AS HEARD ON - The Jim Polito Show - WTAG 580 AM: TikTok and Home Title Lock

Good morning, everybody.

I was on this morning on WTAG with Jim Polito.   We discussed his newest foray into the social media platform, TikTok, and some of the problems with using TikTok.  Then we got into a question from one of his callers about Home Title Lock. Here we go with Jim.

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Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Craig Peterson: [00:00:00] Good morning, Craig on with Mr. Jim Polito this morning. He made his first TikTok videos just this week. Then he gets an email for me talking about some of the privacy issues now. Still with TikTok. Yes, they were not sold. We did double-check. We also took a few minutes to talk about a home title lock because he had a caller asking some questions. So here we go with Mr. Jim Polito. 

Jim Polito: [00:00:28] I mentioned earlier that I published on TikTok for the first time. Look I'm not a kid. I'm on TikTok, the social media platform just because I wanted to register my name. I always like to get Jim Polito on every new social media one, so if I ever use it. I did it with Instagram a long time ago, when just the kids were on the gram and now I am a Jim Pollito on the gram at Jim Polito.

So I published a couple of videos. Now it's not me dancing. Now. I'm having second thoughts because our good friend tech talk guru, Craig Peterson says there's some issues with TikTok again, even though it's not owned by the Chinese. He joins us now. 

Good morning, Craig. 

Craig Peterson: [00:01:13] Hey, I thought the Chinese owned everything everywhere.

Jim Polito: [00:01:17] They do basically. You're absolutely right. They basically do own everything. But they don't own right. They don't own TikTok anymore. There was that big bidding war in the company. What's the name that, that nobody knew or that everybody thought was washed up? 

Craig Peterson: [00:01:34] Yeah. There was a whole bunch of people. You had Microsoft on in with Oracle. They thought, okay, that's what's going to happen. I actually don't think that they sold it. It all got stopped when the Biden administration went in. 

Jim Polito: [00:01:49] Listen, you would know better than it's still owned. Yeah. That they're trying to sell it to Oracle and Walmart, but it hasn't been sold yet. Oh, great. So the Chinese know what I'm doing.

So I published two videos on TikTok, and actually, they were funny what? No, they're not dance videos. Nobody needs to see that.  They're not dance videos. They're funny little videos that I made in Boston the weekend before last. They're they're cute. They're funny. They're about the founding fathers. If you want to see them, they're funny. I think they're funny, but anyway, what's going on with TikTok. 

Craig Peterson: [00:02:29] TikTok is a kind of newcomer. Of course, they've been around a while. There've been a lot of complaints about TikTok because it has been routing data to China, including location data. Remember, that's all part of the pictures and videos that we take. 

It's amazing when you get right down to it. For instance, the number one manufacturer of these little drones with cameras on them that fly around is also Chinese-based. Apparently has also been sending stuff back. So we're giving them a very good map of the United States everything everywhere it is, which is scary. 

We've got some consumer groups now complaining in the UK. We know under the Trump administration, they started looking into TikTok and found it lacking, if you will. There are complaints over there now about, okay, so people are making these videos. They're putting a lot of work in. Most videos, don't go viral. Most people don't have a real platform on it. Then some do go viral. If you look at the fine print of what TikTok has you click through, one of these groups. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with your terms, whatever the heck. They were, cause I didn't bother reading them. It says that you are giving TikTok an irrevocable right to use, distribute and reproduce the videos that you are publishing without any remuneration. So unlike YouTube, right? YouTube, if you're doing pretty well, they'll start paying you. 

Then if you look at TikTok, even though there's some old guys on TikTok, It's largely kids who are using it.  When we're talking about kids, of course, we're talking about under 18. They haven't reached the age of majority. In the US, and also the European Union, there are special rules for those younger adults. They cannot publish some of these things without the parents getting involved and unfortunately, parents haven't been getting involved. TikTok has no real policies on it.  I expect that they will really come under some serious scrutiny. 

Jim Polito: [00:04:44] We're talking with Craig Peterson, our tech talk guru. Here's the thing when a kid signs up for it, that's a contract, but if you sign a contract and you're under 18, it's generally not enforceable.

