most certainly will be).

And it’ll totally blow the mind of the 7-Eleven attendant when you plonk it down to buy some Cheezels:

Attendant looks down at shiny metal card … then looks up at you, slowly studying your face.

“Are you some kind of celebrity bigshot ... Mr Cheezel man?”

Yeah, no.

This week Apple CEO Tim Cook gushed about his new credit card: “While we all need them, there are some things about the experience that could be … so much better.”

Okay, so I’m going to pull you up on that one, Timbo. You actually don’t need a credit card. (Well, maybe if you’re spending $319 on wireless Airpods, which make you look like, to quote my old man, a “bloody drongo”.)

Strip out the metal and the marketing and this is just another ‘debt card’, and not a particularly revolutionary one: Apple’s fine print shows it charges up to 24.24% interest on the card. However, there are a couple of things they’re doing that are interesting:

The first is the tech: as you’d expect from Apple, they’ve got a great app for the card which allows you to easily categorise and track your spending, and ‘gamifies’ and personalises it to help you make better financial decisions. That being said, a lot of these features and tracking are already here in Australia with Up Bank. And within a couple of years, all banks will offer this.

The second is the card’s rewards system. They’re going with daily cashback instead of points. This makes total sense. Frequent Flyer points are s-o-o-o 2007. Banks and airlines have created their own confusing alternate currency for much the same reason that Zimbabwe issues trillion-dollar notes: to deliberately confuse the poor plebs who are forced to use it. Bottom line?

The Aussie banks will be disrupted over the next decade, make no mistake. However, I’m not sure it will be by Apple, who are just trying to fill another hole by building their ‘ecosystem’ as iPhone sales stagnate.

And remember: the Apple Card is still just a credit card. So while it’s a danger for our banks … it’s also a trap for iPhone users.

Tread Your Own Path!

Reminder: I first wrote about this years ago and highlighted the low costs. Today there are better deals on offer. How do I know? Because my readers constantly email me about them! So before you do anything, do a quick google.

Why Afterpay is the marijuana of credit

I think of Afterpay as the financial equivalent of marijuana.

Young people absolutely love it, and old people are doing a lot of finger-waving about the dangers of getting hooked on the newest financial drug to hit the streets.

This week the financial equivalent of a teacher, ASIC, busted into the school locker rooms (quick, hide the bongs!) and attempted to clear the air by holding its first review into the phenomenon that is ‘buy now pay later’, otherwise known as ‘young people’s layby’, otherwise known (by me) as ‘financial weed’.

Here’s some of what ASIC found:

The majority of Afterpay customers are millennials.

One in six of them are in financial strife … getting overdrawn, delaying bills, or borrowing more.

And these services are hot: the number of transactions has risen from 50,000 a month in April 2016 to 1.9 million in June 2018, with the collective tab now at a whopping $900 million plus.

Now, understand there’s nothing really revolutionary about Afterpay — men in grey suits have been dreaming up new ways to get people to spend money they don’t have since long before Bob Marley rolled his first spliff.

This is just the latest incarnation. (Case in point: when I was at uni the bank gave me a student banking package that bundled in a credit card with a $3,000 limit ‘just in case’, and effectively trained me to see their credit limit as my money. See? Same, same but different. Even the excuses are similar: “Oh, but if I pay off my credit card in the 55-day period, it’s free!”)

My opinion?

The actual terms on Afterpay are not that bad. As long as you pay off your instalments on time, you won’t be charged any interest or fees. So, as far as consumer credit drugs go, it’s not too heavy. Your financial life won’t be ruined by taking out a few Afterpay loans.

So chillax, right?

Well, no. See, the reason I compare Afterpay to weed is that it acts like a a gateway financial drug: it’s effectively training young people to rely on the bank’s money rather than banking on themselves.

Case in point: Afterpay claims their average purchase is $150.

A hundred and fifty clams!

Seriously, if you need instalments to cover $150, you need to check yourself before you wreck yourself.

And, once you get hooked on spending someone else’s money, there’s every chance you might graduate onto harder stuff — other millenial credit-drug dealers who really rip you off.

Who knows? Maybe in the future we’ll have before and after photos like they do with meth heads:

Before: This is a fresh faced Emma, aged 18, buying a pair of pink pumps on Afterpay.

After: This is a stressed out Emma, aged 23, buying scratchies with her Nimble loan.

Seriously, you’re never going to win if you don’t learn to stand on your own two feet and pay your own way.

And that’s why the ‘buy now, pay later’ phenomenon … is true to label.

Get hooked on this junk and you’ll pay a very high price later.

Tread Your Own Path!

The Kind Stepmother

Scott,I have five beautiful new step-daughters. They all live nose-to-device, get cranky when offered advice of ANY kind, “don’t like to read”, and have a massive hole in their hand. All of them work, yet promptly spend it and/or are paying off maxed-out credit cards/bank loans (already!). They think living in debt is just life, what ‘everybody does’. Which of your books is best for young people with zero attention span? How can we get them interested in making a positive change?

