Stupid Sexy Privacy

In this bonus episode, our producer B.J. Mendelson sits down with science fiction author and journalist Cory Doctorow. This is a great chat about the current state of the Internet economy, the continuing issues we face in terms of privacy and protecting ourselves from fascists and weirdos, and what actions we can take to address these challenges.

Full show notes and transcript to come.

Support The Show

• Our Sponsor: DuckDuckGo
• *Affiliate Link: 1Password.com
• *Affiliate Link: Delete Me
• *Affiliate Link: Marshall Rosenberg's book, Non-Violent Communication
• Get Your Privacy Notebook: Get your Leuchtturm1917 Official Bullet Journal here.
• BJ’s First Privacy Book: Audible
  
  

*You don’t need to use these affiliate links. They don’t cost you anything extra to use. But. IF you do use these links, it’ll kick a couple of dollars our way to help support this project.

For more news and tips concerning maintaining your privacy and security, we recommend listening to our friends at Smashing Security.

Reserve Your Seat

BJ Mendelson and Amanda King are the authors of the upcoming book, "How to Protect Yourself From Fascists and Weirdos." They are designing an email-based course around the topics discussed in the book and on our show. So, if you want more information on how to protect yourself from fascists and weirdos, complete with step-by-step details and tutorials, we recommend reserving a seat for the course.

All you need to do is email us at [email protected] with "Privacy Course" in the subject line.

We'll make sure to let you know when this course becomes available for purchase.

Did You Know?

In this week’s book excerpt, you can hear Roger reference the big Equifax data breach. This book was written in 2017.

On February 26th, 2023, BJ got a $5 rebate from Equifax for this data breach.

You probably did too.

That’s absolutely ridiculous. And further proof that credit reporting agencies shouldn't exist.

***

Photo for today's episode provided by Mohammad Danish

Need a Privacy Audit?

We are giving away all of our tips and strategies to help protect you from fascists and weirdos FOR FREE.

But. We've found some people prefer or need a more 1-1 setting based on their situation.

So, we offer privacy audits where BJ will walk you through each step and recommendation from this show and answer any questions you may have.

You can book a Privacy Audit by emailing BJ at [email protected]. Make sure to include Privacy Audit in your subject line.

Audits cost $200 and take place over two one-on-one secure video calls via Signal. The first call will walk you through the checklist, and the second call, scheduled for a week later, will see how you're doing with the implementation and answer any remaining questions you may have.

Hi! Welcome to our educational and hopefully funny miniseries about how to protect yourself from fascists and weirdos.

Just a note before we begin that Stupid Sexy Privacy is sponsored by DuckDuckGo. So if you like the show, go check them out and let them know we sent you.

In today’s episode, comedian Rosie Tran explains why you should get a privacy notebook.

Rosie also shares the first thing you'll want to put inside your privacy notebook. Hint: It’s your master password for your password manager — 1Password or something similar, like the free, open-source equivalent KeePassXC.

For most people listening to this show, we recommend 1Password because it’s easier to use and less cumbersome than KeePassXC; however, KeePassXC is more secure because it stores everything offline.

So, if you’re more technically inclined, KeePassXC is for you. (Here’s the guide on how to set it up.)

If you can't tell your Linux from your Ubuntu, please go with 1Password.

Also in this episode: We share with you more from B.J. Mendelson's first book on privacy, "Privacy: And How We Get It Back." Roger Wayne, the narrator of the world-famous "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck," is the voice actor who narrated the audiobook.

Listen to this episode to learn:

• Why you should have a physical notebook to manage your most important passwords.
• Why you should care about who has access to your data — and what they do with it (hint: they make a lot of money while you get stalked.)
• What the end goal of all this privacy stuff is (and no, it’s not necessarily getting completely off the grid. Although, if you’re looking to do that, we can’t recommend Alaska enough.

Key Episode Takeaways

-Get a physical notebook (and spend some money on it, too): When you have a physical notebook that you’ve actually spent a bit of money on, like the Leuchtturm — it creates a bit more of a commitment because of the way our brain chemistry typically works. You made a decision to buy it. You paid money to do so. And now it’s a physical object for you to hold. All of this makes you more committed to using it, so go on, treat yourself.

