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This week, we talk about time being a privilege, why you can't go wrong when you do the next right thing, and Heidi Boghosian. Heidi joins BJ to talk about her new book, Cyber Citizens: Saving Democracy with Digital Literacy. There's a lot going on in this episode, and our host Rosie is here to bring you all the details. You can learn more at https://www.stupidsexyprivacy.com
Creators and Guests
Host
Host
Rosie Tran
Rosie Tran is one of the fastest rising stars in the entertainment business! Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, she moved to Hollywood to pursue her career as a professional entertainer. The stand up comedian, writer, podcast personality, and actress has toured internationally, at comedy clubs, colleges, and overseas for the USO in Europe and the Middle East.
Editor
Andrew
I am the Editor of all things on the Stupid Sexy Privacy Podcast.
What is Stupid Sexy Privacy?
Stupid Sexy Privacy is a miniseries about how to protect yourself from fascists and weirdos. Your host is comedian Rosie Tran, and the show is written by information privacy expert B.J. Mendelson. Every episode is sponsored by our friends at DuckDuckGo. Tune in every Thursday night βor Friday morning if you're nasty β at 12 am EST to catch the next episode.
00:01
Back to the DuckDuckGo Privacy Challenge, where contestants get a chance to learn why millions use DuckDuckGo's free browser to search and browse online. Now for our first contestant, Julie. True or false? Google's Chrome protects your personal information from being tracked. Hmm, I'm going to say true. Incorrect, Julie.
00:24
If you use Google search or their Chrome browser, your personal information has probably been exposed. Not just your searches, but things like your email, location, and even financial or medical information. Wow, I had no idea. Second question, what browser can you switch to for better privacy protection? Is it DuckDuckGo?
00:46
That's correct. The DuckDuckGo browser keeps your personal information protected. Say goodbye to hackers, scammers, and the data hungry companies. Download from DuckDuckGo.com or wherever you get your apps. Welcome to another edition of Stupid Sexy Privacy. A podcast mini series sponsored by our friends at DuckDuckGo. I'm your host, Rosie Tran. You may have seen me on Rosie Tran Presents, which is now available on Amazon Prime.
01:13
And I'm your co-producer, Andrew VanVooris. With us, as always, is Bonzo the Snow Monkey. I'm pretty sure that's not what a Japanese Macau sounds like. Oh, it's not. Not even close. Let's hope there aren't any zoologists listening. It's fairly simple. A lot of people think they're born better than others. I'm trying to prove it's the way you're raised that counts. But even a monkey brought up in the right surroundings can learn the meaning of decency and honesty. OK.
01:43
I'm also pretty sure that's not what a snow monkey sounds like. Over the course of this mini-series, we're going to offer you short, actionable tips to protect your data, your privacy, and yourself from fascists and weirdos. These tips were sourced by our fearless leader. He really hates when we call him that. DJ Mendelson. Episodes 1 through 33 were written a couple years ago. But since a lot of that advice is still relevant, we thought it would be worth sharing again for those who missed it.
02:10
And if you have heard these episodes before, you should know we've gone back and updated a bunch of them, even adding some brand new interviews and privacy tip along the way.
02:20
That's right. So before we get into today's episode, make sure you visit StupidSexyPrivacy.com and subscribe to our newsletter. This way you can get updates on the show and be the first to know when new episodes are released in 2026. And if you sign up for the newsletter, you'll also get a free PDF and mp3 copy of BJ and Amanda King's new book, How to Protect Yourself from Bastions and Weirdos. All you have to do is visit StupidSexyPrivacy.com.
02:47
StupidSexyPrivacy.com That's what I just said. StupidSexyPrivacy.com I know, but repetition is key to success. You know what else is? What? Bonzo, eat your pablum like a good boy and pretty soon you'll grow up to be a big strong handsome man just like your daddy.
