Welcome to Bigger Insights Privacy & Security

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Welcome to the Bigger Insights Privacy & Security podcast, where we’ll help you live

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a more private and secure life by exposing the latest threats to your privacy and security

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and teaching you how to mitigate them.

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Now that last bit is an important point because there is no such thing as 100% private or

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secure because the threat landscape is constantly evolving, which makes it basically like a

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never ending cat and mouse game.

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The goal of this podcast is to protect yourself, your family, and your business from all kinds

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of threats, whether that be corporate surveillance, device and browser fingerprinting, creepy

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malicious advertisements, data breaches, account takeovers, stalking, etc.

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And we’re going to be doing some separate episodes on why these things matter and why

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you should care about them.

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But in the meantime, if you’re one of these people who think that these things don’t apply

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to you or that you just don’t care about your privacy and security, you should still pay

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attention because we’re going to be going over a lot of things that you might not be

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aware of.

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And there are a lot of positive side effects that come along with protecting your privacy

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and security, like improving your ability to focus, eliminating advertisements, which

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you know, annoy pretty much everybody.

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And from our experience, our clients report greater levels of happiness and fulfillment

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as they simplify their lives by eliminating risky and invasive apps and services.

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It’s also a lot easier to sleep better at night when you make it very difficult for

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bad actors to take advantage of you.

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And that literally is the case.

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You might have heard about this, but recently Linus Tech Tips, the big technology channel

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on YouTube got hacked and they posted a video of Linus getting out of bed at like three

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in the morning to go down to his office and try to recover his account because someone

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messaged him in the middle of the night saying that someone took over their accounts and

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started putting up like crypto scams and started deleting their videos.

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It’s pretty wild.

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You might want to check that out.

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So to help you navigate these issues, we’re going to be talking in this podcast about

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a lot of security tools like password managers, security keys, multi-factor authentication,

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various forms of encryption, like if you want to encrypt your drives, encrypt your text

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messages or emails with PGP, encrypting your documents, your DNS queries and so on.

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We’re also going to be discussing a lot of privacy tools like VPNs, Tor, browsers and

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browser extensions, email alias services, virtual payments, metadata removal and so

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on.

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And we’re going to try our best to give you the information that you need to implement

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these apps, services and devices into your workflow.

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However, in not knowing who you are, where you live, what your situation is and so on,

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we can only do so much on that front, which is why we offer consulting services, but we’ll

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go over that in more detail later in this episode.

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We started Bigger Insights because privacy and security have become such enormous issues

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in recent years.

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And unfortunately, even the most fundamental concepts aren’t taught in most homes or schools.

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Even for those who take the initiative to seek this information online are faced with

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very few, mostly poor choices.

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The internet is absolutely flooded with shallow clickbait.

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Most channels in this space are just advertisements for sketchy services like NordVPN and LastPass,

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which we’ll discuss in future episodes.

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We’re trying to break this trend by giving you access to accurate and actionable information

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that you need without selling you out to advertisers and scammy companies.

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From my personal experience, I’m ashamed to admit that it took me several years to see

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the issues that we’re facing because virtually no one talks about them, especially not in

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the mainstream media.

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When I grew up, the internet wasn’t the creepy mass surveillance engine that it is today.

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And like most other people, I grew up believing that privacy existed unless you willingly

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gave it up, and our communications and internet browsing were private and secure.

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Because why would they not be?

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I mean, it was just something that I never even stopped to question.

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So I grew up using Windows, which meant that I was using Internet Explorer for many years.

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And one day I was in a programming class, and the teacher recommended that we use Firefox.

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So I used it for a while, it was okay.

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I ended up switching back to Internet Explorer because I didn’t have any conviction for using

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Firefox.

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I didn’t understand the privacy and security implications of using Internet Explorer.

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But when I was using Firefox, you know, way back in the day, it used to have this really

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obnoxious update mechanism on Windows where it would basically pop up and bug you to update

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the browser almost every day, and it just really drove me nuts.

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And then at one of the jobs that I worked at, everybody used Google Chrome.

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So I used that at work and started using it at home.