-Create a 1Password account: Write down your master password in the privacy notebook. Don’t make it easy for fascists and weirdos to hack you. In most cases, big hacks occur because of bad password management. Make sure to write your new master password from 1Pass on the inside cover of your privacy notebook.

Episode Highlights

💡 Our goal is to educate & entertain so, we may sound a bit ridiculous. Some might say snarky even.

We want you to remember what we’re saying, so we will say it multiple times and in many different ways, including some which may be aggressive or hilarious. We’re trying to find an inroad into the deepest pathways of your brain and your memory so you’ll remember what we say.

💡 This is a realistic take on what data privacy can look like for all of us.

By using the Internet, intrinsically, we give up some of our data and to use so many of our favorite services a bit more. But we probably aren’t ever going to stop using them completely, and so all of this advice is given within that framework. We can minimize the amount of data being collected by doing simple things like taping over our camera and using browsers like Brave and DuckDuckGo instead of Chrome and Safari.

💡 It’s about respect and fair compensation when companies are making billions off your data

We’re beyond the point where we should be compensated for the personal data we’re sharing. In BJ’s first book, we advocated for a solution that includes something like an annual license fee or small daily payment for companies in exchange for our data.

We’ve since come around on this. While you should still be compensated for your data, what’s become more important in recent years (since the first privacy book was published) is establishing a global framework for every country to join that would regulate who gets your data, how they use it, and what your rights are concerning the elimination of that data when needed.

Once that’s in place, THEN we can talk about getting people compensated in exchange for their data.

Top Quotes

[4:51] “Just imagine how much fun Instagram would be if you didn’t have any friends on there.”

[6:50] “What makes this book compelling and unique among other books on privacy is that it deals exclusively with things that are entirely within our power to fix. That is, deal...

Dr. John Gartner sits down with our producer, B.J. Mendelson, to discuss how to combat cults. This is important to hear because fascists are just cults with guns. So let's hear from the expert on what to look out for, how to deal with the cults, and what to do if you find yourself dealing with one.

Support The Show

• Our Sponsor: DuckDuckGo
• *Affiliate Link: 1Password.com
• *Affiliate Link: Delete Me
• *Affiliate Link: Marshall Rosenberg's book, Non-Violent Communication
• Get Your Privacy Notebook: Get your Leuchtturm1917 Official Bullet Journal here.
• BJ’s First Privacy Book: Audible
  
  

*You don’t need to use these affiliate links. They don’t cost you anything extra to use. But. IF you do use these links, it’ll kick a couple of dollars our way to help support this project.

For more news and tips concerning maintaining your privacy and security, we recommend listening to our friends at Smashing Security.

Reserve Your Seat

BJ Mendelson and Amanda King are the authors of the upcoming book, "How to Protect Yourself From Fascists and Weirdos." They are designing an email-based course around the topics discussed in the book and on our show. So, if you want more information on how to protect yourself from fascists and weirdos, complete with step-by-step details and tutorials, we recommend reserving a seat for the course.

All you need to do is email us at [email protected] with "Privacy Course" in the subject line.

We'll make sure to let you know when this course becomes available for purchase.

Did You Know?

In this week’s book excerpt, you can hear Roger reference the big Equifax data breach. This book was written in 2017.

On February 26th, 2023, BJ got a $5 rebate from Equifax for this data breach.

You probably did too.

That’s absolutely ridiculous. And further proof that credit reporting agencies shouldn't exist.

***

Photo for today's episode provided by Mohammad Danish

Need a Privacy Audit?

We are giving away all of our tips and strategies to help protect you from fascists and weirdos FOR FREE.

But. We've found some people prefer or need a more 1-1 setting based on their situation.

So, we offer privacy audits where BJ will walk you through each step and recommendation from this show and answer any questions you may have.

You can book a Privacy Audit by emailing BJ at [email protected]. Make sure to include Privacy Audit in your subject line.