03:08
then you'll have Swedish pancake too. I'm really glad this show isn't on YouTube because they pull it down like immediately. I know. Google sucks. And on that note, let's get to today's privacy tip. We recognize that time is a privilege and most of us don't have it. The best guidance we can offer for any of the advice and suggestions we have for you on stupid, sexy privacy is this.
03:36
Do the best you can, when you can, and forgive yourself for the rest. Capitalism's guardrails have been removed for some of the 20th century's greatest villains like Lewis Powell, Robert Bork, and Ronald Reagan. And we're right back to the reason those guardrails were installed in the first place. The Gilded Age. Just swap out Jonathan D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and Cornelius Vanderbilt with Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Larry Ellison. And it's same crap, new century.
04:03
Most of us live paycheck to paycheck, have less than $8,000 in savings, and are getting work to death with little to no time for ourselves. Theodore Roosevelt had it right. Speak softly and beat the out of wealthy people with a giant stick. Actually, he didn't say that. But Roosevelt did go after the trust and the major industries of his day, which is why he was called a trust buster.
04:27
A phrase many politicians use today to give the appearance of concern about the income inequality that defines the new Gilton age. So the true test of any politician who says they'll break up monopolies and tax oligarchs is this. Do you support a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United and limiting private contributions in all local, state and federal elections to a maximum of $100? If the answer is no, then they are not a true trust buster.
04:56
and you can't believe a word they say. In a world filled with disinformation, misinformation, and more fake internet accounts than there are grains of sand, you have to judge people by what they do, not by what they say. And in many cases, we often just don't have the time to do much other than barely exist. That's because time is a privilege. Or our existence has left us so riddled with anxiety or the need for a constant rush of dopamine that these purposely designed platforms, apps, and other software become an antidote to all of our problems.
05:25
These things are addictive. We know it, it's been proven in court, it's been proven scientifically. So we also want to acknowledge here that saying, use your phone less only truly works in a world where mental health services are freely available and everyone has a disposable income. Of course, we're not there yet, but if we work at it, we can get there. And if you're lucky enough to have insurance, we encourage you to take advantage of whatever mental health offerings might be available to you.
05:54
The world would be a much better place if everyone went to therapy. That's because hurt people hurt people. We can break that cycle. Society also doesn't give us a choice about using our phones. We acknowledge that too. Our world is built and displayed in ways that benefit the billionaires. They want everyone looking down at their phones.
06:12
not up at the pile of money they made that day by stealing from us. So yes, telling someone to use your phone less is like throwing a bucket of water at one of those big ass California wildfires. We get it. All we're saying is when you can remember that you do control the instances when the phone is in your hand. We'll also go a step further. If you really want what we feel is an enjoyable experience, go phone and device free on Saturday.
06:35
It's not as easy as it sounds at first, but having done it ourselves, it's been extraordinarily helpful. Not only again in shrinking your digital footprint, but also in calming some anxiety. This way you don't feel obligated to be always looking at a screen for another dopamine hit. This is the hill BJ will die on. Everyone on Earth shares at least this. We are all awful at predicting the future. You do not know what will happen tomorrow. Maybe there will be a 9.0 earthquake.
07:01
Maybe aliens will emerge from the ocean to greet us. Maybe, insert the name of Earth's least favorite person, will finally die from eating too much McDonald's cheeseburgers. You don't know. So, when we talk about living in a world where everyone has medical care and disposable income, you might scoff. You may think it's completely impossible. But you know what? We have days where we wake up and think that too. But what's more fun and useful to defeating fascists and weirdos? Doing nothing or at least trying something. Even if it doesn't work.
07:31
Nobody in the world has the right to walk all over you the way the oligarchs and their soldiers do. So why not try? You might even like it. And you might even find trying to be a fun way to meet people and help improve the community around you. Doing that ain't nothing either. Here's what we really want you to know. BJ is a big Kurt Vonnegut fan, and he agrees with Vonnegut that there is no real point to why we're here. We just are. Everyone is just as scared and confused as you are.
