Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the Big Tech buzzword of the day. Every company who wants investment (public or private) is scrambling to have an "AI story", adding chatbots and 'agentic' features in their products wherever possible. The AI companies themselves are constantly expanding their models, ingesting as much data (including highly personal information) as possible. In this AI gold rush, companies are making flawed and often harmful products. Companies are firing workers and trying to replace them with AI bots. And it's forcing us all to question what's real, what has actual value, and what the impacts could and should be on society as a whole. Discussing deep questions like this is the purview of philosophers - and today I'll be welcoming back someone uniquely and supremely qualified to address them, Carissa Véliz.
Interview Notes
Carissa Véliz: https://www.carissaveliz.com/
Privacy is Power: https://www.carissaveliz.com/books
Carissa’s research: https://www.carissaveliz.com/research
Moral Zombies: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00146-021-01189-x
ChatGPT suicide: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/technology/chatgpt-openai-suicide.html
TESCREAL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TESCREAL
John Oliver on AI Slop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWpg1RmzAbc
Proton Lumo: https://proton.me/blog/lumo-ai
EU’s “public good” LLM: https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2025/07/a-language-model-built-for-the-public-good.html
Further Info
My book: https://fdsd.me/book
My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter
Support the mission: https://fdsd.me/support
Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons
Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch
Table of Contents
0:00:00: Intro
0:05:09: What does "artifical intelligence" really mean?
0:13:21: Should STEM degrees require ethics training?
0:17:20: Does anthropomorphising AI undermine our discourse?
0:22:35: What is the TESCREAL view of AI?
0:28:09: Can we infuse AI tools with human morality?
0:34:31: What are the dangers of training AI on copyrighted works?
0:42:16: What happens when AI starts ingesting it's own output?
0:44:27: Can we make AI systems that are truly private?
0:48:08: How should we assign liability for AI harms?
0:51:06: Is AI eroding our ability to trust anything?
0:54:06: What happens when AI obviates the need to work at all?
1:00:00: How do we maximize the benefits and minimize the harms of AI?
1:03:20: Interview wrap-up
1:06:06: Patron podcast preview
1:07:08: Looking ahead
--------
1:08:08
--------
1:08:08
Find Old Accounts (Part 1)
The next step in reducing our digital footprint is to identify all of our online accounts, including the long forgotten and unused ones. The easiest place to start is by using the tool we should already have: our password manager. By its very nature, it contains a list of all our accounts. You may have used your browser to remember your passwords, or you may have some other method... but it's time to move to a real password manager.
In other news: update your Android devices ASAP; Android malware spreading via Facebook ads; Google to make it harder to sideload Android apps; dashcam company cloud storage hacked; Anthropic to train model based on your chats; OpenAI sharing some GPT chats with law enforcement; ChatGPT getting parental controls after teen suicide; Microsoft Word will auto-save to OneDrive; Chrome VPN extension caught taking screenshots of sites you visit; US tells BigTech not to comply with DSA; and Flock pauses work with federal agencies.
Article Links
This Android Malware Is Spreading Through Facebook Ads https://lifehacker.com/tech/this-android-malware-is-spreading-using-meta-ads
Android Is Making It More Difficult to Sideload Apps https://lifehacker.com/tech/android-is-making-it-more-difficult-to-sideload-apps
This Company Turns Dashcams into ‘Virtual CCTV Cameras.’ Then Hackers Got In https://www.404media.co/this-company-turns-dashcams-into-virtual-cctv-cameras-then-hackers-got-in/
Anthropic will start training its AI models on chat transcripts https://www.theverge.com/anthropic/767507/anthropic-user-data-consumers-ai-models-training-privacy
People Are Furious That OpenAI Is Reporting ChatGPT Conversations to Law Enforcement https://futurism.com/people-furious-openai-reporting-police
OpenAI announces parental controls for ChatGPT after teen suicide lawsuit https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/09/openai-announces-parental-controls-for-chatgpt-after-teen-suicide-lawsuit/
Microsoft Word now autosaves to OneDrive. Is your data safe? https://proton.me/blog/microsoft-word-autosave-onedrive-default
Chrome VPN Extension With 100k Installs Screenshots All Sites Users Visit https://cyberinsider.com/chrome-vpn-extension-with-100k-installs-screenshots-all-sites-users-visit/
Big Tech Companies in the US Have Been Told Not to Apply the Digital Services Act https://www.wired.com/story/big-tech-companies-in-the-us-have-been-told-not-to-apply-the-digital-services-act/