Audits cost $200 and take place over two one-on-one secure video calls via Signal. The first call will walk you through the checklist, and the second call, scheduled for a week later, will see how you're doing with the implementation and answer any remaining questions you may have.

The "Cloud" has a bigger carbon footprint than the entire airline industry. It's also not secure. So if someone wants to mess with you, or worse, blackmail you after accessing your iCloud, GDrive, or Dropbox data? They absolutely can. Instead, we want you to go old school. So this week, Rosie explains why you want to get a nice external hard drive, encrypt a folder or the entire drive, and save your stuff there.

Resources Mentioned In Today’s Show
-Veracrypt (Wired's article on how to use it)
-Toshiba Canvio Flex External HD (Portable)
-Seagate Backup Plus Hub External HD (NOT portable. This drive needs to be plugged in.)
-Tresorit-ProtonDrive (comes with a ProtonMail account, which we recommended here in a previous episode.)
TP Link AX3000 Router-Additional Steps on how to secure your router.

Also In This Episode ...

This episode also contains the last part of BJ's first book on privacy — written back in 2017 — as read by Broadway actor Roger Wayne. After this week, every remaining episode will include an interview with a privacy and security expert!

Our Sponsor: DuckDuckGo

Affiliate Link: 1Password.com

Get Your Privacy Notebook: Get your Leuchtturm1917 Official Bullet Journal here.

And before we go ...

Thanks to the interview in Slate, we're overwhelmed with requests for Privacy Audits.

So!

We want to let you know BJ and Amanda are recording a two-hour video course that you can purchase.

The course will include every step from the privacy audit and examples of how to put those steps into practice.

If you'd like to know when the course is available, email BJ at [email protected] with Privacy Course in the subject line.

Photo Credit: Karolina Grabowska

We're taking a short break here at Stupid Sexy Privacy. We'll return Thursday, May 4th, with our final four episodes.

But we didn't want to leave you empty-handed.

Today, Amanda King (co-author of "How to Protect Your From Fascists & Weirdos") talks with Professor Uri Gal. Uri is a professor of Business Information Systems at The University of Sydney.

In this bonus episode, Amanda talks with Professor Gal about the real challenges and ethical issues surrounding the use of Generative AI (or as we call them, Exploitative AI) software.

It's not your job you need to worry about. Generative AI produces C-level work, at best, and almost all of that work is stolen/plagiarized from other people's work without their permission or consent. The real threat is what happens when you flood the entire Internet with BS, to the point where people can't tell up from down anymore and don't trust each other.

That's an Avengers-level problem, and one we need to solve immediately since ... You know, the Avengers aren't real. But the threat of Generative AI is.

Support Stupid Sexy Privacy:

• Visit Our Sponsor: DuckDuckGo
• *Affiliate Link: 1Password.com
• *Affiliate Link: Delete Me
• *Affiliate Link: Marshall Rosenberg's book, Non-Violent Communication
• Get Your Privacy Notebook: Get your Leuchtturm1917 Official Bullet Journal here.
• BJ’s First Privacy Book: Audible**

We recommend listening to our friends at Smashing Security for more news and tips concerning how to maintain your privacy and security after this miniseries concludes.

*You don’t need to use the affiliate links above. They don’t cost you anything extra. But. If you do use these links, it’ll kick a couple of dollars our way to help support this project.

**BJ's first book on privacy, "The End of Privacy" is badly dated in a few sections; however, it's still very funny and the rest of the book is still (sadly) current. We've included most of the book, for free, in this podcast miniseries. If you'd like to buy the unabridged version, you can do so here.

Reserve Your Seat For Our Privacy Course

BJ Mendelson and Amanda King are the authors of the upcoming book, "How to Protect Yourself From Fascists and Weirdos." They are designing an online video-based course around the topics discussed in the book and on this show. So, if you want more information on how to protect yourself from fascists and weirdos, complete with step-by-step details and tutorials, we recommend reserving a seat for the course.

All you need to do is email us at [email protected] with "Privacy Course" in the subject line.

We'll make sure to let you know when this on-demand course becomes available for purchase.

Photo by Kindel Media: https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-and-blue-robot-toy-on-blue-string-lights-8566467/