07:58
If you accept that as true, or at least as a 50-50 proposition, then your only real obligation is to do the next right thing. You can't ever go wrong if you always remember to do the next right thing. This week, BJ is joined by Heidi Boghossian. Heidi is the executive director of the A.J. Musty Foundation for Peace and Justice, co-host of the popular radio show Law and Disorder, and author of the new book Cyber Citizen, Saving Democracy with Digital Literacy.
08:23
We believe this book provides an excellent blueprint to ensure another authoritarian regime doesn't take over America. So go get a copy and enjoy the interview.
08:34
Hello, Heidi. I'm really looking forward to this conversation, but before we begin, I was hoping you might take a moment to introduce yourself to our listeners. Thank you so much for having me on BJ. I am a New York City-based attorney and activist. I've been interested in surveillance and cybersecurity issues for a while. And I actually run a nonprofit organization that gives grants to very grassroots.
09:03
groups around the country engaged in activist work. That's fantastic. the book, tell us a little bit about the book. Well, the book, uh Cyber Citizens, really sort of combines my interest with technology, the internet and its history, and also with marketing and communications.
09:30
under the umbrella of democracy and citizen activism, which is something I am a great proponent of. Us too. know, we always say in our show, our goal is to make 5 % of Americans 1 % better at protecting themselves from fascists and weirdos. this book fit in just perfectly. So let me get right into it. Let's start with the state of civics education in America.
09:58
which is something I thought a lot about in constructing this show. I'd like to ask you if you could define for people listening, what do you mean by civics education in terms of like what currently exists and what needs to exist? Civics education is the teaching about democracy, how it works and how people are meant to participate in it. At its best, this knowledge equips individuals
10:27
with the skills and critical thinking needed to understand systems of power and to evaluate information and actively engage in public life and also to hold institutions accountable. It's not just about memorizing facts about the government. uh Interestingly, some schools are using uh quizzes based on the US uh citizenship test to teach civics. uh
10:56
Currently the educational system in the US is underfunded, uneven, treated as expendable. In many schools, it's been reduced to a narrow focus on memorizing structures of government and passing standardized tests instead of developing critical thinking and an understanding of how power actually operates. We're seeing pressures from high stakes testing, political polarization,
11:26
and budget constraints that's pushed civics teaching to the margins. Also, teachers are facing growing scrutiny for encouraging debate in the classroom uh and addressing contemporary issues. So we find that students are now often taught how government is supposed to work on paper, but not how to participate meaningfully in democracy or to question it when it fails.
11:55
Your listeners, I'm sure, will know that in the 60s, public education shifted more towards standardized testing and technocratic measures of achievement. Was the end of the Cold War era, were conformity, efficiency, and measurable outputs became more valued than debate, democratic messiness, or dissent. And as standardized testing expanded, accelerating later with
12:23
policies like No Child Left Behind, subjects that couldn't be easily quantified were pushed aside. uh So civics, history, media, literacy, and critical reasoning didn't lend themselves to bubble tests. say you can't scan curiosity or rank democratic courage. So now, uh just sort of to wrap up, only about a third of our eighth graders score at or above proficiency in civics.
12:53
um And I think equally telling is that we really don't measure it at all, whether students feel capable of participating in democracy. As a result, uh we didn't just narrow the civics curriculum, we're training conformity. So students have learned through standardized testing, there's just one correct answer, one authority, one acceptable way to think. And that's really the opposite of democratic culture.
13:21
We know democracy is noisy. It requires disagreement, initiative, and lots of practice. So we've seen what are called action civics emerging, which I think is a good thing as a corrective to this. It asks students not just to learn about democracy, but to do it, to identify community problems, to research them, debate solutions, and engage with their institutions. This
13:51
I think is a positive movement toward restoring the idea that citizenship must be active, not passive. Right. And I can't underscore that point enough because I think about some of the work that I've been doing on the local Indivisible Steering Committee that I'm on. And I'm continually amazed by people who want to do something, but don't know how. Right. Like they don't know, oh, wait, you can...
