This Week in Tech (Audio) TWiT 1061: Amy's Crazy Husband - Can One Build a Truly Anonymous Laptop?
41 snips
Dec 8, 2025 
Kathy Gellis, a tech policy attorney, discusses a significant Supreme Court copyright case that questions internet provider liability. Futurist Amy Webb explores the implications of AI and privacy legislation, while her husband, Brian Wolf, shares his unique experiment in building an anonymous laptop using clever techniques like VPNs and cash purchases. They also delve into FDA-approved glasses designed to combat nearsightedness in children, while analyzing the cultural and technological challenges posed by age verification laws.
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Bring First Amendment Claims Front And Center
- Raise First Amendment arguments when platform liability threatens user expression.
- Kathy advises litigants and courts to foreground speech harms, not only tort doctrines.
Age Verification Risks Mass Surveillance
- Age-verification bills expand beyond porn into consumer goods, threatening privacy and anonymity.
- Kathy and Leo note such schemes create mass data collection and could push lawmakers to ban tools like VPNs.
Practical Steps For A Stealth Laptop
- Brian Wolf built a laptop designed to avoid attribution by masking connectivity and onboarding anonymously.
- The experiment highlights practical anonymity techniques but also the limits and legal risks of erasing upstream identity links.