Tania

Hi TaniaA cynic would suggest I trawled through thousands of emails to find one to plug my upcoming book.I didn’t … but maybe it’s the universe sending some self-promotional vibes my way? In any event, I’d suggest you get my new book, The Barefoot Investor for Families, which is now available for pre-order.If the girls are still living under your roof, you have more influence on them than you know. My new book sets out 10 very special ‘Barefoot Money Meals’ to give them experiences that will change the way they think about money. (I’d suggest you go straight to Chapter 4: ‘Breaking the Brat’.)Thank-you for reading,

Scott

Barbie and the Rocker

Let me tell you about a 59-year-old woman who makes billions of dollars a year.

Her name is Barbie, and, after years of being in the (toy) doghouse, she’s suddenly cool again. Last week toy conglomerate Mattel reported a 12% rise in sales of the buxom blonde:

“Mattel is trying to lure customers back by recasting the toy’s image to play up not only the nostalgia but a newer notion: they’re beneficial to child development”, says the Washington Post.

Crikey.

When I was a kid, all Barbie did was promote an unrealistic body image.

(Doctors have said that if Barbie were real she’d only have room for half a liver and a few inches of intestine. Yet apparently there is room for a much bigger brain.)

Okay so Mattel hasn’t upgraded her liver, intestines or brain … but they have added a touch of tech.

Enter Hello Barbie.

Here’s how Mattel describes the latest round of plastic surgery they’ve performed on the world’s favourite rake-thin, six-foot-tall, FF-breasted doll:

“The number one thing girls have asked for, is to have a conversation with Barbie. Well, using WiFi and speech recognition technology … now they can! Girls want to learn, tell stories and make friends … and for the first time Barbie recognises what girls are saying, and can respond!”

Uh-huh.

Here’s what’s really happening:

“A microphone records little girls’ private conversations. It transmits those conversations to cloud servers where they are analysed by algorithms and are listened to by employees of Mattel and its technology partner, Toy Talk, and they are shared with unnamed third parties”, says Susan Linn, from Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.

Creepy.

“Hello Barbie asks many questions that would elicit information about a child, her interests, and her family, which could be of great value to advertisers”, says Angela Campbell, Director of Communication at Georgetown Law School.

Clearly this is outrageous.

We need to protect our vulnerable little children from a conglomerate that is openly spying on them.

They’re kids, for goodness’ sake!

I mean they’re not old enough to understand the long-term ramifications of giving up their privacy, and having their data sold and later used against them. As adults we obviously wouldn’t fall for that, right?

Wait a second …

Yes, some of the fastest-selling tech gadgets on the planet right now are Amazon Alexa and Google Home ‒ voice-activated speakers that are constantly listening in on our conversations. Oh, and then there’s the cute-looking Alexa Alarm Clock, which has an in-built camera and microphone … in your bedroom?!

Barbie may be off her rocker, but we’re all being played like toys by big tech conglomerates.

Here’s What I Really Think About the Acorns (Raiz) app

A lot of people ask me about the youth-focused investing app Acorns.

Its ‘killer app’ is that it collects your spare change and invests it in the share market on your behalf.

The company recently changed its name to Raiz Invest, and this week it had an IPO (initial public offering) and became a public company trading on the ASX (ticker ‘RZI’).

If you’re one of the 160,000 young people who are already a Raiz user, or if you’re just an interested punter, you may be wondering if you should invest in RZI.

Well, thankfully, the difference between being a private company and a public company is kind of like the difference between going on a first date and going on your seven-year wedding anniversary: there’s a lot more disclosure.

So let’s take a look-see.

Raiz states in their prospectus that they make their dough by charging users maintenance fees, account fees, netting fees and advertising fees. Lotsa fees. However, these fees only amount to small beer for the company, because the average Raiz account balance is just $1,234 (not a typo!), according to the company.

Looking at their cash flow statement, it shows ‘receipts from customers’ in FY 2017 was $990,424.

However, ‘payments to suppliers and employees’ for the same period was $3,005,078 (also not a typo!).

Feel the burn, baby.

Raiz has recently launched a super fund version of the app (which is cheap, but not cheap enough for my liking), and is also expanding overseas by targeting kids in South-East Asia, which seems like a very slow ramp-up to me … I’m not sure how much spare baht teenagers in Thailand will have to invest.

So, how did Raiz’s debut on the stock market go?

Not well.

The share price plunged 20% on the first day. Though I don’t think it helped that ‒ of the $15 million the company tapped investors for ‒ $2 million was trousered by staff, including a $1 million cash bonus for the CEO.

So should you invest via the Raiz app?