14:19
You can just go to a town meeting. You can make a public comment. You can ask for agenda time. can push for right now we're pushing a local village to pass a resolution uh endorsing the passage in New York state of the melt act, which would require ICE agents to not be masked. And I found that just the educational process that it took for older adults just to understand how to participate was sort of mind blowing, which is why
14:49
I really took to the book in the way that I did. Have you found that also? mean, we talk about civics education, but I'm wondering if some of your findings might also correlate with older adults that you've encountered. Well, I think it's across all ages, really. um I, am surprised when friends say, well, I want to get involved, but I don't know how. My answer is there are so many levels of involvement. You can write a check to support an advocacy organization.
15:18
As you mentioned, you can go to a town hall meeting, sign a petition online. I mean, we have everything uh reachable on our laptops and uh many, many places and organizations are trying to make uh democratic participation easier. Right. And so that also goes into my second question about critical thinking too, because I feel like I don't want to say it's lacking among adults because I don't want to
15:47
and generalize. But when we talk about students specifically, are we teaching them to think critically? Well, we're starting to, I think, and I feel hopeful on that front. When we talk about critical thinking, it's really a skill that allows people to question who benefits from this message. Why am I seeing it now? What happens if I don't comply? These questions
16:15
uh really are the difference between citizenship and spectatorship. We tend to treat the concept of critical thinking as an abstract academic skill. uh But in practice, it's the connective tissue between civics, tech, and I think resistance to authoritarianism. When one of those weakens, the others follow. uh So civics now teaches
16:44
people where power lives, who makes the decisions, how laws change, how citizens can intervene. Tech mediates almost every one of those processes, how we get our information, how political messages reach us, how outreach, for example, is amplified and how dissent is discouraged. Critical thinking is what allows people to navigate that terrain without being overwhelmed or manipulated, as I know many of us are.
17:15
feeling in this information saturated world. I want to also go back to the standardized testing. uh With that, we didn't just lose knowledge about the government. We lost the habit of questioning authority. As I said, students learn one right answer, one approved source. And that mindset transfers to digital life where algorithms reward conformity.
17:44
and speed over skepticism and reflection, which is so important. I think that authoritarianism thrives in exactly that kind of environment. It doesn't require people to be ignorant, but it requires them to be uncertain, overwhelmed, exhausted. ah So they tend to disengage or accept simple, absolute answers.
18:12
as we know, offered by loud, confident figures. Right. And I was thinking about the term that some people might be familiar with, which is flood the zone. Right. Right. Which is the strategy of just overwhelming people with nonsense and things to be outraged about, so that you're not paying attention to the actual bad things that are happening. And our attention spans are shrinking. I read somewhere that there
18:40
less than a goldfish, which I think has an attention span of seven seconds. Yeah, I think it was, I think that was Microsoft's research arm, if I'm not, I could be mistaken. That had put that out. There's a number of books that cite that. Which I kind of, I had mixed feelings about that because I feel like that is true on one hand, but there is certainly a mode that you can switch people into. Right. Right. all this.
19:09
Yeah, people, yeah, it's true that people will watch TikTok, sure. But when they go home, they're watching an hour long drama on Netflix, for example. Right, right. See, Napoleon, let me ask you a little bit about one of my favorite things that I ask people about whenever his name comes up is Edward Bernays. Yes. So for people that aren't familiar, know, I come from a marketing background and Bernays is sort of central to a lot of the work that I did formally when I was doing PR outreach.
19:35
ah And, you know, he's a controversial figure. And I was really curious about his belief, you know, which is that humans are fundamentally irrational, conformist, malleable, which is very similar to the authoritarian belief, ah which is also similar to the belief of, you know, groups like the Confederacy, if you want to go back in American history. And I'm just curious about whether or not you thought Bernays, in your research, was right or wrong about us as people? I love this question.
20:04
You know when i was in graduate school years ago in boston and when ed bernice was still alive i sent him a letter and asked if you would meet with my public relations class. I was in boston university in the college of communication he wrote me back a lovely handwritten letter. Inviting my entire class to his home in cambridge for an evening ah he was you know advanced in age but he was still razor sharp.