License-plate reader company pauses work with federal agencies after backlash https://therecord.media/flock-license-plate-reader-pauses-federal-work
Tip of the Week: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/find-old-accounts-part-1/
Further Info
Nexar CityStream live: https://livefeed.getnexar.com
My book: https://fdsd.me/book
My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter
Become a patron! https://fdsd.me/patron/
Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons
Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch
Table of Contents
0:00:00: Intro
0:01:10: Update your Android devices
0:01:41: News preview
0:03:38: Android malware spread via Facebook ads
0:06:49: Android is making it harder to sideload apps
0:12:16: "Virtual CCTV" dashcam company is hacked
0:18:01: Anthropic to train AI based on your chats
0:22:33: OpenAI sharing some GPT chats with law enforcement
0:26:46: OpenAI accounces parental controls after teen suicide
0:33:41: Microsoft Word now autosaves to OneDrive
0:40:36: Chrome VPN extension screenshots sites you visit
0:45:18: US tells BigTech not to comply with DSA
0:51:08: Flock pauses work with federal agencies
0:53:38: Tip of the Week
1:01:22: Patron podcast preview
1:01:55: Looking ahead
--------
1:03:24
--------
1:03:24
Meet Rayhunter
We take our cell phones with us everywhere - which makes them the perfect tracking device. Just walking around with your device will give your location away in multiple ways. But even if you had no apps on your phone, the cellular chips in our devices will constantly be interacting with every cell tower that's in range, negotiating the best tower to talk to, whether to use 5G or something else, and authenticating to the network - even in Airplane Mode. Cell site simulators (aka Stingrays or IMSI catchers) can be used to trick your phone into give away your location. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has developed a cheap, easy-to-setup device that can try to discover and report these devices. Today I interview an expert panel about the clever Rayhunter project: Cooper Quintin, The Gibson, and OopsBagel.
Interview Notes
Rayhunter announcement: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03/meet-rayhunter-new-open-source-tool-eff-detect-cellular-spying
EFF’s Rayhunter project: https://efforg.github.io/rayhunter/
Submitting logs to EFF: https://efforg.github.io/rayhunter/support-feedback-community.html
DEF CON talk on Rayhunter: https://spectra.video/w/jt9rZHCU51Rh58cBD8oiP3
Buy yourself an Orbic hotspot: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=orbic+rc400l
Gotta Catch ‘Em All: https://www.eff.org/wp/gotta-catch-em-all-understanding-how-imsi-catchers-exploit-cell-networks
iPhone/Android fake cell site protections: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/09/apple-and-google-are-introducing-new-ways-defeat-cell-site-simulators-it-enough
Meshtastic: https://meshtastic.org/docs/getting-started/
Veilid: https://veilid.com/
Further Info
My book: https://fdsd.me/book
My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter
Support the mission: https://fdsd.me/support
Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons
Table of Contents
0:00:00: Intro
0:02:26: Interview setup
0:06:18: How did you become in involved with Rayhunter?
0:12:08: What is a cell site simulator?
0:14:01: What does a CSS look like and how are they deployed?
0:16:55: How is a CSS used for surveillance?
0:20:31: Can cell site simulaters work with modern protocols like 5G?
0:24:09: What information can you sniff from the cellular network?
0:27:41: Is there any transparency around the use of CSS's?
0:30:02: How did Rayhunter evolve from previous work?
0:35:00: How do I make a Rayhunter device?
0:41:45: I've create a Rayhunter... now what?
0:46:10: How can I protect myself against CSS surveillance?
0:49:38: Does Airplane Mode really disable your cellular radio?
0:52:22: How else might I defeat mass surveillance tech?
0:54:46: What's next for everyone?
1:00:53: Interview wrap-up
1:03:36: Meshtastic
1:04:49: Patron podcast preview
1:05:26: Looking ahead
--------
1:06:16
--------
1:06:16
Going on a Data Diet
The world wide web, as we know it today, has been around for over 30 years. In that time, most of us have created many dozens, perhaps hundreds, of online accounts. How many of those accounts are still alive somewhere? What data do they hold? And how good are the passwords you used? Today we're going to start on the path to finding all those accounts which could drastically improve our privacy and security.
In the news: millions of Dell laptops have critical security flaws you need to patch now; Facebook may be secretly scanning your phone's images; National Public Data is back and you should delete your data; data brokers are flouting privacy laws; Ionic 5 owners in the UK will have to pay for a security fix; Flipper Zero devices are being (wrongly) blamed for auto thefts; the US Supreme Court allows Mississippi social media law to go into effect; data brokers are hiding their opt-out pages; app TeaOnHer exposed users' data; UK backs down from Apple backdoor demand; and now is the time for EU residents to speak out against Chat Control.
