Exploring the impact of mass surveillance on privacy and democracy, author Byron Tau discusses the revealing data collected by online marketers and agencies without warrants. Delve into how tech companies profit from data and the rise of gray data for surveillance purposes, along with government secrecy in surveillance techniques and lobbying efforts for privacy laws. Learn practical tips for protecting privacy online in a data-driven world.

Topics discussed include the importance of backing up cloud data, 23andMe data breach investigation, misuse of surveillance data, hacking incident at a location tracking company, privacy concerns in insurance rates, Microsoft Windows Recall security concerns, lack of transparency in a popular Mac app ownership change, and new privacy features by Apple.

Encrypted communications are important for everyone, even if you have nothing to hide. But they're also important when you're trying to hide global criminal operations. Drug smugglers and money launderers have special needs when it comes to secure messaging. Several phone companies were created to address this market. Unfortunately for the criminals, the most popular one - Anom - was secretly run by the FBI. Today Joseph Cox from 404 Media will tell us about this astoundingly audacious sting operation, which is the basis for his book, Dark Wire. Interview Notes Order Dark Wire: https://a.co/d/h9o7ump Anom website (right before take down): https://web.archive.org/web/20210507151115/http://anom.io/  Phantom Secure website (circa 2017): https://web.archive.org/web/20170330122723/http://phantomsecure.com/  Vice Anom story: https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7b4gg/anom-phone-arcaneos-fbi-backdoor  Anom phone video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA1KS-xh0n0  Operation Trojan Shield: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Trojan_Shield  Trojan Shield press conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S89O0nis_ss  Encrochat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EncroChat  Further Info Send me your questions! https://fdsd.me/qna  Check out my book, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: https://fdsd.me/book  Subscribe to the newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter  Become a patron! https://www.patreon.com/FirewallsDontStopDragons  Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch  Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons  Support our mission! https://fdsd.me/support  Generate secure passphrases! https://d20key.com/#/  Table of Contents Use these timestamps to jump to a particular section of the show. 0:00:54: Migrating to Mastodon 0:02:24: Embracing the dark... mode 0:02:45: Countdown to 400 0:03:28: Interview setup 0:04:30: How did this all start with you on an obscure forum for criminals? 0:08:34: What was Operation Trojan Shield? 0:10:49: How did the FBI start a secure phone company? 0:12:41: What were some of Anom's key tech features? 0:15:26: Where did they get the Arcane Operating System? 0:17:56: How did the 'duress' feature work? 0:20:18: How did Anom copy encrypted messages without being detected? 0:24:35: How were these phones marketed to criminals? 0:28:10: What does these phones cost? 0:30:09: What were the legal aspects for this multi-national operation? 0:34:49: How did they use this intelligence without revealing the source? 0:39:38: Did the criminals ever suspect the phones? 0:42:04: How did this all come to an end? 0:46:14: So, are we 'going dark' or not? 0:49:27: What lessons did the FBI take away from all this? 0:51:36: Can we still trust things like Signal and Proton? 0:55:39: What's your next big story or book? 0:58:09: Interview end notes 1:03:12: Looking ahead

Explore Ticketmaster hack, iOS photo bug, ChatGPT4 exploits. Learn about Apple & Google tracking, police devices, & Windows 11 features. Discover Google's Android privacy updates. Embrace Mastodon for better social media experience.

Delve into the world of privacy with Naomi Brockwell as she uncovers hidden surveillance, advocates for privacy tools like Signal and ProtonMail, and calls for a cultural shift towards respecting privacy. Learn how to opt-out of data collection and explore the importance of privacy choices in a digital age.

Security experts discuss the importance of choosing a good PIN code. In the news: data breaches, router exploits, macOS malware, healthcare cyberattack, and data privacy laws passed. Learn about patterns in PIN codes, cybersecurity incidents, IoT security risks, Mac malware protection, email service privacy challenges, VPN security, and new iOS anti-stalking feature.

Russia has been hacking Ukraine for at least a decade now, but since the invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, the cyber war has changed. Instead of being a tactical element, cyber war is now a full-fledged strategic aspect of the conflict, on both sides. At the outset, Ukraine put out an official call to enlist cyber warriors from around the globe to their cause in what's been called the IT Army of Ukraine. Today we'll look at how this group was formed, how it operates, and what we should all be learning from what's happening there. My guest is Dina Temple-Raston from The Record, the Click Here Podcast, and formerly NPR. Interview Notes Dina Temple-Raston at The Record: https://therecord.media/author/dina-temple-raston  Click Here podcast: https://therecord.media/podcast  Click Here, Episode 98: “Lessons from the world's first hybrid war”: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/click-here/id1225077306?i=1000639045741  NPR’s I’ll Be Seeing You: https://www.npr.org/series/760566025/ill-be-seeing-you  Operation Glowing Symphony: https://www.npr.org/2019/09/26/763545811/how-the-u-s-hacked-isis  Further Info Send me your questions! https://fdsd.me/qna  Check out my book, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: https://fdsd.me/book  Subscribe to the newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter  Become a patron! https://www.patreon.com/FirewallsDontStopDragons  Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch  Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons  Support our mission! https://fdsd.me/support  Generate secure passphrases! https://d20key.com/#/  Table of Contents Use these timestamps to jump to a particular section of the show. 0:04:50: How did you get into covering cybersecurity and cyber warfare? 0:06:48: When and how did Russian cyber attacks begin in Ukraine? 0:15:40: What is the IT Army of Ukraine and what is its origin? 0:20:47: Have we seen other cyberwar volunteer organizations? 0:23:05: How are information and communications being utilized by the IT Army? 0:26:53: How has Russia responded to this? 0:28:34: How are IT Army members recruited and vetted? 0:30:17: How are objectives coordinated? 0:31:20: Where are IT Army members coming from? 0:32:03: Do we know if Western military members are participating in the IT Army? 0:36:30: What are the military lessons to be learned here? 0:42:11: What should civilians be learning from all of this? 0:46:01: What's next for you and Click Here? 0:47:14: Wrap-up and looking ahead