20:32
And he was very clear about what he believed. As you mentioned, humans are a rational conformist and easily manipulated. I do not agree with that. uh As long as individuals are aware of how the powers of that be operationalized that theory. The real danger now is that we built machines that assume he was
20:59
correct and then optimize them accordingly. um You know, you'll recall of his many campaigns, Americans didn't eat much bacon for breakfast until Bernays convinced physicians to endorse heavy breakfast. That's right. Conveniently, including bacon and eggs. And his client was the pork industry. So what he did so successfully was manufacture authority.
21:27
then circulated as common sense. um I think that another chilling incident was he worked with the United Fruit Company to shape US public opinion and media coverage in ways to help justify the 1954 coup in Guatemala. Now this was not advertising, it was political propaganda dressed up as PR. And we see that coming from our government.
21:54
you know, from fears of 9-11 terrorist attacks to, you know, daily uh comparisons like that. Now, I think currently propaganda campaigns like that on different levels are magnified minute by minute on social media. They work because they target emotion, identity, authority, repetition, as opposed to truth. And they succeed because
22:23
the audience may not know they're being shaped. If they know, I really believe that awareness changes that dynamic. And that's what I argue for in cyber citizens. I know that currently classes that teach digital manipulation, for example, may review how news headlines are engineered to prompt outrage in the readership. And people at first laugh at the hyperbolic
22:53
uh titles and slant. then when they see, when they recognize emotional triggers like fear, tribalism, urgency, um and start to identify algorithmic amplification, uh the power of those advertisers or content creators shrinks. And that's because of awareness. So I think that it matters today where we've seen Bernays playbook automated, scaled in
23:23
privatized and big ad tech, of course, does this faster continuously and for many invisibly. um think that Bernays assumed people needed to be managed by elites. And now that is sort of the subtext of a lot of the power of big tech and government. uh I think that in cyber citizens, we need something different.
23:52
ah We need to change the system, teach people how manipulation works, and then suddenly irrationality is not our destiny. It's more of a condition that we can mitigate.
24:08
Hey everyone, this is Amanda King, one of the co-hosts of Stupid Sexy Privacy. These days I spend most of my time talking to businesses and clients about search engine optimization, but...
24:20
That's not what this is about. I wanted to tell you a little bit about a book I've co-authored with BJ Mendelsohn called How to Protect Yourself from Fascists and Weirdos. And the title tells you pretty much everything you would want to know about what's in the book. And thanks to our friends at DuckDuckGo, we'll actually be able to give you this book for free in 2026.
24:43
All you need to do is go to the website stupidsexyprivacy.com and sign up to our newsletter. Again, that website is stupidsexyprivacy.com and then put your name in the box and sign up for our newsletter. We'll let you know when the book and the audiobook is ready because if you want a PDF copy that's DRM free, it's yours. And if you want an MP3 of the new audiobook, also DRM free, you can get that.
25:13
to. Now, I've got to get out of here before Bonzo corners me because he doesn't think that SEO is real and I don't have the patience to argue with him because I got a book to finish. I loved the... there's a whole section of the book which I don't have an interview question about, just on gaming and just the role of how gaming is utilized both by bad actors like the white supremacists and then good actors such as people who are trying to...
25:42
counter the actions of the white supremacists using gaming itself. And so for people who are listening, please go and check out the book. Just for that section alone, it's worth it, but the whole thing is great. uh Let me, just because I'm watching out of time, me move towards ah media literacy and digital literacy. I'm curious to ask what role parents that are listening to this might be able to play in promoting good civics education in digital literacy. And that's really the question, because everything starts with the parents. um
26:13
digital literacy just in a nutshell, is really knowing about how tech uses you. It's about knowing who built these systems, who profits from them, and really who has the power to exchange or exploit the rules that we accept. um I think parents, what I, and I like the fact that you mentioned the games because I think that, um you know, in learning in classrooms,
26:43
It's so much more interactive and engaging to model some things on games. And I think parents now feel outmatched by technology. It's something that I understand. Platforms are changing constantly. Threats feel abstract until they're not. And kids may seem steps ahead of the parents. But what I would see is that parents do not need to be experts. They don't need to understand every app or AI tool.