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But one of the things that first struck me was, and I have no idea what compelled me

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to do this, but one day I did a web search for “most private and secure web browsers”.

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I guess I was just curious, you know, what all was out there and whether I should be

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using Chrome or going back to Firefox or something like that.

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But it came across this article, and it gave Google Chrome very high marks for security,

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which is true.

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But it labeled Chrome as a high privacy threat, and in knowing nothing about Google and how

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they make money, I was really confused and kind of uncomfortable about this, because

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I was using Chrome, everyone else I knew was using Chrome, my employer was using Chrome.

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It was the norm at the time, and I guess, I guess it kind of still is.

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So that just made it very difficult for me to take this article seriously.

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But it’s something that always stuck with me.

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Then over time, I would see other articles here and there, like I saw one about Jeff

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Bezos’ phone getting hacked, and they were talking about how his messages would have

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been secured from the malware that was implanted on his device, if he had been using something

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like Signal instead of SMS.

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And this was the same issue for me here.

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I was in, you know, kind of disbelief about this.

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Like why would anybody be able to see your SMS messages?

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Why would they not be secured?

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Why would they not be encrypted?

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This doesn’t make any sense to me.

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I mean, encryption has been around for millennia, and everybody uses SMS.

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So why would this be the case?

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Then I started finding out more disturbing things, like not only is SMS insecure, but

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so are phone calls, emails, faxes, pretty much all of the communications that we use

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today.

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This really piqued my interest.

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So I started investigating security a little bit more, and privacy as well.

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I started reading about Google and Fecesbook and data brokers, and how these companies

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harvest and monetize, you know, extremely sensitive data, like your messages, your emails,

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your location history, your purchase history.

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I found this all very disturbing, and I went down this rabbit hole for years.

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It became kind of an obsession of mine to figure out where the bottom is, how deep

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does this go?

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And unfortunately, the answer to that is very, very, very deep.

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That was a very stressful and painful experience for me, but I’m glad that I did it.

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And I’m glad that now I’m in a position to help other people make sense of what’s going

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on so that they can protect themselves from this never-ending assault on our privacy and

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security.

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So before we get too deep into this episode, we want to go over a few caveats to help anchor

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this discussion.

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First of all, note that some of the content in this episode is subject to change as our

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business evolves.

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If some of those changes are big enough, we might actually revise this episode and republish

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it. For more minor changes, we might just update the description.

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We’d also like to emphasize that we’re going to try to keep things in this podcast as civil

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and friendly as possible with regard to politics and language and things like that.

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But just be aware that some of the issues that we discuss might be a little bit uncomfortable

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for a younger audience.

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It’s just an inconvenient reality that if we’re going to talk about privacy and security,

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we’re going to have to talk about some things like criminal activity, which some people

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might not want to hear.

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But we’re going to avoid foul language, and we’re going to try our best to obfuscate

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some of the things that we talk about so that adults can read between the lines without

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traumatizing our younger audience members.

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It’s important to note that anyone who’s on the internet should be made aware of the

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things that we’re going to be discussing, because we don’t call the internet the online

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jungle for no reason.

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Letting children on the internet is the digital equivalent of letting them walk the streets

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alone at night.

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They’re going to be exposed to adult themes and probably going to be contacted by adults

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with malicious intent no matter what you or online platforms do.

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We’ve literally discovered children being harassed and groomed in online games like

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Roblox, so everyone needs to take this seriously.

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And the final caveat to keep in mind is that some of the items that we discuss might not

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be applicable to your situation, your jurisdiction, or might actually change by the time we publish

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an episode and you actually hear it.

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The laws change all the time.

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We might be talking about something like buying a SIM card with cash anonymously so that your

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mobile service provider doesn’t know who you are, and some of you might be thinking that

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we don’t know what we’re talking about because in your city or your country you have to show

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an ID to buy a SIM card, so just keep this in mind.

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All right, so now let’s switch gears and talk about Bigger Insights the company.

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Bigger Insights is an Ohio limited liability company founded in 2020.

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That makes us perhaps the only good thing to have come out of 2020 because 2020 was an

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absolute dumpster fire.

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Technically, we’re located in Cincinnati, but we can serve clients located almost anywhere

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because the vast majority of the work that we do is remote.

