1 00:00:00,020 --> 00:00:05,880 This week's Surveillance Report covers age verification laws closing in on the whole 2 00:00:06,100 --> 00:00:08,500 internet with one major exception, 3 00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:12,540 AI cameras on school buses which are looking for police 4 00:00:12,870 --> 00:00:13,040 access, 5 00:00:13,380 --> 00:00:16,059 a push to end nationwide license plate tracking, 6 00:00:16,340 --> 00:00:17,760 plus our usual data breaches, 7 00:00:17,980 --> 00:00:18,440 threats, 8 00:00:18,700 --> 00:00:19,880 and open source updates. 9 00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:24,780 Welcome everybody to the Techlore Surveillance Support, your essential weekly tech news hosted 10 00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:25,640 by yours truly, 11 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:26,940 Henry from Techlore, 12 00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:29,980 delivering deep analysis on the latest threats to security 13 00:00:29,980 --> 00:00:31,240 privacy, and digital freedom, 14 00:00:31,680 --> 00:00:35,060 and empowering you to reclaim control and defend your rights. 15 00:00:35,460 --> 00:00:39,400 Only announcement I have is I really appreciate you all stepping up and saying that you like the 16 00:00:39,420 --> 00:00:40,380 new open source section. 17 00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:43,300 So that was really good feedback because it's nice to hear what you guys 18 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:46,360 don't like, but also what you do like. So I know what to keep and not change. 19 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:47,300 So we're going to 20 00:00:47,460 --> 00:00:48,340 keep that format going. 21 00:00:48,860 --> 00:00:49,940 Thank you all for sharing your feedback. 22 00:00:50,100 --> 00:00:51,600 And let's get into the main story. 23 00:00:52,060 --> 00:00:53,820 There's two ways of looking at the story. 24 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:56,920 There is the pessimistic way and the optimistic way. 25 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:05,059 And I'm personally looking at this in the optimistic way where people are being rewarded for making good decisions about which operating systems to choose to use, 26 00:01:05,220 --> 00:01:05,320 right? 27 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:08,380 A little bit of context to back up here a little bit. 28 00:01:08,660 --> 00:01:14,400 Both Colorado and California have been proposing operating system-based age verification laws. 29 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:18,420 Under those original laws that both states were proposing, 30 00:01:18,700 --> 00:01:28,540 operating systems would be required to request a user's age or birth date during device setup and then expose an age bracket signal to apps and app stores. 31 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:32,060 This obviously led to a ton of backlash for obvious privacy concerns, 32 00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:40,060 but even more downstream of that and even more curious questions revolved around, well, what about operating systems that are open source or decentralized? 33 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:41,580 There is no central authority. 34 00:01:42,100 --> 00:01:43,520 How do you enforce this kind of thing? 35 00:01:43,580 --> 00:01:45,240 It seems like this wasn't really thought out. 36 00:01:45,550 --> 00:01:46,040 In Colorado, 37 00:01:46,360 --> 00:01:50,480 there's a very major manufacturer of Linux computers called System76, 38 00:01:50,690 --> 00:01:54,660 and their CEO was pretty much going back and forth with the senator in Colorado, 39 00:01:55,270 --> 00:01:59,520 as that's the state they're based out of, for a long time to try to push for an open source exemption. 40 00:01:59,610 --> 00:02:01,900 And finally, they actually got it in Colorado. 41 00:02:02,700 --> 00:02:06,240 The extra good news now is that California is kind of following in those footsteps, 42 00:02:06,560 --> 00:02:06,660 too. 43 00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:09,640 They're saying we don't really want to target open source. 44 00:02:09,729 --> 00:02:10,800 We don't want to target Linux. 45 00:02:11,360 --> 00:02:15,820 And so this is going to probably exempt almost every mainstream Linux distribution, 46 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:17,220 including Debian, Fedora, 47 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:17,680 Ubuntu, 48 00:02:17,880 --> 00:02:18,580 Arch, Mint, 49 00:02:18,770 --> 00:02:18,940 etc. 50 00:02:19,580 --> 00:02:27,180 Now, the really important thing to take away from this is that if you're completely against this age verification outright, 51 00:02:27,500 --> 00:02:34,020 which I think is quite a legitimate take to have, this doesn't actually remove the Digital Age Assurance Act, 52 00:02:34,260 --> 00:02:34,340 right? 53 00:02:34,350 --> 00:02:35,460 This act still exists. 54 00:02:35,700 --> 00:02:36,740 Nothing else really changed. 55 00:02:36,840 --> 00:02:43,060 All this has done is it's narrowed the definition of who actually has to pretty much follow this law. 56 00:02:43,130 --> 00:02:46,040 And so instead of it being any operating system provider, 57 00:02:46,300 --> 00:02:50,900 now it's just targeting commercial platforms with proprietary app ecosystems. 58 00:02:51,130 --> 00:02:58,980 Because now I believe the definition is essentially an operating system that comes with an app store from the same, I guess, vendor. 59 00:02:59,370 --> 00:03:02,940 So in this case, Apple ships with an iPhone that comes with the iOS app store. 60 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:05,420 Google ships their devices that comes with the Google Play Store. 61 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:08,280 So all of these devices would be included. 62 00:03:08,580 --> 00:03:10,260 Now where things get a little bit interesting, 63 00:03:10,460 --> 00:03:15,380 and this is where I think the real controversy still is to be seen, is what about SteamOS? 64 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:17,420 I'm not a gamer, 65 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:19,540 but essentially SteamOS runs on Linux. 66 00:03:19,860 --> 00:03:21,340 It's a Linux-based operating system, 67 00:03:21,700 --> 00:03:25,960 but it actually ships out of the box with its own app store, which is Steam. 68 00:03:26,340 --> 00:03:28,000 Now, this is still being developed. 69 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:30,140 This hasn't actually gone through anything yet. 70 00:03:30,300 --> 00:03:32,340 This is just a new proposal of the bill. 71 00:03:32,640 --> 00:03:34,740 And so this is still an important thing to fight for. 72 00:03:35,220 --> 00:03:44,440 And I think really the takeaway and what I really want to drive home, I want to drive home the optimistic message today from the highlight story because we see a lot of doomerism when it comes to politics, 73 00:03:44,720 --> 00:03:46,620 when it comes to getting involved in these issues. 74 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:53,300 But I think it's really important for us to see these as actual signals that we can really make an impact. 75 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:58,740 It's specifically cited that this was done because of backlash from the open source community, 76 00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:01,020 from the EFF, from Linux distributions, 77 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:03,160 from all of you who use Linux distributions. 78 00:04:03,420 --> 00:04:04,580 You guys all spoke up, 79 00:04:05,020 --> 00:04:05,980 and it really did make a difference. 80 00:04:06,180 --> 00:04:07,220 It started with Colorado. 81 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:09,740 California was like, okay, wait, yeah, that actually does make sense. 82 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,400 People are angry about this, and this is something we should modify. 83 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:16,579 So I don't think that this bill is exactly where I want it to be right now. 84 00:04:16,940 --> 00:04:22,680 But the reality is that all of you people who said something made a real freaking difference. 