27:12
What they do need to do is model curiosity, skepticism, and calm. One parent told me that, in fact, they stopped asking their teen, why are you on your phone all the time? Because that sounds like an accusation. Instead, they started asking, what's interesting today? And with that, the entire dynamic changed. From defensiveness, they got an explanation, an engagement, or critique.
27:41
Their phone stopped being a shield as many people think their kids hide behind and they became more of a window and an opportunity for conversation. I think that that kind of shift uh matters more than we may realize. It's so simple. But research shows that kids who regularly discuss news and online content with their family are much better at identifying misinformation than those who don't.
28:08
ah I think Pew and Common Sense Media have both found that conversation, not surveillance, not restriction, is the strongest protective factor because control creates secrecy and uh dialogue fosters more open communication. So I think that's where games, not educational software, but ordinary family games, and I make up one at the end of the book about how
28:38
You you can take a local issue like something happening in your neighborhood park and create a game about. How to save the park or save the trees and do little you know participatory exercises where kids can start to realize that they can make a difference. um There's a game called spot the fakes where family members bring up news headline it can be real or fake and everyone guesses.
29:07
before discussing why it didn't feel believable to them. So there are a lot of resources for family, free resources for families. Common sense media has age appropriate conversation starters. You know, we don't want to sound like we're lecturing kids. So start at the kitchen table. uh And I think that it's worth noting when parents normalize things like disagreeing, uh debating, fact checking.
29:35
And saying, for example, I was wrong, they're teaching democracy in its most basic form because kids don't learn civic habits from lectures. They watch them. They learn them from watching adults engage thoughtfully in the world. parents aren't alone out there. They have allies and fanhub. Many. Yes. What's one that stood out to you? This was a section of book that I was really heartened by as
30:03
we come out of the comics fandom, right? We pull a lot of our audience from people who enjoy comics and love comics. And so when I saw this, was like, okay, this is great. Was there a particular example in your research that stood out to you as to how fandom could be used in promoting social justice and good digital citizenship? Well, I cite the example of Fandom Forward, an organization that very sadly I just learned has
30:33
actually dissolve, but my organization that gives grants actually gave them a grant because we love their work. For people that don't know, fandoms can teach collective action, norm setting, peer accountability, and it's when fans organize mass campaigns or fundraise, coordinate messaging, they can fact check rumors. They can enforce community rules, and they do so
31:01
faster and often more effectively than formal institutions. uh I know that K-pop fandoms have flooded white supremacist hashtags with memes, oh sabotaged online ticketing for political hate rallies, and raised millions of uh dollars for racial justice organizations. They're not spontaneous miracles. They're really the result of defensive literacy.
31:29
that says, careful what you believe. I think that when we use popular culture for social change, it's often much more effective than established methods of doing so. Absolutely. And there was this one point, I think we touched on it a little bit, but I didn't want to let it escape. When talking about media literacy, there's a great discussion in book about the role of power.
31:57
and the distribution of it. And one of the things you stress is always checking the source and where it comes from. And was hoping you may be able to expand a bit on that point for listeners. What's the difference between the version of literacy peddled by, let's say, a large corporation versus more effective version of media literacy that people should know about? Oh, that's an excellent point. I'm going to start with a very brief example of topic that I'm really interested in, which is how
32:27
hackers, sort of the hackers coming out of MIT and Stanford and the original pioneers of our digitized world, um were so creative and were really exploring systems. Then what happened gradually, and on a different level, Tim Wu writes about that in his book, which I'm forgetting the name, but I loved it. Oh, the power, the master switch. ah
32:56
What happened was then we saw hackerdom really being co-opted by corporate America bug bounties, but with great restrictions set on them and no longer punishing, creating new laws to punish digital hacktivists or simply teenage tinkerers who were able to penetrate like NASA and then got heavy sentences for that. I think that what we've seen is with the
33:26
The growth of our online world is corporations jumping on the bag wagon to create their own, say, fact checking entities. And those always, I'm suspicious of things that are proprietary in nature, meaning, you know, they're owned and run by a corporation rather than more open source options that are available or
33:55
Or for example not relying on one of those but using several different places to help you check your facts or. uh You know compare compare stories and make your own decisions about the relevance or the power dynamic going on below that.
