Pearl Technology

08/28/2026

The van made a stop at the Peoria Zoo.

If you've got kids in this town, you've done the loop. The giraffes, the monkeys, the slow walk back to the car when someone melts down by the gift shop. It's been part of growing up here for a long time.

Not much tech to fix at the zoo. We just like being around the places central Illinois actually cares about. The network stuff is the job. This part is the fun.

Good morning to be out. What's the first animal your family sprints to when you walk in?

08/26/2026

We took two events and made them one.

Central Illinois Cyber and the AV Technology Showcase are now a single afternoon. Vendor booths, real education, keynote speakers, and the local people who actually work on this stuff.

Monday, September 28. Peoria Riverfront Museum. 12 to 6.

Booth space is limited and RSVP closes August 1. The two nervous guys in bow ties will be there either way. Save the date and come say hi.

08/25/2026

Bears fans walking into Soldier Field this season are part of a tech experiment, whether they notice it or not.

The gates are moving to AI-powered screening. The pitch is simple: walk through at a normal pace, keys and phone still in your pocket, no line snaking around the block, while the system watches for the things that actually matter.

We think this stuff is fascinating. The places we all take for granted, stadiums, airports, arenas, the concert you went to last month, are quietly some of the most advanced tech environments around. Screening systems, the networks holding them up, the data moving behind the scenes. Most fans just see the turnstile.

We notice the turnstile. Occupational hazard.

Also, go Bears.

08/24/2026

Listen as Pearl Technology's Dave Johnson discusses taking your info back from data brokers on The Greg and Dan Show.

Here are some takeaways:

Why do I constantly get spam emails and texts?

Every time you drive your car, scan your loyalty card, get on social media, or just browse the web, information about you gets scooped up and sold.

There's an entire industry built on packaging your name, your address, your phone number, even your relatives' names, and selling that file to anyone who'll pay for it.

These companies are called data brokers and there are literally hundreds of them.

Some specialize in marketing and identity.
• Acxiom – identity data on 2.5B consumers globally.
• Epsilon – purchasing history on 250+ million US consumers.

Some specialize in people-search.
• Spokeo, BeenVerified, Intelius, Whitepages, PeopleFinders, MyLife, etc.

Can you get off their lists so your data cannot be sold?
• There is no federal law requiring a data broker to delete your information.
– The FTC has gone after some brokers for selling sensitive location data without consent.
• California has DROP (Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform) but that only covers Californians.

There are several companies that will work to get your data removed for a fee. Here are some of the ones PC Magazine
recommends.
• Incogni covers ~400+ sites and is Deloitte-audited for process: $96 per year
• DeleteMe ~85 sites automated, advertises 900+: $129 per year
• Optery – 380 – 600+ sites. Provides removal screenshots: § $39 – $249 per year
• Aura ~140 sites. Full ID-theft bundle: § $144 per year
• Privacy Bee ~1,040 sites. 5-star rating from PC Magazine: § $96 – $799 per year

Scammers also get your data from breach sites on the dark web.

Data removal services do not work on these sources.

Greg and Dan talk with Dave Johnson of Pearl Technology about data brokers, what they are, and how they collect, organize, and share information about consumers. He explains how businesses use data brokers, the types of personal information that can end up in their databases, and how certain service...

08/21/2026

Nothing like a clean AV setup.

Every cable where it should be. Every screen lined up. The kind of rack you almost don't want to close the door on.

It's the bar we hold at Pearl. Conference rooms, control rooms, event spaces, built to look and run exactly like this.

Want that for your space? Give us a call.

08/19/2026

Nobody tests their backups on a good day.

You find out if they worked on the bad one. The morning a drive dies, a ransomware note shows up, or someone deletes the wrong folder at 4:59 on a Friday. That's when "we have backups" either means something or it doesn't.

Three ways businesses get caught: backups that quietly stopped running, offsite copies too slow to actually restore, and a recovery plan nobody ever tested.

Pearl Technology covers all three. Managed backup with real monitoring, offsite storage built for big restores, and a continuity plan with the runbooks and the practice runs to back it up.

The best time to find out your backup works is before you need it.

08/18/2026

Three floppy disks and a start button.

That was August 24, 1995. For a lot of us, the first computer that felt built for a regular person. My Computer, the Recycle Bin, that startup sound still stuck in your head.

The disks are gone and the machines got faster, but the thing 95 got right is still the whole job: make the tech easy enough that people forget it's there.

Happy birthday, 95. You aged well.

08/17/2026

Listen as Pearl Technology's Dave Johnson discusses flock cameras on The Greg and Dan Show.

Here are some takeaways:

Flock Safety produces & sells Automated License Plate Reader cameras
• They don’t & can’t track vehicles/individuals
• They take an image of the rear of vehicles on public roadways when a car passes within 75 ft of the camera
• Courts have uniformly held there’s no reasonable expectation of privacy on public roadways
• Most images captured aren’t used for any investigation & are permanently deleted at regular intervals, without ever having been accessed or seen by anyone

Should we automatically trust that these cameras are being used correctly?
• What specific problem are we trying to solve with the cameras?
• How long is the data retained?
• Who can search the data & for what reason?
• Who can receive or share the data?
• What happens when someone abuses it?

What else should we be worried about?
• Toll booth cameras
• Home & business doorbell/security cameras
• Cell phones
• Vehicle telematics & connected car apps
• Retail loyalty programs record everything you buy & when you bought it
• Social media platforms
• Ad-tech tracking

Public safety tools can be legitimate, but their use must be clearly defined, transparent, time-limited, secured, audited & subject to public rules; the real privacy risk isn’t simply that a camera sees a car on a public street; it’s what happens when that sighting becomes permanent, searchable, shareable & vulnerable to misuse

Hear the best of the Greg and Dan interviews each day!

08/14/2026

The van made it out to Tanners Orchard.

If you grew up around here, you know it. Apples, cider, and the donuts that somehow taste better in a paper bag in the parking lot. One of those central Illinois spots that means fall is almost here.

Our tagline is the connection that matters most. Days like this are a good reminder that a lot of that connection is just being from here, working for the people and places down the road.

Good to be out. Now settle it for us in the comments: what's the first thing you grab when you get to Tanners?