Article Links
Millions of Dell laptops hit by ‘critical’ security vulnerability https://www.pcworld.com/article/2870014/millions-of-dell-laptops-hit-by-critical-security-vulnerability.html
Meta might be secretly scanning your phone's camera roll - how to check and turn it off https://www.zdnet.com/article/meta-might-be-secretly-scanning-your-phones-camera-roll-how-to-check-and-turn-it-off/
You Should Remove Your Info From the Rebooted National Public Data Site https://lifehacker.com/tech/remove-your-info-from-rebooted-national-public-data-site
Data Brokers Are Ignoring Privacy Law. We Deserve Better. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/08/data-brokers-are-ignoring-privacy-law-we-deserve-better
Hyundai wants Ioniq 5 owners to pay to fix a keyless entry security hole https://www.theverge.com/news/757205/hyundai-ioniq-5-security-upgrade-fix-game-boy-device-attacks
Can Flipper Zero really steal your car? (Spoiler: NO) https://blog.flipper.net/can-flipper-zero-steal-your-car/
Supreme Court allows Mississippi social media law to go into effect https://www.npr.org/2025/08/14/nx-s1-5482925/scotus-netchoice
Data Brokers Are Hiding Their Opt-Out Pages From Google Search https://www.wired.com/story/data-brokers-hiding-opt-out-pages-google-search/
How we found TeaOnHer spilling users' driver's licenses in less than 10 minutes | TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/13/how-we-found-teaonher-spilling-users-drivers-licenses-in-less-than-10-minutes/
UK blinks, backs down from its Apple backdoor encryption demand https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/08/19/uk-blinks-backs-down-from-its-apple-backdoor-encryption-demand
Worried about Chat Control? This website can help you get your say https://www.techradar.com/computing/cyber-security/worried-about-chat-control-this-website-can-help-you-get-your-say
Tip of the Week: Data Diet Introduction: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/data-diet-introduction/
Further Info
Cory Doctorow on age verification: https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/14/bellovin/#wont-someone-think-of-the-cryptographers
Fight EU’s Chat Control: https://fightchatcontrol.eu/
My book: https://fdsd.me/book
My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter
Support our mission! https://fdsd.me/support
Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons
Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch
Table of Contents
0:00:00: Intro
0:01:37: News preview
0:05:00: Millions of Dell laptops hit by ‘critical’ security vulnerability
0:06:44: Meta might be secretly scanning your phone's camera roll
0:12:00: You Should Remove Your Info From National Public Data
0:15:39: Data Brokers Are Ignoring Privacy Law
0:19:06: Hyundai wants Ioniq 5 owners to pay for security fix
0:22:43: Can Flipper Zero really steal your car? (No.)
0:30:38: Supreme Court allows Mississippi social media law ...
--------
1:05:42
--------
1:05:42
I’m Just a (Privacy) Bill
Why don't we have meaningful privacy laws in the US? While we haven't been able to pass federal privacy legislation, many states have managed to pass laws protecting our data and establishing some basic privacy rights. Vermont House Representative Monique Priestley led a Herculean effort to pass privacy legislation in her state last year. While managing to get a solid bill through the House and Senate, the bill was ultimately vetoed by the governor and the Senate failed to override it. But along the way, Monique learned valuable lessons about dealing with Big Tech lobbyists. Today we'll follow the journey of the Vermont Data Privacy Act of 2024 and what lessons we should learn for future attempts at privacy legislation.
Interview Notes
Monique Priestley: https://mepriestley.com/
Vermont State Representative site: https://priestleyvt.com/
Vermont Committee Zoom call: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfvAteuwRCA
Age Appropriate Design Code: https://epic.org/epic-applauds-passage-of-vermont-age-appropriate-design-code/
Big Tech Tried to Kill My State’s Privacy Bill. Here’s What I Learned. https://www.techpolicy.press/big-tech-tried-to-kill-my-states-privacy-bill-heres-what-i-learned/
The man quietly rewriting American privacy law https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/17/andrew-kingman-data-privacy-lobbying-00179630
Further Info
My book: https://fdsd.me/book
My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter
Support the mission: https://fdsd.me/support
Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons
Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch
Table of Contents
0:00:00: Intro
0:01:36: Interview setup
0:05:45: How did you get into privacy politics?
0:08:44: Who drafts the initial bill?
0:12:25: How are initial bills modified during this process?
0:17:08: When and how do lobbyists get involved?
0:22:34: Are lobbyists transparent about who they represent?
0:30:42: What are the most controversial elements of a privacy bill?
0:34:16: How are privacy laws limited by scope?
0:39:11: Why is the privacy right of action so important?
0:43:37: How do lobbyists kill privacy bills?
0:49:05: Do legislators collaborate across states?
0:55:19: How did the Vermont privacy bill get killed?
0:57:55: What are your key takeaways from this experience?
1:02:12: What's the current status of privacy legislation?
1:04:57: How can we help?
1:06:57: Wrap-up
1:09:38: Patron podcast preview
1:10:18: Looking ahead
Ireland