34:16
Yeah. And I think that that's, that seems so important now, especially given that you know, platforms like Meta or Twitter, we refuse to call that. Yeah, know. Yeah. Let me say that deleting that Twitter account was one of the best things I ever did. I felt really good about that, but they are, they're currently doing away with the fact checking. Right. So I feel like it's, I feel like it's so important now to know who is giving you the information and where it's coming from. And so.
34:45
I did want to ask you, is there a particular fact checking website or browser extension that you recommend people check out? Well, you know, I first I should say, as I did use more than one because no single tool is going to catch everything. uh Open secrets is a good one. That's good for checking, tracking money and influence. PolitiFact is is good on political claims. Snopes good on viral claims.
35:15
I also want to say that I'm a big fan of Electronic Frontier Foundation's privacy badger, just in terms of less illiteracy, more a digital hygiene tool. It lets you know when you go to websites, it blocks trackers and it lets you know how many they blocked. I was horrified to find I called up my own website and something like 25 trackers were blocked.
35:44
So obviously I have some work to do on that. But I think the most important tool, and this goes for both literacy and hygiene, is to pause. Pause, ask where something came from, who's benefiting, and whether it's designed to inform or to provoke.
36:04
That's an excellent point. And yeah, you know, it's crazy. I use the DuckDuckGo app on my phone. Right. Right. And on the phone, it'll tell you how many trackers it blocks on a given day. it's incredible. that you wouldn't even think would be up to no good. ah Let me ask you real quick, just before we get to the end here. One of the things that we
36:31
hit on in the show is that people are really bad at conceptualizing long-term consequences for their actions. Climate change is a great example of this. But could you explain how bad cyber hygiene and poor civic engagement could lend? I mean, there's some really obvious examples. I'm thinking of some that you've come across that could lead to endangering national security. Well, I think what humans are not especially good at
37:01
especially in the rapid rapidly changing ecosystem of our online identities and world is they don't think about long-term consequences and truth be told we have not done a good job of explaining this to people but for every individual that doesn't use say a passphrase instead of their pet name for their password and it sounds so cliche because
37:28
It's written everywhere, but it really does chip away at the security of our shared digital ecosystem. So that when we're vulnerable to breaches, I don't know about you, but I've started keeping a folder of the letters that I get saying my information was involved in a data breach. And um I also check the website, which I love. uh I've been pawned.
37:58
Or have you been pawned? Anyway, people can look it up because it will tell you, you know, if your passwords or more importantly, your email addresses have been compromised, they appear on the dark web. And I think that's just part of the whole taking responsibility as an autonomous computer user to look, to check your systems, to make sure you have the best
38:25
antivirus on your devices, ah to set your settings, have everything, your privacy settings, everything that you can do easily. And there's a lot. Enact dual factor authentication on everything. Don't reuse passwords across platforms. uh When we don't take care of that, likewise, when people in a business
38:52
fall for social engineering over the phone and expose their company's systems to external attackers, we are making the world less safe for everyone. So I see it as a form of civic responsibility. Yeah, we do as well. We totally agree. this is privacy is a collective effort. And that's something that we constantly are reminding people on the show. My last question for you is you mentioned
39:22
What I thought was just this great suggestion of finding five reputable news outlets that you can follow on social media or just browsing. For me, it's the BBC, the CBC, which is a Canadian broadcasting company, PBS, which everyone should be donating to if they have the extra money, Mother Jones, and The Nation. I was wondering if you might be able to share with us a few trusted sources that you recommend. Well, I subscribe to 404 Media.