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We serve our clients in one-on-one sessions using end-to-end encrypted messaging and teleconferencing

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services like Signal or Jitsi, but we may be willing to do onsite visits if you’re in

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the Cincinnati area and the situation calls for it.

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We have a website, biggerinsights.com. It contains blog posts, podcast episodes, which

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you might want to check out by the way, because our podcast episodes on our website might

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contain things like video content and transcriptions, which you might not see in the platform that

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you’re listening to this on.

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It also has all of our contact information, some FAQs, and we’re considering adding some

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helpful resources, so go ahead and check that out.

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This particular podcast is focused on privacy and security, but be aware that we offer services

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in finance and technology as well.

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That includes not only our one-on-one consulting services, but also blog posts and podcasts,

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so take a look for our Bigger Insights Finance and Bigger Insights Technology podcasts.

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If you’re on Apple, we have an Apple channel called Bigger Insights, which lists these

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three podcasts, and we’re considering adding more in the future, so go ahead and check

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that out.

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If you do that, I’m pretty sure you still need to subscribe to them individually.

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I don’t think you can subscribe to the channel itself.

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For some of you, this might sound a little bit strange, like, what do finance and privacy

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and security and technology have to do with each other and why not just focus on one thing?

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The reason for that is because Bigger Insights is about sovereignty and resilience.

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We encourage you to do this sometime.

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Sit down and think about what skills a person needs today and into the future if they want

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to be self-sovereign and resilient.

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When we think about this, at least in the context of a developed economy that’s not on the

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brink of collapse, we think that the answer to that is finance, privacy, security, and

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technology.

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These skills and disciplines work together hand in hand. So think about it this way.

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With technology, you can be more productive, you can make more money, and ideally, not

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be replaced by AI like ChatGPT.

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I have a quote that we like here by Christian Lous Lange, I’m sorry if I mispronounced his

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name, but he says, “Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master”.

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We’re concerned for people who don’t master technology because we’re concerned that technology

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is going to master them.

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We believe this will apply to everybody in their personal lives, but might bleed over

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into their professional lives as well.

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You know, whether you’re a teacher or an architect or a roofer or something like that, you’re

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going to have a difficult time competing with your competitors if you don’t understand

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technology and implement it as effectively as your competition does.

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So you use technology to be more productive and make more money.

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And then with your financial skills, you can manage, grow, and protect those assets.

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One of the reasons why I personally started getting involved in finance was I saw the

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sheer terror that ensued during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC).

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And when I saw white collar workers fearing for their lives and some of them were quite

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literally jumping off skyscrapers, this taught me that no matter what you do, even if you’re

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not in a financial field, if you care about your finances, you care about your wealth

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and you care about your future and security, you need to learn finance.

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That’s just the way that it is, whether you like it or not.

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A perfect example of that is the dumpster fire that is underfunded pension obligations

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all around the developed world.

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If you’re planning on relying on a government pension for your retirement or you’re a teacher

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or some other public sector worker who’s relying on benefits, you need to be aware that those

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are at very high risk.

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A lot of these systems are critically underfunded and that was the case before the market started

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to melt down in 2022.

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And now that the banks are falling apart, one has to wonder how secure your benefits

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actually are.

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So again, it doesn’t matter who you are and what you do, it behooves you to get up to

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speed on finance so that you can protect your assets.

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One of our favorite quotes about money is from Malcolm Forbes, he said, “Money isn’t

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everything as long as you have enough”.

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Now what’s interesting about that quote is I think most people are going to focus on

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the first three words, “money isn’t everything”, but the last half is important, “as long as

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you have enough”.

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If you don’t have enough, money really does become everything, I hate to say it, but just

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think about it for a second.

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What major thing in your life isn’t significantly affected by your finances?

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I think the one thing that most people would say in that regard is love, because love is

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free.

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However, even that is questionable.

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Money issues are the number one or number two leading cause of divorce.

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And as far as privacy and security are concerned, you need to get up to speed on this as well

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because you’re going to need these skills to protect your life, the lives of your family,

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protect your business, protect your assets, and just protect your future.