Google's Chrome browser has dominated the planet - both on desktop computers and mobile devices. Furthermore, many other popular web browsers are actually based on the same Google-made Chromium browser engine, including Microsoft Edge and Brave Browser. This gives Google an inordinate amount of influence on web standards, in particular preventing better privacy protections. We need to support privacy-forward alternatives lest they disappear. In other news: US passes expanded mass surveillance policies instead of curbing them; TikTok ban bill becomes law giving Bytedance a year to sell it; UK's Investigatory Powers Bill amendment passes; photo-sharing app will use users' uploaded images to train AI; Health insurers Kaiser and Change Healthcare are hacked; antivirus software service installs malware on user's systems; FCC fines telecom's $200M; CISA director pushes for vendor accountability; CISA's proactive protection programs are making positive impacts; UK becomes first country to enforce strong and strict IoT security requirements; net neutrality is back; Google again delays killing third party cookies. Article Links [Electronic Frontier Foundation] U.S. Senate and Biden Administration Shamefully Renew and Expand FISA Section 702, Ushering in a Two Year Expansion of Unconstitutional Mass Surveillance https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/04/us-senate-and-biden-administration-shamefully-renew-and-expand-fisa-section-702-0 [TechCrunch] Biden signs bill that would ban TikTok if ByteDance fails to sell the app https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/24/biden-signs-bill-that-would-ban-tiktok-if-bytedance-fails-to-sell-the-app/ [theregister.com] UK's Investigatory Powers Bill to become law despite tech world opposition https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/26/investigatory_powers_bill/ [TechCrunch] Photo-sharing community EyeEm will license users photos to train AI if they don’t delete them https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/26/photo-sharing-community-eyeem-will-license-users-photos-to-train-ai-if-they-dont-delete-them/ [TechCrunch] Health insurance giant Kaiser notifies millions of a data breach https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/25/kaiser-permanente-health-plan-millions-data-breach/ [TechCrunch] Change Healthcare hackers broke in using stolen credentials — and no MFA, says UHG CEO https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/30/uhg-change-healthcare-ransomware-compromised-credentials-mfa/ [Ars Technica] Hackers infect users of antivirus service that delivered updates over HTTP https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/04/hackers-infect-users-of-antivirus-service-that-delivered-updates-over-http/ [BleepingComputer] FCC fines carriers $200 million for illegally sharing user location https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/fcc-fines-carriers-200-million-for-illegally-sharing-user-location/ [cybersecuritydive.com] CISA director pushes for vendor accountability and less emphasis on victims’ errors https://www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/cisa-highlights-vendors-errors/714300/ [therecord.media] More than 800 vulnerabilities resolved through CISA ransomware notification pilot https://therecord.media/vulnerabilities-resolved-through-cisa-pilot [therecord.media] UK becomes first country to ban default bad passwords on IoT devices https://therecord.media/united-kingdom-bans-defalt-passwords-iot-devices [WIRED] Net Neutrality Returns to a Very Different Internet https://www.wired.com/story/fcc-net-neutrality-rules-vote/ [Ars Technica] Google delays third-party cookie death again: Now scheduled for 2025 https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/google-delays-third-party-cookie-death-again-now-scheduled-for-2025/ Tip of the Week: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/its-time-to-quit-chrome/  Further Info Under New Management plugin: https://github.com/classvsoftware/under-new-management  Donate to Mozilla (Firefox): https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/donate/  Send me your questions! https://fdsd.me/qna