39:51
which got an award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I think it's relatively new. um I love The Guardian. I do, I'm going to confess, I subscribe to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal just to sort of compare how they do their reporting, take, you know, take everything with a grain of salt. um I am not much of a radio listener, but I do of course support PBS and
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You know, TV. um So, and I don't watch uh electronic news the way I used to. used to watch networks and PBS, but no more. um So what I would also suggest is that people find reporters and journalists that they trust and follow them to see what they're covering, you know, what issues they identify. And I'm a
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Big fan of the group called project sensor actually on their board they publish a book every year called the news that didn't. Make the news about stories that oh you know independent journalist or media platforms have done that have been outstanding but never made it into the mainstream press they have great resources as well and digital literacy so. That's a resource i like to check in with on a regular basis.
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That's what I didn't know about. that's, I am absolutely bookmarking this. Oh, good. That's fantastic. Where can we find you? Where can we find you? Well, can find my currently uh multi-tracking website, HeidiBukosian.com, which I am fixing this week. And it has some things that I've written and my radio show, I'm on a radio show called Law and Disorder for 20 years. So I put segments up there from the show.
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There's no stupid sexy privacy without our friends at DuckDuckGo. So if you want to thank them for making the show possible, we hope you'll check them out. Because stupid sexy privacy is a people powered project. With a couple of exceptions, like producing podcast transcripts through Riverside. We don't use AI. Everyone who works here is getting compensated for their time, effort and energy. The only way that's possible is to find good partners like DuckDuckGo.
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So today we're going to highlight DuckDuckGo's web browser, a tool millions of people have switched to in order to safely search and browse the web. And the best part is the DuckDuckGo browser is free, just like all the content we create at Stupid Sexy Privacy. We make our money from DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo makes its money by selling privacy-respecting search advertising. These are ads based on what you've searched for. They're not generated by data gathered without your consent.
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And if you have an Android phone, the DuckDuckGo app offers a nice additional layer of privacy. It does this by blocking invasive data harvesting from the other apps on your phone. For example, when BJ wrote this ad in the last hour, DuckDuckGo's app tracking protection for Android blocked 218 tracking attempts by Substack and four other apps on his phone. And in the last week, DuckDuckGo's app blocked 9,202 tracking attempts across 11 different apps. This included 43 tracking attempts from the Starbucks app.
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despite the fact that BJ hasn't been a Starbucks in over a month. At Stupid Sexy Privacy, we're never going to recommend you use something that we don't use ourselves. So do you want to take back control of your personal information? Well, there's a browser designed for data protection, not data collection, and that's DuckDuckGo. Make sure you visit DuckDuckGo.com today. And check out this episode's show notes for a link to download the DuckDuckGo browser for your laptop and mobile device.
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you
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This episode of Stupid Sexy Privacy was recorded in Hollywood, California. It was written by B.J. Mendelson, produced by Andrew Van Voorst, and hosted by me, Rosie Tran. And of course, our program is sponsored by our friends DuckDuckGo. If you enjoy the show, I hope you'll take a moment to leave us a review on Pocket Cast, Apple Podcast, or wherever you may be listening. This won't take more than two minutes of your time, and leaving us a review will help other people find it.
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We have a crazy goal of helping 5 % of Americans get 1 % better at protecting themselves from fascists and weirdos. Your reviews can help us reach that goal, since leaving one makes our show easier to find. So please take a moment to leave us a review and I'll see you right back here next Thursday at midnight. After you watch Rosie Tran Presents on Amazon Prime, right? Bonzo, I wish that you'll have many more birthdays just like this one. With those you love and trust around you always to share your happiness.
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And I wish that you'll get a chance very soon to prove that being loved and looked after like a human being has made you feel like a human being. And that if love can do that to you, then it ought to be able to make some other human beings human beings.