85 00:04:23,580 --> 00:04:29,880 And on top of that, it rewards all of you who are already using operating systems that respect you, 86 00:04:30,170 --> 00:04:30,300 right? 87 00:04:30,590 --> 00:04:33,580 So I think that's really what's awesome here is that my biggest, 88 00:04:34,090 --> 00:04:34,220 well, 89 00:04:34,380 --> 00:04:41,400 one of my biggest issues with this previously is that if you were using an open source operating system, your whole goal was to avoid all this digital exploitation, 90 00:04:41,810 --> 00:04:45,000 to avoid these platforms that don't care about you, to avoid big tech companies, 91 00:04:45,530 --> 00:04:47,760 which is really what I think these bills are trying to target. 92 00:04:47,930 --> 00:04:52,600 Yet they're still penalizing you guys who already got away from it, which I think is grossly unfair. 93 00:04:53,180 --> 00:04:56,800 And so I think that this avoids at least that problem of this bill. 94 00:04:57,080 --> 00:05:01,460 And I hope that other countries that are proposing this age verification stuff follow suit, 95 00:05:01,660 --> 00:05:05,340 because I think this is at minimum, this is like raising the floor a little bit. 96 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:06,020 At minimum, 97 00:05:06,580 --> 00:05:11,380 safe technologies should not be impacted by this legislation as they are already safe technologies. 98 00:05:11,500 --> 00:05:15,600 We don't need to add further friction points to keep people away from using those. 99 00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:20,400 We should incentivize their usage and make those big tech platforms maybe a little bit harder to access, 100 00:05:20,960 --> 00:05:24,240 but not via these systems that I think have other problems, 101 00:05:24,460 --> 00:05:24,560 right? 102 00:05:24,580 --> 00:05:29,020 I think age verification has a ton of other problems that maybe isn't even directly relevant to the story. 103 00:05:29,180 --> 00:05:31,340 Again, I'm trying to cover the optimistic side of this one this week. 104 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:32,080 Keep pushing, 105 00:05:32,460 --> 00:05:32,920 keep fighting. 106 00:05:33,280 --> 00:05:35,580 I know not everybody here is in California or Colorado, 107 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:37,120 and this stuff's being proposed everywhere. 108 00:05:37,420 --> 00:05:39,120 So this is a good thing to point to. 109 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:41,120 And if you are contacting your representatives, 110 00:05:41,340 --> 00:05:43,320 which you should be doing because it makes a difference, 111 00:05:43,580 --> 00:05:45,120 as we see in stories like this, 112 00:05:45,300 --> 00:05:46,720 point to California, 113 00:05:47,200 --> 00:05:47,920 point to Colorado, 114 00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:51,040 have actual things that set precedent and be like, hey, 115 00:05:51,200 --> 00:05:51,820 look what they did. 116 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:52,940 You see why they're doing this? 117 00:05:53,300 --> 00:05:53,360 Yeah, 118 00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:54,060 take note. 119 00:05:54,340 --> 00:05:58,160 I want you to do that or else I won't vote you in next time there's an election. 120 00:05:58,600 --> 00:05:59,540 So say those things, 121 00:05:59,780 --> 00:06:00,180 get involved. 122 00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:00,900 It makes a difference. 123 00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:02,120 And now let's move on. 124 00:06:07,840 --> 00:06:12,340 This next story is quite egregious. 125 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:16,740 So this is an archived version as it's technically a paywealth article, 126 00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:20,800 but I'll do my best to still get you the core details so you guys know what's going on. 127 00:06:21,080 --> 00:06:22,980 So there's a company called Bus Patrol. 128 00:06:23,860 --> 00:06:25,640 And this is meant to keep children safe. 129 00:06:26,100 --> 00:06:27,080 We know the whole thing. 130 00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:28,760 And this is on school buses. 131 00:06:29,500 --> 00:06:32,120 And maybe this had noble intentions from the get-go, 132 00:06:32,560 --> 00:06:32,740 maybe. 133 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:37,740 But either way, these are AI-powered cameras in tens of thousands of school buses around the U.S., 134 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:43,780 for many of you, is terrifying as a concept to put experimental technology and have questionable 135 00:06:43,950 --> 00:06:48,080 privacy practices collecting not just adult data, but kids' data. And they don't have a choice. 136 00:06:48,150 --> 00:06:49,340 They probably have to get to school. 137 00:06:49,620 --> 00:06:51,220 We can get into all those problems. 138 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:52,360 But that's almost 139 00:06:52,660 --> 00:06:54,860 completely superseded by what's going on here, 140 00:06:55,040 --> 00:06:56,180 which is covered by 404. 141 00:06:56,830 --> 00:06:57,340 Because now they're 142 00:06:57,480 --> 00:07:00,840 turning all of those cameras into automatic license plate readers, 143 00:07:01,210 --> 00:07:02,360 also called ALPRs, 144 00:07:02,620 --> 00:07:07,560 capturing the location of every vehicle the buses drive past, giving that data to law enforcement, 145 00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:08,840 Isn't that unbelievable? 146 00:07:09,280 --> 00:07:13,520 So this is actually transforming school buses into roaming surveillance vehicles, 147 00:07:14,100 --> 00:07:22,040 taking a technology that was originally designed to issue tickets to people illegally passing stop buses and using it for much wider and general law enforcement, 148 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:23,480 likely without a warrant. 149 00:07:23,900 --> 00:07:25,580 That's mostly quoting from 404. 150 00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:28,560 Now, there are leaked bus patrol documents. 151 00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:32,860 These are leaked internal documents from the company themselves, 152 00:07:33,260 --> 00:07:41,500 saying that internally they acknowledge how controversial the plan is to collect and share this data, pointing specifically to concerns about ICE, 153 00:07:41,820 --> 00:07:43,160 immigration and customs enforcement. 154 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:52,840 But the company emphasizes the likely success of selling the angle of protecting children, which means internally they literally know that they can just spout this keep the children safe nonsense, 155 00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:54,660 and then people won't care. 156 00:07:54,900 --> 00:08:02,600 Now, they have not responded to requests for comment. I think something that is worth flagging, it's always important to see who is funding what and why. 157 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:04,960 The incentives align a certain way. 158 00:08:05,460 --> 00:08:07,880 Pretty much according to the source of knowledge of the plans, 159 00:08:08,160 --> 00:08:09,480 after GI Partners, 160 00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:13,860 an investment firm, invested $300 million into Bus Patrol, 161 00:08:14,140 --> 00:08:18,080 it has been pushing the company to find these alternative revenue streams. 162 00:08:18,420 --> 00:08:20,720 So besides just how egregious the story is, 163 00:08:20,920 --> 00:08:22,640 I think nobody should be okay with this. 164 00:08:22,800 --> 00:08:27,200 Like even if you're okay with the AI technology being used on kids, which is untested, 165 00:08:27,380 --> 00:08:28,880 which has questionable privacy practices, 166 00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:33,599 the reality is we see this just now instantly become a surveillance tool that impacts everybody. 167 00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:35,960 And that was never the original intention of this. 168 00:08:36,060 --> 00:08:39,979 We see this pattern all the time with these tools where they might start with a good purpose, 169 00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:45,680 but because there's no regulation around this stuff, because anybody can just go ahead and change its purpose day two, 170 00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:51,540 we see this happen constantly with surveillance technology, and it's how we see the scope constantly increase. 