AI has been grabbing all the tech headlines, but cryptocurrency is still innovating and changing. One of the primary goals of cryptocurrency was to be decentralized and therefore not controlled by governments like fiat currency. That is about to change. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is a new type of cryptocurrency that is created and governed by nation states, which comes with serious implications for privacy and global economics. Thankfully I've got cryptocurrency expert Seth for Privacy on the show to explain how CBDC works and how it will affect us. Interview Notes Opt Out Podcast: https://optoutpod.com/  Freedom.Tech: https://freedom.tech/  Foundation.xyz: https://foundation.xyz/  CBDC tracker: https://cbdctracker.hrf.org/home  Buying Monero: https://freedom.tech/buying-monero-privately/ Samourai Wallet 1: https://freedom.tech/how-samourai-worked/  Samourai Wallet 2: https://freedom.tech/samourai-to-sparrow/ Cryptocurrency 101 interview: https://podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2022/06/06/cryptocurrency-101/  Further Info Treasure & Coin Promo: https://fdsd.me/promo424  Send me your questions! https://fdsd.me/qna  Check out my book, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: https://fdsd.me/book  Subscribe to the newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter  Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch  Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons  Support our mission! https://fdsd.me/support  Generate secure passphrases! https://d20key.com/#/  Table of Contents Use these timestamps to jump to a particular section of the show. 0:00:30: Promo update 0:01:42: News preview 0:04:34: AT&T now says over 50M accounts were compromised 0:11:37: Apple password reset notification attack 0:16:04: Outlook is Microsoft’s new data collection service 0:22:40: Kobold letters 0:29:27: Backdoor in XZ Utils That Almost Happene 0:39:42: OpenAI and Google reportedly used transcriptions of YouTube videos to train their AI models 0:45:57: How to Turn Off Meta AI on their various apps 0:49:07: Vulnerabilities Identified in LG WebOS 0:52:14: Roku Says More Than 500,000 Accounts Were Compromised 0:56:05: X May Charge New Users a 'Small Fee' to Post, Like and Reply 1:00:04: DuckDuckGo Is Taking Its Privacy Fight to Data Brokers 1:04:19: Google Launches Android Find My Device Network 1:07:29: The CFPB wants to rein in data brokers 1:12:23: Tip of the Week: Freeze Your Credit 1:18:05: Wrap-up 1:19:06: Looking ahead

You've heard people like me recommend this for years. It's time to just do it: freeze your credit report. There are really no downsides at this point. For example, it's now free everywhere in the US, by law. It's also free to temporarily "thaw" your credit. And it's gotten a lot easier to do, too. Freezing your credit is your main defense against financial identity theft. And with the sheer number of data breaches (like the recent massive AT&T leak), the personal information needed to commit identity theft is out there already. In other news: AT&T now says 51 million past and current customers' data were leaked; beware of a new password reset 'bomb' campaign; Microsoft is using Outlook to harvest and share your data; a new email scam alters their content after forwarding; a devious and devastating supply chain attack was thwarted in the nick of time; AI organizations are using sneaky techniques to train their models on your data; Meta is lacing its apps with AI, and there's not much you can do about it; LG TVs are hacked; Roku is breached again, this time affecting over 500,000 accounts; Twitter/X looking to charge new users a small fee to try to curb bot accounts; DuckDuckGo unveils trio of new for-pay privacy services; Google launches their own Find My network; and various US government agencies, lacking a real privacy law, attempt to curb privacy abuses using existing powers. Article Links [BleepingComputer] AT&T now says data breach impacted 51 million customers https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/att-now-says-data-breach-impacted-51-million-customers/ [AppleInsider] If you're getting dozens of password reset notifications, you're being attacked https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/03/27/if-youre-getting-dozens-of-password-reset-notifications-youre-being-attacked [proton.me] Outlook is Microsoft’s new data collection service https://proton.me/blog/outlook-is-microsofts-new-data-collection-service [Lutra Security] Kobold letters https://lutrasecurity.com/en/articles/kobold-letters/ [Schneier Blog] Backdoor in XZ Utils That Almost Happened https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/04/backdoor-in-xz-utils-that-almost-happened.html [Engadget] OpenAI and Google reportedly used transcriptions of YouTube videos to train their AI models https://www.engadget.com/openai-and-google-reportedly-used-transcriptions-of-youtube-videos-to-train-their-ai-models-163531073.html [Lifehacker] How to Turn Off Meta AI on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp https://lifehacker.com/tech/how-to-turn-off-meta-ai-on-facebook-instagram-messenger-whatsapp [bitdefender.com] Vulnerabilities Identified in LG WebOS https://www.bitdefender.com/blog/labs/vulnerabilities-identified-in-lg-webos/ [Lifehacker] Roku Says More Than 500,000 Accounts Were Compromised in a Cyberattack https://lifehacker.com/tech/roku-cyberattack-compromises-accounts [MacRumors] X May Charge New Users a 'Small Fee' to Post, Like and Reply https://www.macrumors.com/2024/04/15/x-small-fee-new-users/ [WIRED] DuckDuckGo Is Taking Its Privacy Fight to Data Brokers https://www.wired.com/story/duckduckgo-vpn-data-removal-tool-privacy-pro/ [MacRumors] Google Launches Android Find My Device Network https://www.macrumors.com/2024/04/08/google-android-find-my-device-network-2/ [ftc.gov] Proposed FTC Order will Prohibit Telehealth Firm from Using or Disclosing Sensitive Data for Advertising Purposes https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/proposed-ftc-order-will-prohibit-telehealth-firm-cerebral-using-or-disclosing-sensitive-data [The Verge] The CFPB wants to rein in data brokers https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/15/24131354/cfpb-data-brokers-fair-credit-reporting-act [therecord.media] Automakers and FCC square off over potential regulations for connected cars https://therecord.media/fcc-automakers-connected-cars-regulation-mvnos Tip of the Week: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.