TWiT 1068: Toto's Electrostatic Chuck - Is TikTok's New Privacy Policy Cause for Alarm?

35 snips

Jan 26, 2026

Guest

Doc Rock

Doc Rock, YouTuber and strategic partnerships lead with social-media anecdotes. Patrick Beja, Paris-based podcaster, offers a European policy lens. Alex Stamos, security and AI expert, brings deep cybersecurity analysis. They debate TikTok's alarming privacy wording, Microsoft's BitLocker key practices, Europe's tech contingency plans, AI-driven bug noise, gambling's impact on news, and internet routing and credential leaks.

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INSIGHT

Prediction Markets Are Reshaping News

Prediction markets and betting on news are exploding into mainstream finance and media influence.
Alex Stamos warns these markets can incentivize manipulation of individual actors and distort news coverage.

INSIGHT

Prop Bets Create Massive Manipulation Risk

Prop bets on single-person actions create enormous opportunities for fraud and manipulation.
Alex Stamos says such bets are highly gameable and should concern regulators and platforms.

ADVICE

Rely On Paper Ballots And Audits

Trust paper ballots and risk-limiting audits: they make large-scale vote tampering extremely difficult.
Alex Stamos reassures that stealing a U.S. election is effectively impossible under current audited processes.

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Microsoft quietly hands over BitLocker keys to the government, TikTok's new privacy terms spark a user panic, and Europe's secret tech backups reveal anxious prep for digital fallout. Plus, how gambling platforms are changing the future of news and sports.

You can bet on how much snow will fall in New York City this weekend
Europe Prepares for a Nightmare Scenario: The U.S. Blocking Access to Tech
China, US sign off on TikTok US spinoff
TikTok users freak out over app's 'immigration status' collection -- here's what it means
Elon Musk's Grok A.I. Chatbot Made Millions of Sexualized Images, New Estimates Show
Microsoft Gave FBI Keys To Unlock Encrypted Data, Exposing Major Privacy Flaw - Forbes
House of Lords votes to ban social media for Brits under 16
Overrun with AI slop, cURL scraps bug bounties to ensure "intact mental health"
Route leak incident on January 22, 2026
149 Million Usernames and Passwords Exposed by Unsecured Database
Millions of people imperiled through sign-in links sent by SMS
Anthropic revises Claude's 'Constitution,' and hints at chatbot consciousness
The new Siri chatbot may run on Google servers, not Apple's
A Wikipedia Group Made a Guide to Detect AI Writing. Now a Plug-In Uses It to 'Humanize' Chatbots
GitHub - anthropics/original_performance_takehome: Anthropic's original performance take-home, now open for you to try!
Telly's "free" ad-based TVs make notable revenue—when they're actually delivered - Ars Technica
Toilet Maker Toto's Shares Get Unlikely Boost From AI Rush - Slashdot
Dr. Gladys West, whose mathematical models inspired GPS, dies at 95

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Alex Stamos, Doc Rock, and Patrick Beja

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