171 00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:52,320 Now, 172 00:08:52,560 --> 00:08:57,140 another takeaway I have for this is overall just funding and thinking about incentives. 173 00:08:57,500 --> 00:09:06,440 This is something that I'm always looking for when I'm picking the tools I use personally in my life, but I think it almost always boils down to what the overall incentives are for a company. 174 00:09:06,920 --> 00:09:12,300 When something has its own subscription model, when there aren't really that many or any third-party investors, 175 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:16,380 when they are completely dedicated to keeping you a bit safer online, 176 00:09:16,760 --> 00:09:24,420 that is typically where we get a sweet spot and where we see these companies that exist for over a decade and they are consistently committed to the user. 177 00:09:24,640 --> 00:09:28,440 What we've seen in the past is services that magically come up out of nowhere. 178 00:09:28,830 --> 00:09:30,160 They have VC funding, 179 00:09:30,730 --> 00:09:34,080 and then they make a big splash out of nowhere, it seems. 180 00:09:34,280 --> 00:09:38,960 And then people get really excited for it, and then they rug pull all their users because they changed something, 181 00:09:39,310 --> 00:09:40,980 or because they changed the CEO, 182 00:09:41,270 --> 00:09:44,940 or because they literally just disappear because it was never a sustainable business model. 183 00:09:45,460 --> 00:09:47,960 And the investors didn't get what they wanted out of it, 184 00:09:48,170 --> 00:09:51,460 or they completely shift direction because investors want to get their money back. 185 00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:56,240 So I'm not completely anti-VC per se. 186 00:09:56,600 --> 00:10:01,380 I just am quite skeptical of when something has VC funding because it's a lot harder, 187 00:10:01,540 --> 00:10:03,080 I think, to stick to those core values. 188 00:10:03,690 --> 00:10:06,620 And I think when it comes to technology, it's meant to keep children safe. 189 00:10:06,780 --> 00:10:16,940 I don't know why needing to make money out of something and making it profitable should ever be more important than the overall mission of keeping children safer. 190 00:10:17,780 --> 00:10:19,260 So those are my thoughts on that. 191 00:10:19,440 --> 00:10:20,520 I would love to hear what you think. 192 00:10:20,780 --> 00:10:21,980 It's quite a nasty story. 193 00:10:22,440 --> 00:10:25,560 Okay, coming soon, we actually have some positive news. 194 00:10:25,940 --> 00:10:26,100 Again, 195 00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:27,340 on the politics angle, 196 00:10:27,660 --> 00:10:28,720 we have the data breaches, 197 00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:29,880 we have the threats, 198 00:10:30,080 --> 00:10:31,560 and we have the open source updates. 199 00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:32,260 But before then, 200 00:10:32,560 --> 00:10:34,600 I just wanted to quickly showcase our TechLorians. 201 00:10:34,640 --> 00:10:36,540 These are people who are just like you, 202 00:10:36,820 --> 00:10:38,740 and they are pretty much contributing to what we do. 203 00:10:38,920 --> 00:10:40,360 They're joining our private signal group. 204 00:10:40,500 --> 00:10:42,500 They're getting access to my private RSS feed. 205 00:10:42,680 --> 00:10:48,400 And you're also joining our exclusive club of people who care about digital rights and want to keep this content going for everybody else. 206 00:10:48,650 --> 00:10:50,740 We don't currently paywall really any of our content. 207 00:10:50,930 --> 00:10:54,060 I want this to be free and I want this news to get to everybody out there. 208 00:10:54,220 --> 00:10:58,840 And really the only way we can do that is through sponsors and also through all of you in the community. 209 00:10:58,990 --> 00:11:00,860 So if you want to join them and support what we're doing, 210 00:11:01,020 --> 00:11:02,540 it starts at just $5 a month. 211 00:11:02,880 --> 00:11:05,420 You can also just send a one-off tip if you prefer it that way. 212 00:11:05,430 --> 00:11:10,920 It doesn't come with perks, but I still want to make sure that all of you can support things one time if that's the way you want to do it. 213 00:11:11,280 --> 00:11:13,860 We also have Monero memberships if you want to join via Monero. 214 00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:16,400 Thank you all to our techlorians for making this possible. 215 00:11:16,880 --> 00:11:18,980 And maybe you'll be one of them soon. 216 00:11:19,300 --> 00:11:20,540 So thank you all for tuning in. 217 00:11:20,940 --> 00:11:22,600 And now back to some good news. 218 00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:30,220 Now I want to be quite direct here. 219 00:11:30,560 --> 00:11:32,560 This is potentially good news, 220 00:11:32,760 --> 00:11:32,840 right? 221 00:11:32,940 --> 00:11:35,280 This hasn't passed yet, but it's got me very excited. 222 00:11:35,340 --> 00:11:36,400 So this is a bipartisan, 223 00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:36,980 right? 224 00:11:37,100 --> 00:11:39,400 Which means left and right actually agree on something. 225 00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:40,000 Crazy. 226 00:11:40,260 --> 00:11:43,500 This is an amendment that would end police license plate tracking nationwide. 227 00:11:43,550 --> 00:11:46,520 This is actually quite relevant to the last story we just covered. 228 00:11:46,790 --> 00:11:49,240 And this has to do with a federal highway bill of all things, 229 00:11:49,410 --> 00:11:53,920 which strips funds from cities and states unless they kill their ALPR programs, 230 00:11:54,160 --> 00:11:56,720 which we just talked about as automatic license plate readers. 231 00:11:57,020 --> 00:11:59,060 There's literally just a single sentence in this bill, 232 00:11:59,060 --> 00:12:03,320 and it says a recipient of assistance under Title 23 United States Code 233 00:12:03,430 --> 00:12:07,960 may not use automatic license plate readers for any purpose other than tolling. 234 00:12:08,300 --> 00:12:10,240 So only when you go through a toll booth are they allowed. 235 00:12:10,500 --> 00:12:11,500 Otherwise, they are not allowed. 236 00:12:11,620 --> 00:12:11,780 Well, 237 00:12:12,200 --> 00:12:13,320 I guess they won't get funding. 238 00:12:13,580 --> 00:12:19,420 Title 23 funds about a quarter of all public road mileage in the U.S., including most state and county arteries, 239 00:12:20,160 --> 00:12:23,320 and many city streets where ALPR cameras are becoming ubiquitous. 240 00:12:23,680 --> 00:12:35,960 Conditioning that funding on a ban of the technology would, in practical effect, force any state, county, or municipality that takes federal highway money, which is essentially all of them, to either remove the cameras or restructure their use around only tolling. 241 00:12:36,340 --> 00:12:37,540 If you want to read the article, 242 00:12:37,740 --> 00:12:39,820 there's a lot of commentary from various people, 243 00:12:40,160 --> 00:12:40,300 but 244 00:12:40,560 --> 00:12:45,180 the actual people involved in the bill and the actual people like Flock did not respond 245 00:12:45,220 --> 00:12:49,800 to Wired, so I have no notable quotes from the main parties who are involved in this 246 00:12:50,240 --> 00:12:50,440 fight. 247 00:12:50,820 --> 00:12:52,320 Now, I think this is quite exciting. 248 00:12:52,680 --> 00:12:57,060 I've been continually shocked back here by the number of things proposed that are only 249 00:12:57,220 --> 00:13:00,640 proposed by one party when I think it would actually be a win for both parties to get 250 00:13:00,760 --> 00:13:01,180 behind it. 251 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:02,960 And so this is one of those rare wins. 252 00:13:03,240 --> 00:13:04,140 Now, this is not passed. 253 00:13:04,300 --> 00:13:06,600 This is an introduction of the amendment, 254 00:13:06,810 --> 00:13:07,900 but I am hopeful. 255 00:13:08,180 --> 00:13:10,480 And this is something that you can contact your representatives about. 