I think it’s a great introduction for novice investors, which is why it’s been so successful. However, after a certain point the fees Raiz charges are too high for what amounts to a cute index fund app.

So should you invest in the Raiz company itself?

Based on what I’ve read, they won’t be getting any of my nuts.

After all, I’ve always thought of Raiz (Acorns) as being a little like your first teenage love:

Memorable, but you’re not going to stay with them long term.

Tread Your Own Path!

#DeleteFacebook

Clearly I was having a ‘moment’ on the 25th of June 2010.

My Facebook data says that was the day I officially put my profile into lockdown.

It wasn’t an “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” kind of moment ‒ just a realisation at the time that Facebook was kind of lame, they were selling my data, and I was done stalking people.

Yet I didn’t delete Facebook totally.

Why?

Purely for practical reasons: there are a lot of old people in my life who have Facebook (hello Aunties!), and, let’s be honest, it’s an efficient and low-contact way of keeping up with them. A few likes every now and again, and a couple of ‘happy birthday’ wall posts (which Facebook even reminds you of!), are much easier than a phone call, right?

“Happy Birthday, Aunty Colleen!”

Of course you may be someone who’s still having a ball playing Farmville on Facebook. If that’s the case, knock yourself out, and congrats on doing your bit to pass around the hat for Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook only raked in around $US40 billion in advertising last year).

Yet this week, with 14 per cent wiped off Facebook’s value due to the latest hacking scandal, it’s not all likes and selfies for the world’s fifth-richest man. Heck, #DeleteFacebook is even trending on Twitter. (Which is kind of like Ronald McDonald passing around a flier to boycott KFC.)

Zuckerberg is now begging for our forgiveness ‒ he doesn’t want to make this his ‘Microsoft moment’, when, 20 years ago, Billionaire Bill got rogered by the US government.

Let’s be honest though, it’s high time you do some rogering of your own. Here’s how to do lock down your Facebook profile in three simple steps:

First, go to the upside-down triangle, click on ‘Settings’, and then ‘Privacy Settings’. Facebook makes the privacy settings intentionally confusing in the hope you’ll give up. Don’t. Just select ‘Private’ or ‘Only Me’ or ‘Friends’ for each setting. Then go to ‘Timeline and Tagging’ and do the same.

Second, cull your list of friends. I’ve got mine down to 112. Realistically that’s probably 50 too many, but some social connections are complicated, right?

Third, download a copy of your Facebook data (‘Settings’, then ‘Download a Copy of Your Facebook Data’), and see what they’ve got on you. At the very least, strip out personal details like your phone number, email and date of birth.

Roger that!

Facebook Gets Freaky

Mark Zuckerberg wants to get to know your kids.

Specifically, he wants to get to know your primary-school-aged children (after all, he already knows more about your teenager than you do).

Hang on, isn’t Facebook restricted to people who are at least 13 years old?

Yes it is. In 1998 the US Congress passed laws that restricted children under the age of 13 from giving out their personal information without their parents’ permission. The cost of complying with these laws meant that most platforms put it in the ‘too hard basket’.

Until now.

This week Facebook introduced ‘Messenger Kids’, for children aged 6 to 12.

Zuckerberg says it’s totally not about trying to lock little kids into using his platform. Rather, he’s motivated by wanting to help parents keep their kids safe online. Messenger Kids will be advertising free (for now), and the app has built-in parental controls.

Yes, the billionaire boy wonder is here to help you. True dinks!

Well, let’s take a look at that.

Earlier this year a 23-page Facebook report marked ‘Confidential: Internal Only’ was leaked to The Australian.

In the report, Facebook promised advertisers the ability to track a teen’s emotions: “By monitoring posts, pictures, interactions and internet activity in real-time, Facebook can work out when young people feel ‘stressed’, ‘defeated’, ‘overwhelmed’, ‘anxious’, ‘nervous’, ‘stupid’, ‘silly’, ‘useless’, and a ‘failure’.”

This is truly the golden age of advertising!

Facebook advertisers can target that anorexic girl right at the very moment she truly hates herself.

For its part, the social media giant issued a public statement about the leaked report saying, “Facebook does not offer tools to target people based on their emotional state”.

Yet.

But as the old saying goes, if you don’t pay for the product — you are the product.

My view?

Give a bunch of my son’s little mates a backyard-built billycart and a hill that my wife has already warned me is “way too steep”, and these kids will get all the ‘likes’ and ‘LOLs’ they need. (Besides, they have the rest of their lives to learn to hate themselves, engage in superficial online relationships, and have billycart envy.)

The simple reason Facebook is worth $511 billion is that you and I hand them our private data. Even better, we devote an average 250 hours per person per year to updating our personal data for their advertisers!

Now parents have to decide whether or not they want to sign up their kids to work for Zuckerberg’s advertising machine.

Tread Your Own Path!