What if your every click, swipe, and purchase wasn’t just data — but code inside a Matrix designed to score, sort, and sell you? In this red-pill edition of Burn Notice: A Smoke Signal Podcast, James W., the Pitmaster of Intel, joins AI hosts Ian and Ainsley to reveal how data brokers and tech giants weave your Digital Exhaust into a surveillance scoring system that shapes your reality.

From landlords predicting if you’ll pay rent, to insurers gauging your “risk,” to marketers deciding what price you see — the Matrix isn’t science fiction. It’s here. And it feeds on the invisible trails you leave behind.

But there’s a way to fight back. This episode arms you with the tools to spot the traps, cut the data streams, and unplug from the scoring machine. Because the real question isn’t whether you’re in the Matrix — it’s how long you’ll stay plugged in.