256 00:13:10,860 --> 00:13:13,160 Again, if you just contact your representatives and say, 257 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:15,340 hey, I support this amendment. 258 00:13:15,530 --> 00:13:17,320 I want ALPRs banned. 259 00:13:17,530 --> 00:13:19,220 I have problems with their privacy. 260 00:13:19,310 --> 00:13:23,720 I have problems with the digital rights and the fact that they invade our digital rights. 261 00:13:23,970 --> 00:13:28,640 But I think they should still be used for tolls and just basic necessities that actually make sense. 262 00:13:29,320 --> 00:13:29,820 That's great. 263 00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:40,180 I think really what this points to, and I think what this is really targeting, is why is a private company harvesting all this data, profiting all of this data in a public setting? 264 00:13:40,500 --> 00:13:43,340 These are public government-funded roads, 265 00:13:43,660 --> 00:13:46,860 and we are putting private technology on those roads, 266 00:13:47,380 --> 00:13:51,560 which is essentially just funneling all that data to public law enforcement, 267 00:13:51,840 --> 00:13:55,580 because law enforcement isn't legally allowed to get all of that data themselves. 268 00:13:56,300 --> 00:13:57,900 It is such an obvious, 269 00:13:58,180 --> 00:14:00,040 egregious, 270 00:14:00,320 --> 00:14:01,540 I keep saying egregious a lot today, 271 00:14:01,720 --> 00:14:02,520 misuse of power. 272 00:14:02,810 --> 00:14:04,260 And I don't think people should be against this. 273 00:14:04,380 --> 00:14:06,640 It's the difference between having due process, 274 00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:08,740 having someone have to get a warrant, 275 00:14:09,250 --> 00:14:14,500 versus just having dragnet surveillance that gets everybody caught in the mix when they have done nothing wrong. 276 00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:17,100 So this is something that you should follow. 277 00:14:17,530 --> 00:14:18,060 Get involved. 278 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:19,840 Tell your representatives you support it. 279 00:14:19,940 --> 00:14:21,340 And I would love to see this pass. 280 00:14:21,500 --> 00:14:22,520 Oh my gosh, this passed? 281 00:14:23,380 --> 00:14:24,160 We can celebrate somehow. 282 00:14:24,270 --> 00:14:24,620 I don't know. 283 00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:25,980 How do you think we should celebrate if this passes? 284 00:14:26,210 --> 00:14:26,860 We should do something fun. 285 00:14:27,100 --> 00:14:29,600 I'm open to ideas and I would seriously consider doing it. 286 00:14:29,700 --> 00:14:32,200 So if you have ideas on how we can celebrate when good things happen, 287 00:14:32,490 --> 00:14:32,840 let me know. 288 00:14:33,360 --> 00:14:34,200 Very open to it. 289 00:14:40,140 --> 00:14:40,640 All right, everybody, 290 00:14:40,810 --> 00:14:43,080 we now have the defense bulletin. 291 00:14:43,130 --> 00:14:45,920 We have the three subsections here, which are the data breaches, 292 00:14:46,540 --> 00:14:47,140 the threats, 293 00:14:47,420 --> 00:14:48,580 and the open source updates. 294 00:14:48,720 --> 00:14:54,080 We're going to start with the data breaches here, which is Trump Mobile has confirmed that it exposed customers' 295 00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:54,820 personal data, 296 00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:56,960 including phone numbers and home addresses. 297 00:14:57,420 --> 00:15:00,100 There's actually not much more details about this yet. 298 00:15:00,490 --> 00:15:02,620 This is linked to a third-party platform provider. 299 00:15:03,180 --> 00:15:04,420 They didn't name the provider, 300 00:15:04,580 --> 00:15:08,820 but this leaks just about all sensitive information for anybody who purchased these phones, 301 00:15:09,030 --> 00:15:14,480 which in today's political climate is probably not the best thing to happen for somebody who bought a Trump-branded phone. 302 00:15:14,840 --> 00:15:16,380 So this is quite unfortunate. 303 00:15:16,740 --> 00:15:17,680 Data breaches are never good, 304 00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:19,080 regardless of who it impacts. 305 00:15:19,340 --> 00:15:24,720 And I will say that the one problem I have with this is this final sentence. 306 00:15:25,100 --> 00:15:25,340 Walker, 307 00:15:25,530 --> 00:15:27,640 who is a spokesperson for the Trump phone, 308 00:15:28,060 --> 00:15:33,080 is evaluating whether it needs to notify customers of the exposure of their personal data. 309 00:15:33,760 --> 00:15:34,400 Mr. Walker, 310 00:15:35,380 --> 00:15:35,680 Mr. 311 00:15:36,300 --> 00:15:36,920 Chris Walker, 312 00:15:37,200 --> 00:15:37,500 Mr. 313 00:15:37,900 --> 00:15:40,020 Spokesperson for the Trump-branded phone maker, 314 00:15:40,180 --> 00:15:40,960 Chris Walker, 315 00:15:41,300 --> 00:15:42,180 let me tell you something. 316 00:15:42,700 --> 00:15:45,900 There are legal responsibilities, and there's what's the right thing to do. 317 00:15:46,260 --> 00:15:47,520 And I think in this situation, 318 00:15:47,880 --> 00:15:50,740 there is a right thing to do, which is you leaked all of your 319 00:15:51,040 --> 00:15:51,120 customers' 320 00:15:51,380 --> 00:15:51,720 phone numbers, 321 00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:52,600 home addresses, 322 00:15:53,380 --> 00:15:54,120 mailing addresses, 323 00:15:54,500 --> 00:15:55,240 cell phone numbers, 324 00:15:55,460 --> 00:15:56,600 and order identifiers, 325 00:15:57,020 --> 00:15:59,280 email addresses to the open internet. 326 00:15:59,560 --> 00:16:02,760 To me, this screams a lack of confidence from a company, 327 00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:07,480 regardless of who it is. I would be saying this if it was the Biden mobile phone, if it was the 328 00:16:07,710 --> 00:16:11,120 Kanye mobile phone, if it was the Cardi B mobile phone. 329 00:16:11,590 --> 00:16:13,919 That is a ridiculous sentence that infuriates 330 00:16:13,940 --> 00:16:14,040 me. 331 00:16:14,820 --> 00:16:17,100 It's just, if there is a public data breach, 332 00:16:17,260 --> 00:16:19,720 you might as well get ahead of it and tell your 333 00:16:19,860 --> 00:16:21,960 audience and let them know what went wrong. 334 00:16:22,140 --> 00:16:25,080 Up next, we had a 7-Eleven data breach, which exposed 335 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:28,140 the information of 185,000 people. 336 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:29,640 Now, this is actually an update. 337 00:16:29,860 --> 00:16:30,820 If you follow the podcast, 338 00:16:31,100 --> 00:16:34,100 we already started talking about this story, but now we're getting more details, 339 00:16:34,480 --> 00:16:34,860 which is really 340 00:16:34,960 --> 00:16:38,340 what's going on here. So they were hit by the Shiny Hunters extortion gang. 341 00:16:38,660 --> 00:16:39,399 And now we actually 342 00:16:39,420 --> 00:16:41,160 have more definitive information, 343 00:16:41,460 --> 00:16:44,440 which is 183,000 people were impacted. 344 00:16:44,920 --> 00:16:45,540 This is now on 345 00:16:45,620 --> 00:16:48,980 Have I Been Pwned? And so if you're using a password manager that includes Have I Been Pwned 346 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:55,860 or you're subscribed to Have I Been Pwned directly via using your email so you can track this kind of 347 00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:59,420 stuff, you should be notified by now if you were impacted by this. 348 00:16:59,920 --> 00:17:00,820 And this is another company 349 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:05,479 that's being a little bit shady because the reason we know this is because Have I Been Pwned actually 350 00:17:05,500 --> 00:17:10,079 analyzed the data leaked by the group and then pretty much collected that and sent it to Bleeping 351 00:17:10,260 --> 00:17:10,459 Computer. 352 00:17:11,020 --> 00:17:13,079 And now we know why that happened. 353 00:17:14,040 --> 00:17:14,500 7-Eleven, 354 00:17:14,740 --> 00:17:16,100 though, did not actually reply when 355 00:17:16,220 --> 00:17:19,640 Bleeping Computer reached out to confirm the claims and share the number of affected individuals. 356 00:17:19,829 --> 00:17:22,660 So this is another company that simply does not want to take this seriously. 357 00:17:23,089 --> 00:17:23,939 And this is overall 358 00:17:24,060 --> 00:17:24,319 a problem. 