Then the second part of this is the Europeans are saying, you're allowing these kids access to inappropriate material. You're not doing a good enough job policing yourselves like Danny and I was talking during the break. How a group he was part of, a relatively benign group on Facebook got, as he said, Zucked, as in Zuckerberg, got caught because they didn't like what was going on there, which maybe Facebook is policing a little too much. 

Whereas on the other end of the spectrum, TikTok is allowing kids access to this stuff that they shouldn't have access to. 

Craig Peterson: [00:05:37] Then, of course, the videos, in this case, they're being uploaded. TikTok has a policy that users must be 13 years of age or older in order to join. Okay. There seems to be very little if any enforcement of it and that's where we're really starting to get concerned.

We're working to try and protect our kids and then things like this come along and it's concerning. Also, they don't have some of the defaults that other social media platforms have. So for instance, if the kid admits that they're 15 when they're signing up for TikTok, it does not automatically make that account private by default, which makes a whole lot of sense.

There's a lot of things we did as kids and as adults that we don't want to have following us around for the rest of our lives. This is exactly what could be happening. 

Jim Polito: [00:06:31] Yeah. Not good. All right let's move on to something else. I want to ask you about this because a listener called about it.

We have LifeLock and all these services that say they will monitor for you. You have explained to us, Hey, look, you can go to the three major credit reporting bureaus. Turn off your credit and only turn it on when you want to use it. That's one way to protect yourself. That's inexpensive and you don't have to pay one of these companies. The question was brought up about a title for your home for your property. Now there were those services out there saying, we'll protect your title because people can steal your title, go out and get a mortgage, a second mortgage on that property and then disappear. All of a sudden you're saying, wait a minute. I know I didn't take out that mortgage. But my understanding was that all those agencies do is try to prevent that from happening. Ultimately if your title is stolen, are you're not going to be responsible for that loan, correct?

Craig Peterson: [00:07:33] You're going to have to do a little bit of fighting, but it's a rare occurrence that people's home titles are stolen. It certainly can happen. Frankly, it's a waste of money.  They're probably a sponsor of the show. 

Jim Polito: [00:07:46] No, I've heard the ads. I think Bill O'Reilly, he does his own stuff now. He does an endorsement for them and I certainly don't want to tell somebody wants extra protection or whatever. As you said, you're going to be protected. All it's saving you from is some work.

Craig Peterson: [00:08:02] You said that earlier, too, the caller as well, Jim. 

What it is it's insurance. Insurance does not stop the tree from falling on your house. Insurance, once you have it, of course, it can help repair the damage caused. That's what most of the LifeLock types are in the world. These home lock companies are doing is making it so if the event, it's very rare when it comes to title lock, if that event happens, they help cover you. 

There's another angle on this and that is most homeowners insurance policies have a rider on them that if your identity is stolen, then they start using your credit or if your home title is stolen, they will pay for all of the cleanups. That's just part of the normal home policy. So you might want to have a look at your home policy. 

Then one other thing is specifically when we're talking about home title lock, and that is the caller was saying, Hey, the County used to let us know, cause you remember what happens is you buy a home all the paperwork is filed with the County. What happens when someone steals your home title. Typically, they file something called a quick claim deed. They basically say I just bought the house and here's his signature or her signature right here in the document then they file it with County. What the counties can do when you have to contact them is most of them have a system where you can register for notification on activity. They may not be doing it automatically, anymore. Double-check with the County and they will then notify you.

There's often a little charge it's not much. They'll notify you if there is any activity occurring on your title. So it makes sense. Our home is our biggest investment for many of us that's what we're hoping to use for retirement. 

Jim Polito: [00:09:56] Wow. Interesting. Very interesting. Now, as usual. Folks, Craig Peterson's here every week, but that doesn't mean that you can't interact with the tech talk guru during the week.

How do people do that? Craig? 

Craig Peterson: [00:10:12] Oh, we get a lot of people just send an email to me, [email protected]. I answer every one. It might take me a couple of days, but I answer every one of the emails. You should be on my email list. So you get the newsletters, the show notes, little bits of training that I do. Find out about courses that you need to know, and that you can find that my website @craigpeterson.com, craigpeterson.com

Jim Polito: [00:10:36] There you go. 

Craig. Thanks so much for your time, buddy. We'll catch up with you next week. 

Craig Peterson: [00:10:42] Take care, Jim.

Jim Polito: [00:10:42] You too. See a wealth of information there.

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