📆 Tuesday, October 28, 2025 — 18 Days Left
Tech 101 — The JSON Data Format
Understanding the JSON data format is key to understanding how a database exported to a single, flattened CSV file is data destruction.
JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation (pronounced JAY-son). It is the gold standard for storing, sending, and moving data.
Douglas Crockford, a software engineer, began development of JSON in 2001. It was designed as a lightweight, human-readable alternative to XML (the standard file format at that time) that allows servers and web applications to communicate seamlessly.
Today, JSON is the foundational standard for data interchange across the modern internet. It is used literally everywhere, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cloudflare, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.
JSON runs modern phone networks at AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Twilio. It also powers everyday services like Apple’s App Store and iCloud.
An Example of the JSON Data Format
{ "format_name": "JSON", "stands_for": "JavaScript Object Notation", "industry_status": "Universally accepted gold standard", "used_for": [ "data storage", "transmission", "portability" ], "history": { "invented_by": "Douglas Crockford", "development_began": 2001, "purpose": "Lightweight, human-readable data format" }, "usage": "Literally everywhere", "examples_of_use": { "internet_infrastructure": [ "Amazon Web Services (AWS)", "Cloudflare", "Google Cloud", "Microsoft Azure" ], "telecommunications": [ "AT&T", "Verizon", "T-Mobile", "Twilio" ], "apple_services": [ "App Store", "iCloud" ] }}If you understand that, congratulations! You can read a JSON file.
JSON in Everyday Life
Examples of JSON at work in everyday life are ubiquitous. If the internet is involved, you can bet JSON is at the core.
Two everyday examples right in your hand are Weather.com and Apple Wallet. From live forecasts to mobile boarding passes and event tickets, the data arrives and displays cleanly on your screen using JSON.
The Follow Up Boss 2-Click, In-Full Download
I start working on retrieving Jean Scott Homes’ IP, referencing the following resources.
Follow Up Boss FAQ
Am I locked into a contract? Who owns my data?
You own your data, with the click of two buttons you can export it in full any time you need.
Source: Follow Up Boss FAQ — Undated, Captured May 11, 2022 by Archive.org
Follow Up Boss Support Email
Your data and your customers’ data remains protected. You can download your data before closing your account, and if your account wasn’t closed for policy or payment issues, you can email support within 30 days for help retrieving your contact list.
and,
Export Your Contacts: We can provide you with a backup of all your important contacts.
Source: 📧 Follow Up Boss Support Email Thread — Oct. 21–23, 2025 (on file)
Note: 📒 This email thread is covered in Chapter 5.
This is not even close to a 2-click, in-full download or a backup of Jean Scott Homes’ IP. It is an unmitigated mess.
The 2-Click Download Dumpster File
The 2-click, in-full download generates a single CSV file (a plain text file that stores data in rows and columns). That file contains:
- 32 separate folders of data (recovered later using the Follow Up Boss API. covered in Chapter 7 ), each analogous to its own CSV file, crushed into one. Whatever did not fit was left on the cutting room floor.
- 23,875 rows. Nearly every row is the data of one household. 1,965 households include a second person, such as a spouse or family member.
- 431 columns. Each column is a data field, such as name, address, and phone number. Most are superfluous, containing little or no data.
- 10,290,125 individual data fields (23,875 rows × 431 columns).
The CSV file contains a fraction of Jean Scott Homes’ IP. Data in many columns, such as call records, transcripts, summaries, text messages, and notes, has been almost entirely excluded from the download.
The data that Zillow did provide, including the contact list, is badly damaged. It is stripped of its JSON data format and unreadable by a modern data center.
50 Text Messages Stripped of JSON Formatting
Looking ahead to the final 2-click download on Nov. 16, 2025, I find a representative contact record containing 50 text messages from Sept. 8 through Nov. 6, 2025. There are 15,509 characters in one cell, MA74. It is a wall of text with no structure.
Source: 📥 Data Destruction in the 2-Click Download
Note: 📒 The contents of cell MA74 are provided here in PDF format. Personally identifiable information is [redacted]. Character count may be marginally different.
The Rest are Missing
For this contact, every text message prior to Sept. 8, 2025, and every image is excluded. Across the database, the download keeps only the last 50 text messages per contact. Hand-typed notes and call records are similarly destroyed or excluded from the download.
Call recordings, transcripts, summaries, documents attached to contact records, real estate transaction records, and related documents are all excluded from the 2-click, in-full download.
More Data Destruction
The CSV file breaks its pattern in three places. Three contact records shatter into 143 fragment rows, in blocks of 22, 32, and 89 rows, and the fragments no longer line up with the columns.
Source: 📥 Data Spillover in the 2-Click Download
Note: 📒 The PDF file provided is a true representative sample of the original source CSV file. Edits were made to protect personally identifiable information.
The Database is the New Library
Everything that used to be a physical library is stored in a modern data center database. The vinyl record library is an Apple Music playlist, the public library can be found on Amazon’s Kindle, and that old VHS tape library streams on Netflix.
Think of Jean Scott Homes’ database as its library. This 2-click download operation copies some of the library’s contents, runs much of it through a shredder, throws everything into file boxes, then into the dumpster out back.
The dumpster is the CSV file that I am provided.
The 2-Click, In-Full Data Download, Microsoft Version
There is over a terabyte of Jean Scott Homes’ IP — listing photos and video, operational documents, and archives — stored in Microsoft SharePoint libraries. I can right-click on a library’s folder, left-click “Always keep on this device,” and come back later to a true, in-full download.
Just as easily, the IP can be migrated to iCloud or Google Drive. Microsoft Word documents open in Apple Pages and Google Docs.
Copy and Paste Works on AWS
Tech 101 — PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL is an open-source database system with nearly 40 years of active development. Postgres runs on AWS.
Postgres has a native operation that can capture an exact replica of a library and miniaturize it for easy shipping — copy and compress. The next data center imports the minilibrary and reverses the operation. The two libraries are identical twins.
Postgres does not have an operation that copies some of the library’s contents, runs much of it through a shredder, throws everything into file boxes, then into the dumpster out back. That requires custom software.
I Contact Follow Up Boss Support
I email Follow Up Boss support requesting the download in JSON data format.
Follow Up Boss Support Responds
The Follow Up Boss export supports CSV only; we don’t have a JSON export option.
I Contact “Google Support”
A Google search for “Follow Up Boss JSON file format” brings up “Follow Up Boss Open API” as a top result.
Follow Up Boss provides a simple REST API that allows developers to integrate their applications quickly
Source: 🛜 Follow Up Boss Open API
The REST API is an industry-standard API that computer systems use to communicate and share data. The data format is, of course, JSON.
📆 Wednesday, October 29, 2025 — 17 Days Left
Marc Benioff, Salesforce CEO, has built my trust in his appearances on CNBC since 2009. The company’s stated values line up with Jean Scott Homes’. They include:
Trust is our #1 value. We build trust throughout our ecosystem by leading with ethics and the responsible design and development of our platform. We are dedicated to security, availability, transparency, deep listening, and delivering on our commitments.
Source: 🛜 Our values guide every decision — Salesforce
I sign a two-year contract with Salesforce for Jean Scott Homes’ CRM. I will be working on the setup and data migration over the coming weeks.
I start working on the REST API to retrieve Jean Scott Homes’ IP.
📆 Saturday, November 1, 2025 — 14 Days Left
I sign a contract with Twilio for Jean Scott Homes’ phone service.
Article text and tables licensed under CC BY 4.0. Source documents belong to their owners.
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