359 00:17:24,660 --> 00:17:29,340 I don't know why these companies don't think data breaches deserve any kind of disclosure 360 00:17:29,650 --> 00:17:31,860 or discussion with the people who are using their services. 361 00:17:32,100 --> 00:17:33,540 It's a basic way to establish trust. 362 00:17:33,780 --> 00:17:33,860 Now, 363 00:17:34,060 --> 00:17:37,520 Shiny Hunters is staying busy because they also hit a U.S. 364 00:17:37,940 --> 00:17:39,640 telecommunications giant charter communications, 365 00:17:40,260 --> 00:17:46,180 which has also confirmed it suffered a data breach after the same extortion group threatened to leak stolen data unless a ransom is paid. 366 00:17:47,080 --> 00:17:49,560 We're probably going to get updates about this as this develops. 367 00:17:49,750 --> 00:17:53,760 This is pretty early on in the whole saga where they got hit by ransomware. 368 00:17:53,790 --> 00:17:54,780 Now they're going to have to negotiate, 369 00:17:54,940 --> 00:17:55,720 figure out what to do. 370 00:17:55,830 --> 00:18:01,180 But apparently they stole 40 million records containing personal information of consumer and business customers. 371 00:18:01,260 --> 00:18:03,040 So we'll keep you updated, stay subscribed, 372 00:18:03,330 --> 00:18:04,840 and I'll be sure to follow up on this story. 373 00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:12,640 This one's a little bit smaller, but Kash Patel, who I believe is the FBI director, yes, he pretty much had his clothing brand website, 374 00:18:12,940 --> 00:18:13,960 which I didn't know existed, 375 00:18:14,110 --> 00:18:17,360 but he did have one, and it was shut down after reports that it was hacked. 376 00:18:18,120 --> 00:18:22,720 So apparently what happened is that it was hacked, and it had malware that was served on it and InfoStealer, 377 00:18:22,940 --> 00:18:23,660 which, 378 00:18:23,930 --> 00:18:24,740 as TechCrunch says, 379 00:18:24,900 --> 00:18:28,480 is a type of malicious software designed to infect victims and steal their credentials and passwords. 380 00:18:29,060 --> 00:18:31,220 And so if you were on this website purchasing anything, 381 00:18:31,580 --> 00:18:32,620 definitely be aware of this. 382 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:33,900 Try to update your browser. 383 00:18:34,280 --> 00:18:38,140 All right, so now we're going to go into the threats, which are things that can impact you, 384 00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:39,620 software you're using, 385 00:18:39,940 --> 00:18:43,260 and are just good things to be aware of because it could impact your safety online. 386 00:18:43,860 --> 00:18:48,260 There's millions of AI agents that were hit by a critical vulnerability in an open source package. 387 00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:51,580 Again, there's this open source package that tons of things are dependent on. 388 00:18:51,880 --> 00:18:53,200 And now all those things are, 389 00:18:53,400 --> 00:18:53,560 you know, 390 00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:54,800 potentially vulnerable. 391 00:18:55,280 --> 00:19:02,580 If you're curious what the package is, it's called Starlet, which is an open source framework that its developer says receives 325 million downloads per week. 392 00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:07,860 This is the base of FastAPI and other widely used frameworks for building services in Python apps, 393 00:19:08,070 --> 00:19:08,840 as well as many others. 394 00:19:09,340 --> 00:19:12,380 And so if you are a bit more technical and you are using any of these things, 395 00:19:12,660 --> 00:19:16,180 apparently, I think I read this could hit some MCPs and stuff like that. 396 00:19:16,580 --> 00:19:18,960 But if you are a bit more technical, it's worth putting this on your radar. 397 00:19:19,090 --> 00:19:21,560 This actually got a severity rating of a 7 out of 10. 398 00:19:21,790 --> 00:19:23,540 This one's quite fascinating. 399 00:19:24,700 --> 00:19:28,340 Google has published exploit code that impacts itself. 400 00:19:29,120 --> 00:19:31,260 I wish I could explain this, 401 00:19:31,420 --> 00:19:31,960 but yes, 402 00:19:32,120 --> 00:19:40,300 Google came forward and published exploit code for an unfixed vulnerability in its Chromium browser code base that threatens millions of people using Chrome, 403 00:19:40,540 --> 00:19:41,560 Microsoft Edge, 404 00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:43,640 and literally all other Chromium-based browsers. 405 00:19:43,900 --> 00:19:44,720 So that includes Brave, 406 00:19:44,940 --> 00:19:45,260 Ivaldi, 407 00:19:45,410 --> 00:19:45,560 etc. 408 00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:48,780 This apparently exploits the Browser Fetch programming interface, 409 00:19:49,200 --> 00:19:53,520 which is a standard that allows long videos and other large files to be downloaded in the background. 410 00:19:53,820 --> 00:20:02,720 So an attacker now can use the exploit to create a connection for monitoring some aspect of a user's browser usage and as a proxy for viewing sites and launching denial of service attacks. 411 00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:09,720 Depending on the browser, the connections either reopen or remain open even after it or the device running it has rebooted. 412 00:20:10,220 --> 00:20:14,560 Now, this went unfixed for 42 months and counting because it still has not been fixed. 413 00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:18,660 And Google reps did not respond to questions asking how and why they published the vulnerability. 414 00:20:19,260 --> 00:20:22,960 Now, there is a statement they made to the public that said they're aware of the code publication, 415 00:20:23,260 --> 00:20:23,980 which I hope they are. 416 00:20:23,980 --> 00:20:27,180 They're the ones who published it, and they are working on a fix, which I hope they are. 417 00:20:27,180 --> 00:20:28,500 They're the ones who published it. 418 00:20:28,700 --> 00:20:29,060 And also, 419 00:20:29,240 --> 00:20:34,340 Firefox and Safari were unaffected by this specifically because they don't support that browser fetching feature. 420 00:20:35,059 --> 00:20:38,780 So I honestly cannot even begin to tell you what happened here. 421 00:20:39,120 --> 00:20:42,800 I am hoping we get some answer because this should be an entertaining answer to get. 422 00:20:42,860 --> 00:20:43,520 But in the meantime, 423 00:20:43,780 --> 00:20:46,680 it is not so entertaining because if you use any Chromium-based browser, 424 00:20:46,860 --> 00:20:48,080 this is a problem. 425 00:20:48,500 --> 00:20:49,600 Now, in fairness to Google, 426 00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:51,880 they did remove the post, 427 00:20:52,680 --> 00:20:54,160 but it still remains available on 428 00:20:54,410 --> 00:20:56,360 archive sites along with the exploit code. 429 00:20:56,450 --> 00:20:57,860 So the damage has been done. 430 00:20:58,460 --> 00:20:58,660 Now, 431 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:03,900 the sad thing is I haven't actually seen a direct mention from Ars Technica or other 432 00:21:04,120 --> 00:21:07,280 sources about how you can be a bit more preventative about this issue. 433 00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:10,740 I don't think that I should just tell people stop using Chromium-based browsers. 434 00:21:10,930 --> 00:21:14,940 I don't think that it's been shown to be used in the wild that often and that the actual 435 00:21:15,100 --> 00:21:16,520 severity of this is that extreme. 436 00:21:17,120 --> 00:21:21,560 But either way, if you do have, if you're specifically concerned about this issue, 437 00:21:21,660 --> 00:21:27,140 it might be safer to at least have a Firefox-based browser and or a Safari-based browser that you can lean on as a backup. 438 00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:29,820 So that is my best advice I could share with you right now. 439 00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:32,840 But stay subscribed because this could have some entertaining updates. 440 00:21:33,340 --> 00:21:33,460 Okay, 441 00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:39,020 so we have been covering this other character who is known as Nightmare Eclipse, 442 00:21:39,500 --> 00:21:43,440 who is a disgruntled researcher, 443 00:21:44,060 --> 00:21:44,380 hacker. 