A new California law goes into effect today, requiring any online chat bot that’s trying to sell you something or get you to vote a certain way to disclose that it’s a bot. No pretending to be a person trying to sell you an extended warranty in a customer service chat. Or no posing as a real person posting on Twitter about voting in an upcoming election.

Most of us have this kind of vague sense that our devices and tech services are trading our data for advertising. But it’s still shocking to find out exactly how much our gadgets and services, and even our browsers, are tracking what you do. Host Molly Wood talks with Washington Post Tech columnist Geoffrey Fowler about what he found out when he started tracking how his data is flowing.

It takes very little to get a soccer game started. Two or more people kicking at something, make a goal out of some chairs or maybe even just a gap between trees, and it’s on. Soccer can be very low tech. But clubs looking for an edge over the competition keep turning to high tech to analyze game play and help with training. Tech advances are noticeable for those who are glued to the TV this World Cup tournament as referees frequently use instant replay to make calls.

Wednesday and Thursday night in Miami, the Democratic presidential candidates will gather to debate on TV. But that’s the old-school version of how presidential candidates will try to reach you. Campaigns are already spending a lot more on digital advertising in this election, especially programmatic advertising, which automatically targets people based on habits, age and other information.

Science fiction author Neal Stephenson has a new book out called “Fall,” exploring how technology might mean the end of death. In the book, a billionaire who made his fortune in video games has his digital conscious uploaded after he dies. Stephenson says he was inspired in part by John Milton’s 17th century poem “Paradise Lost,”  about the afterlife and the forming of the world.

Author Neal Stephenson joins host Molly Wood to discuss his new book, “Fall,” and how he had previously underestimated the dark side of social media.

If a fourth round of tariffs is imposed on goods from China, tech companies will be targeted. That means the prices of our gadgets could go up.

Forced technology transfer is hard to track. For example, there’s usually no explicit request from a Chinese official to hand over a trade secret… or else. Instead, it’s murkier, perhaps a verbal request for sensitive information behind closed doors as part of the Chinese government’s licensing or approval process.

Facebook is planning to launch a cryptocurrency in 2020. It’s called Libra, and Facebook already has a bunch of high-profile partners lined up — Uber, Spotify and, notably, big players in the payment space, like Visa, Mastercard and Paypal. The partners will jointly manage the currency through a nonprofit association. And Facebook says there’ll be a firewall of sorts between users’ finances and the social network. It won’t use financial data to improve ad targeting on Facebook. So why create a new digital wallet? And why do it with a cryptocurrency? Lisa Ellis covers payments and cryptocurrencies at the research firm MoffettNathanson. She says Facebook wants to be a commerce platform.

Marketplace Tech has been covering how technology helps us adapt to climate change through the series “How We Survive.” To start, you have to understand the problem and create smart solutions. Host Molly Wood spoke with Jeffrey Allenby, director of conservation technology at the Chesapeake Conservancy, a grantee of Microsoft’s AI for Earth program, and Lucas Joppa, head of that initiative.