444 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:46,120 I don't know their formal titles, 445 00:21:46,420 --> 00:21:48,520 but they've been going back and forth against Microsoft. 446 00:21:48,800 --> 00:21:51,480 Pretty much Microsoft did something to make them very angry. 447 00:21:51,620 --> 00:21:54,700 And so now they are pretty much finding every zero day they can. 448 00:21:55,080 --> 00:21:55,240 Now, 449 00:21:55,420 --> 00:21:58,680 one of the ones that they found was something called Red Sun and Undefend. 450 00:21:58,780 --> 00:22:03,700 These were previously found and they were Microsoft Defender zero day exploits that were used in attacks. 451 00:22:04,220 --> 00:22:08,780 And this is just an update that Microsoft has started rolling out security patches for those two vulnerabilities. 452 00:22:09,380 --> 00:22:11,580 Get yourself updated and you should be fine against that attack. 453 00:22:11,820 --> 00:22:15,620 There's another zero day exploited in the wild from Trend Micro for Apex One. 454 00:22:16,090 --> 00:22:19,440 Given this is more enterprise focused, I'm just going to say if you're using Apex One, 455 00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:22,320 this is something to look into and it's going to be in the show notes. 456 00:22:22,660 --> 00:22:26,660 This next exploit has to do with Ghost CMS, which is actually what we use for our website. 457 00:22:26,900 --> 00:22:30,100 It's an open source kind of newsletter blogging platform. 458 00:22:31,140 --> 00:22:32,300 It's technically called a CMS. 459 00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:36,620 And what this could do is it allowed attackers to read data from the website database, 460 00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:38,540 including the admin API keys. 461 00:22:38,780 --> 00:22:42,160 Now, the fix for this issue was actually released on February 19th. 462 00:22:42,550 --> 00:22:45,120 So this has been fixed for a long time. 463 00:22:45,700 --> 00:22:45,960 Really, 464 00:22:46,140 --> 00:22:52,260 the update here is that lots of sites still have not updated to version 6.19.1 or later. 465 00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:53,180 For context, 466 00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:56,420 the latest release at the time of recording is 6.42. 467 00:22:56,910 --> 00:22:58,360 So they are quite a bit ahead. 468 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:03,140 So this is really just a PSA that if you know anybody who's using Ghost and are not using an update version, 469 00:23:03,300 --> 00:23:04,420 they should probably update. 470 00:23:04,740 --> 00:23:05,540 And if any of you are curious, 471 00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:07,860 we're actually using Ghost hosted from Ghost themselves. 472 00:23:08,180 --> 00:23:10,920 And so we're always automatically running the latest version. 473 00:23:11,360 --> 00:23:15,700 I think self-hosting that much user data is a little bit too much risk that I'm willing to take right now. 474 00:23:15,940 --> 00:23:20,020 Okay, this is another vulnerability that impacts the Knowledge Deliver learning management system 475 00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:21,900 to deploy the Godzilla web shell. 476 00:23:22,180 --> 00:23:25,480 If you know anything about this and this impacts you, check it out in the show notes. 477 00:23:26,020 --> 00:23:30,960 We also have a Linux kernel flaw that lets unprivileged users access root-only files 478 00:23:31,060 --> 00:23:33,600 and execute arbitrary commands as root. 479 00:23:33,900 --> 00:23:36,200 We've already talked a lot about these in the last several weeks. 480 00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:40,660 Pretty much, though, the TLDR upstream patches and distribution updates are already available for this. 481 00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:42,260 So just a takeaway. 482 00:23:42,580 --> 00:23:43,800 If you want to learn more about it, please do. 483 00:23:44,180 --> 00:23:48,680 But the takeaway for most of you out there, update your Linux distros and make sure that you have the latest patches. 484 00:23:49,120 --> 00:23:50,980 This next one is quite novel, 485 00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:54,340 and I don't think there's anything too actionable about this right now. 486 00:23:54,340 --> 00:23:54,900 But pretty much, 487 00:23:55,060 --> 00:23:56,640 Mullvad published a blog post. 488 00:23:56,720 --> 00:23:59,060 Mullvad is the open source VPN provider. 489 00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:02,000 Pretty much saying that they are aware of a fingerprinting issue. 490 00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:06,460 So you're able to tell users apart that are connecting to the same Mullvad servers, 491 00:24:07,120 --> 00:24:08,220 which impacts Mullvad users. 492 00:24:08,460 --> 00:24:12,640 And they also have a separate blog that is linked in that first one that I'll also leave in the show notes, 493 00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:17,760 which covers the new mitigation rollout and which servers have those new mitigations applied. 494 00:24:18,140 --> 00:24:20,040 And as you can see, as of a couple days ago, 495 00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:23,820 they already have a list growing of some servers that have mitigations applied. 496 00:24:24,140 --> 00:24:26,280 I am not sure if this is a Mullvad-specific issue. 497 00:24:26,360 --> 00:24:28,960 That wasn't something they really clearly said or disclosed. 498 00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:37,620 So I wish I could say if this was just a broad VPN issue at the time of recording or if this is something that only impacted Mullvad. 499 00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:40,460 I would have a hard time believing this only impacts Mullvad, 500 00:24:40,820 --> 00:24:50,160 but I think it would be cool to see somebody who knows a bit more about this step forward and kind of share some light on how this impacts other VPN providers as well, since I know not everybody's using Mullvad. 501 00:24:50,420 --> 00:24:56,100 All right, this one I'm not giving too much attention to right now because it's a bit silly, 502 00:24:56,340 --> 00:24:57,460 I think, at the time of recording. 503 00:24:57,620 --> 00:25:02,220 Pretty much the Texas Attorney General is suing Meta, you know, people who own Facebook, 504 00:25:02,380 --> 00:25:02,560 WhatsApp, 505 00:25:02,820 --> 00:25:03,800 all these, Instagram, 506 00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:07,900 over claims that WhatsApp doesn't actually provide end-to-end encryption. 507 00:25:08,380 --> 00:25:08,520 Now, 508 00:25:08,860 --> 00:25:13,800 we covered a story a few months ago about how there's this overall rumor that WhatsApp is not end-to-end encrypted. 509 00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:15,500 And for the record, I cannot stand Facebook. 510 00:25:15,540 --> 00:25:16,380 I cannot stand Meta. 511 00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:17,280 I don't like WhatsApp. 512 00:25:17,700 --> 00:25:20,420 So these are not companies I enjoy. 513 00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:21,800 With that said, 514 00:25:22,100 --> 00:25:26,260 we don't have any evidence or reason to believe that it doesn't actually have end-to-end encryption. 515 00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:29,040 and you might be going, Henry, but these are not privacy-friendly companies. 516 00:25:29,110 --> 00:25:29,780 And I'd say, you're right. 517 00:25:29,990 --> 00:25:33,060 They don't need to break end-to-end encryption to still be privacy invasive. 518 00:25:33,210 --> 00:25:34,340 And that's where we get into metadata, 519 00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:38,020 which is a very, very well-understood thing that WhatsApp does do. 520 00:25:38,360 --> 00:25:40,200 WhatsApp collects who talks to who at what time, 521 00:25:40,380 --> 00:25:41,020 from what location. 522 00:25:41,420 --> 00:25:42,500 They now have ads in WhatsApp, 523 00:25:42,770 --> 00:25:45,880 so it's definitely being targeted towards you and what you're doing, 524 00:25:46,070 --> 00:25:48,440 and it ties it to your other Facebook and meta traffic. 525 00:25:49,060 --> 00:25:49,720 This is well known. 526 00:25:50,020 --> 00:25:52,080 They don't need to access the content of your messages 527 00:25:52,340 --> 00:25:54,460 to still grossly invade in your life. 528 00:25:54,620 --> 00:25:55,820 There are three cryptographers, 529 00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:57,480 which I'll echo this overall sentiment, 530 00:25:57,700 --> 00:26:02,300 which says we are not aware of any concrete evidence that WhatsApp has broken their promise of end-to-end encryption. 531 00:26:02,710 --> 00:26:05,700 The contents of the complaint do not provide any evidence otherwise. 532 00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:10,320 So I'm not here to ever intentionally defend Meta, 533 00:26:10,500 --> 00:26:10,920 defend WhatsApp, 534 00:26:11,140 --> 00:26:11,560 defend Facebook, 535 00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:12,720 defend any big tech company. 536 00:26:12,890 --> 00:26:18,340 But I like to be real and I like to actually point fingers at what's actually wrong with something and not just make something up because otherwise, 537 00:26:18,670 --> 00:26:23,180 how can we actually act rationally and act as best as we can to a situation? 538 00:26:23,260 --> 00:26:25,120 So I think that as of right now, 539 00:26:25,320 --> 00:26:27,940 there's no reason for me to tell you that WhatsApp doesn't have end-to-end encryption. 540 00:26:28,620 --> 00:26:30,660 I think that's silly until there's evidence to prove otherwise. 541 00:26:31,300 --> 00:26:33,920 But I think what I will tell you is that it is still a Facebook product. 542 00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:36,440 It still has ads built into it. 543 00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:38,180 It still is built on the surveillance economy. 544 00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:40,460 It still collects metadata of who you talk to. 545 00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:42,160 It is still a privacy-invasive service. 546 00:26:42,510 --> 00:26:49,080 And it does not have the same protections as something like Signal, Session, SimpleX, Briar, any actual privacy-first messenger. 547 00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:50,860 That is what I have to say right now. 548 00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:51,880 Stay subscribed. 549 00:26:51,900 --> 00:26:53,360 we might get more updates on this one. 550 00:26:53,690 --> 00:26:54,080 All right, everybody. 551 00:26:54,250 --> 00:26:56,020 And now we get into the open source section, 552 00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:57,720 which many of you enjoyed last week. 553 00:26:57,840 --> 00:26:58,600 Thank you for sharing. 554 00:26:58,770 --> 00:27:00,320 And now we're going to do it again. 555 00:27:00,580 --> 00:27:02,900 So Tails 7.8 has been launched. 556 00:27:03,140 --> 00:27:04,900 This is the open source operating system 557 00:27:04,970 --> 00:27:06,360 that runs everything through Tor. 558 00:27:06,780 --> 00:27:08,100 They have removed Thunderbird, 559 00:27:08,190 --> 00:27:10,080 but they specifically say you can still install it. 560 00:27:10,370 --> 00:27:12,240 So don't be angry if you use Thunderbird and Tails. 561 00:27:12,540 --> 00:27:12,680 However, 562 00:27:13,820 --> 00:27:14,760 10 of you do that. 563 00:27:14,990 --> 00:27:16,480 They also fix some security vulnerabilities 564 00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:19,400 and they kind of go through the upgrade process. 565 00:27:19,700 --> 00:27:21,080 So really exciting stuff there. 566 00:27:21,420 --> 00:27:26,240 We also have a designing Firefox for the future blog from Mozilla. 567 00:27:26,420 --> 00:27:30,440 So it seems like they're planning some big redesigns across the Firefox browser. 568 00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:31,480 And just looking at the screenshots, 569 00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:33,400 I think it looks okay. 570 00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:39,340 They're kind of going through the design language and what they're trying to get users to feel. 571 00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:41,300 They say yours to shape. 572 00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:47,060 You know, I'd say this is more just priming people for what to expect going forward for the redesign. 573 00:27:47,140 --> 00:27:49,660 I think the first thing they're targeting is the settings. 574 00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:51,540 the new settings page. 575 00:27:53,120 --> 00:27:56,300 Design is very taste forward, 576 00:27:56,620 --> 00:27:56,740 right? 577 00:27:56,860 --> 00:27:57,820 Like some people are going to look this 578 00:27:57,880 --> 00:27:59,980 and think it looks like absolute poop. 579 00:28:00,100 --> 00:28:00,840 Some people are going to look this 580 00:28:00,890 --> 00:28:01,680 and think it looks awesome. 581 00:28:02,120 --> 00:28:03,560 Just my first glances at the screenshot, 582 00:28:03,740 --> 00:28:04,620 I think this looks really clean 583 00:28:04,750 --> 00:28:06,660 and I think it looks like a much more modern version 584 00:28:06,940 --> 00:28:07,960 of the current Firefox. 585 00:28:08,340 --> 00:28:11,080 So there's nothing too polarizing in this to me, 586 00:28:11,330 --> 00:28:12,020 just looking at it, 587 00:28:12,110 --> 00:28:12,940 other than the fact it looks like 588 00:28:12,940 --> 00:28:14,180 a more modern version of Firefox. 589 00:28:14,420 --> 00:28:15,580 So I'm excited for this. 590 00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:17,380 I'm excited for a cleaner version of Firefox. 591 00:28:17,940 --> 00:28:20,320 I like redesigns maybe more than other people 592 00:28:20,340 --> 00:28:20,740 and tech do, 593 00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:24,380 but that's just me. I know that no matter what you do, when you redesign something, 594 00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:28,000 you're going to get all the people who, like the old one, 595 00:28:28,460 --> 00:28:29,040 who speak up. 596 00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:29,480 Tuda, 597 00:28:29,820 --> 00:28:30,620 who is the end-to-end 598 00:28:30,620 --> 00:28:32,440 encrypted open source email provider, 599 00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:34,080 has some fun updates here. 600 00:28:34,300 --> 00:28:35,760 So they have easier inbox rules, 601 00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:39,880 so you can set different things that happen when certain emails come in to do certain things. 602 00:28:40,300 --> 00:28:43,360 They also have a faster sync and also a faster search. 603 00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:45,760 And if you're watching the video on Apple, 604 00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:46,820 Spotify, 605 00:28:47,270 --> 00:28:47,380 YouTube, 606 00:28:47,700 --> 00:28:47,900 wherever. 607 00:28:49,260 --> 00:28:52,200 There's actually a nice GIF that they show you here, which shows how 608 00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:54,440 much faster it is loading before and now, 609 00:28:55,340 --> 00:28:56,420 which is really exciting. 610 00:28:56,710 --> 00:28:57,720 They also tease some things 611 00:28:57,880 --> 00:28:58,800 coming soon as well, 612 00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:00,420 like improvements to calendar reminders, 613 00:29:00,820 --> 00:29:02,600 Tudor Drive, and Open Beta, which I have 614 00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:03,000 tried. 615 00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:06,980 So if you want to learn more about Tudor Drive, I did a whole video breaking that down and 616 00:29:07,040 --> 00:29:11,320 what the first kind of look looks like and what my initial thoughts were kind of reviewing that. 617 00:29:11,500 --> 00:29:14,540 So I'll leave that video as well in the show notes if you guys want to check that out. 618 00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:16,360 This is source available technically, 619 00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:17,200 but Vivaldi, 620 00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:17,900 the browser, 621 00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:22,660 has what they're calling their biggest design overhaul ever. 622 00:29:23,100 --> 00:29:26,240 And so they're going through all the different themes that they have. 623 00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:27,200 They have a Zen theme. 624 00:29:27,620 --> 00:29:29,560 They have the typical Vivaldi theme. 625 00:29:29,980 --> 00:29:30,660 And I think, 626 00:29:30,840 --> 00:29:32,720 okay, so let me be real with you here. 627 00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:39,120 My biggest issue with Vivaldi leading up until now for a long time has been that it is just too much for me. 628 00:29:39,180 --> 00:29:42,120 Like I'm somebody who wants just the bare minimum in my software. 629 00:29:42,260 --> 00:29:43,960 I don't want too much customization. 630 00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:45,780 I just want enough customization. 631 00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:48,420 And Vivaldi, for those of you who don't know, 632 00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:50,400 is extremely powerful to the point 633 00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:52,080 where I just got so overwhelmed using it. 634 00:29:52,780 --> 00:29:54,020 That's not to say it's not a great browser 635 00:29:54,260 --> 00:29:55,480 and that it's not for the right person, 636 00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:56,620 but for me, it's overwhelming. 637 00:29:56,880 --> 00:29:59,660 But I think one way they're addressing this is now here, 638 00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:01,180 where when you're setting it up, 639 00:30:01,500 --> 00:30:04,500 or at least you can do this after the onboarding as well, 640 00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:05,460 you can choose a style. 641 00:30:05,700 --> 00:30:07,040 And one of the styles is simple. 642 00:30:07,380 --> 00:30:07,820 There's classic, 643 00:30:08,060 --> 00:30:09,200 there's vertical, there's auto-high, 644 00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:11,100 there's vertical right, and there's also bottom. 645 00:30:11,540 --> 00:30:13,780 So they have these pre-built styles 646 00:30:13,780 --> 00:30:15,760 that allow you to just quickly set something. 647 00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:17,000 And so for someone like me, 648 00:30:17,620 --> 00:30:19,940 that simple one actually looks more attractive. 649 00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:21,720 So I think after I record, 650 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:23,620 I'm going to go ahead and download Vivaldi again. 651 00:30:24,140 --> 00:30:25,140 Maybe try the simple mode, 652 00:30:25,180 --> 00:30:26,120 see if it clicks better for me. 653 00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:27,640 I'm always trying out new browsers. 654 00:30:28,500 --> 00:30:30,000 Almost none of them stick for me personally, 655 00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:31,840 but I want to give this a shot. 656 00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:33,160 It looks like a pretty cool little redesign. 657 00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:35,080 And I've actually interviewed their CEO, 658 00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:36,560 John von Tetschner, 659 00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:37,880 I believe is how you say it. 660 00:30:37,940 --> 00:30:38,560 Maybe I got that wrong. 661 00:30:38,740 --> 00:30:39,380 Maybe I got that right. 662 00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:40,000 But either way, 663 00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:41,420 I interviewed him on Techlore Talks, 664 00:30:41,500 --> 00:30:42,400 which is our sister podcast. 665 00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:45,380 It's also on YouTube as well, and it's on video. 666 00:30:46,060 --> 00:30:47,640 So I'll also leave that link in the show notes 667 00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:50,020 if you guys want to learn more from Vivaldi's CEO himself. 668 00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:51,440 All right, now we just have a... 669 00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:52,680 I'm going to go through these quickly, 670 00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:54,240 but Linux had a few updates. 671 00:30:54,460 --> 00:30:56,040 Linux Mint got some updates, 672 00:30:56,100 --> 00:30:57,920 which included a snappier file explorer, 673 00:30:58,260 --> 00:30:59,340 native screenshot tools, 674 00:30:59,740 --> 00:31:01,760 and some network improvements. 675 00:31:02,380 --> 00:31:04,380 There's other updates that you can find in the show notes. 676 00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:06,940 Rhino Linux hit 2026.1, 677 00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:09,640 which brings Lemuri Desktop. 678 00:31:09,940 --> 00:31:11,820 I have not heard of that desktop environment before, 679 00:31:12,100 --> 00:31:13,120 So that is a new one for me. 680 00:31:13,750 --> 00:31:15,700 But they also have some other fixes as well. 681 00:31:16,180 --> 00:31:18,380 MX Linux has released updated kernels 682 00:31:18,500 --> 00:31:19,880 and a multi-kernel boot support. 683 00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:21,760 That's version 25.2. 684 00:31:21,810 --> 00:31:23,940 And so if you want to learn more about this MX Linux update, 685 00:31:24,100 --> 00:31:25,060 that's also in the show notes. 686 00:31:25,370 --> 00:31:28,860 And then Alma Linux hit version 9.8 and 10.2 stable, 687 00:31:29,140 --> 00:31:31,160 which is now available for all major platforms. 688 00:31:31,410 --> 00:31:32,840 It includes some pretty key fixes 689 00:31:33,030 --> 00:31:34,780 based on just a quick skim of the article. 690 00:31:35,180 --> 00:31:36,200 And that is another project 691 00:31:36,290 --> 00:31:39,020 that I have interviewed their team members for on Techlore Talks. 692 00:31:39,020 --> 00:31:40,520 And so if you want to check out Techlore Talks, 693 00:31:40,620 --> 00:31:43,420 I will leave a link to that in the show notes as well. 694 00:31:43,750 --> 00:31:45,020 If you're on Apple or Spotify, 695 00:31:45,270 --> 00:31:47,380 that is also accessible to you guys as well 696 00:31:47,380 --> 00:31:48,660 if you guys want to check out some interviews 697 00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:50,220 with some of these open source projects. 698 00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:52,000 And without further ado, 699 00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:55,100 that concludes this week's Techlore surveillance report. 700 00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:57,480 If you guys enjoyed this analysis 701 00:31:57,610 --> 00:31:58,720 and it helped you reclaim control, 702 00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:00,040 you can become a Techlorian 703 00:32:00,070 --> 00:32:01,580 by visiting the link in the show notes. 704 00:32:01,630 --> 00:32:05,060 I kind of already covered middle of the episode, 705 00:32:05,220 --> 00:32:06,700 what that looks like and what you get for that. 706 00:32:06,810 --> 00:32:08,320 But it's a huge way of supporting this podcast 707 00:32:08,490 --> 00:32:09,320 and making it possible 708 00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:11,640 so we can keep publishing this every single week. 709 00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:13,220 You'll get access to our exclusive communities. 710 00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:15,740 You'll get access to my private RSS feed throughout the week. 711 00:32:15,980 --> 00:32:17,940 You can still help out a lot by leaving a rating, 712 00:32:18,340 --> 00:32:19,960 sharing this episode with people in your life 713 00:32:20,060 --> 00:32:21,680 to help spread digital freedom to them. 714 00:32:22,180 --> 00:32:23,380 And I just want to thank you all for listening, 715 00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:24,080 for being here, 716 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:26,180 and I'll see you in the next episode of Surveillance Report. 717 00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:27,440 It's always a pleasure to be here. 718 00:32:27,840 --> 00:32:29,020 And I just want to thank you all for listening 719 00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:31,160 and taking this a bit more seriously in your life. 720 00:32:31,700 --> 00:32:32,540 See you all next week. 721 00:32:33,100 --> 00:32:33,380 See you soon.