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You know, we want to all believe that these things just don’t matter until we become victims,

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or we might think that, you know, these things don’t apply to us because we’re not Elon

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Musk or Jeff Bezos, but this is a matter that really does concern everybody.

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Nobody is safe.

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That’s reality.

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Just the other day, I was getting my hair cut and I was talking to the hairstylist and

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she said that somebody hacked into her bank account and emptied it.

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Now, luckily, she was able to work with the bank and get the money back, but she was very,

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very close to not being able to make rent.

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But the story is probably not going to end there because whoever did that probably has

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a tremendous amount of information about her, and they’re probably going to go after her

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again for something else.

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So just keep that in mind because, you know, obviously, she’s not Elon Musk, but that didn’t

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protect her from someone raiding her bank account, and we don’t want to see anybody

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else go through that.

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So that’s one of the reasons why we exist.

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We want to help people avoid these kinds of issues.

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I want to read a quote to you from Tim Cook, very interesting.

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He says, quote, “This is the golden age of surveillance that we live in.

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There is more information about all of us.

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So much more than 10 years ago or five years ago, it’s everywhere.

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You are leaving digital footprints everywhere.”

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So don’t just take our word for it.

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I mean, he should obviously know.

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And just keep in mind that we’re here to help you with this.

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We’re here to help make sure that you’re not leaving your digital footprints everywhere.

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But regarding these specific topics, there’s some other things that you should know.

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You might be thinking to yourself, well, you know, I have an accountant or I have a guy

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who manages my investments, so I don’t need to worry about any of this stuff.

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And that’s great.

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But still, the question is, if you’re not educated on these topics, how are you going

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to know who to hire?

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How are you going to know who’s good at their job?

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How are you going to know whether they’re giving you a good value or that they have

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any idea what they’re doing?

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This is a real issue.

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So even though, you know, personally, I’m very knowledgeable about taxes, I’ll still

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use an accountant.

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But before I hire one, I’ll, you know, kind of low-key interview them about certain things

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and make sure that they know what they’re talking about.

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But how can you do that if you don’t know anything about taxes?

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You’re just, you’re really just flying blind and hoping that, you know, they do everything

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correctly and that they’re looking out for your best interests.

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This reminds me of something that Robert Kiyosaki talks about a lot in his books.

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He says, something to the effect of the poor want to know a lot about a little, but the

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rich want to know a little about a lot.

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It can be difficult to do.

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But if you do know a little about a lot, that really helps you see the forest through the

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trees and make connections that a lot of other people just can’t make.

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For example, you know, I follow a lot of people in the financial space and the ones that are

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interested in cryptocurrency only talk about one thing and that’s Bitcoin.

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And that’s because they just don’t understand how much of a disaster the privacy implications

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are for people who invest in Bitcoin.

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If they did, they wouldn’t want to touch it with a 10 foot pole, they would be talking

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about something like Monero, which is private by default. But you know, that’s the risk

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that you run when you work with somebody who focuses on one narrow discipline like finance.

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And when you hire most professionals, you also need to be wondering how they manage

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your data.

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Where do they store it?

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You know, a lot of them use Yahoo and Google products and things like that that you would

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not want your information being stored in.

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So we’ve talked about who we are.

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Now let’s talk about who we are not.

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We are not CPAs, CFAs, CFPs, RIAs, attorneys, fiduciaries, etc.

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Even if we were, we wouldn’t be able to give you advice in this podcast.

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However, we do consult with these experts on our own time and our own dime.

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But one of the differences is we don’t charge you $400 an hour.

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You know, one of the things that I’ll do is I’ll queue up, you know, pages and pages

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of questions and I’ll visit attorneys and accountants and things like that and get answers

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to some of these really difficult questions that you just can’t find on the internet.

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I get the impression that they think that I’m kind of strange for doing that, but you

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know, that’s just, unfortunately, that’s just what I have to do to get up to speed on some

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of these topics.

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And I’d also like to emphasize that even though we are not those things, having those certifications

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is not a guarantee of anything.

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It’s absolutely terrifying how often we speak to experts like attorneys and accountants

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who don’t understand some of the things that we’re going to be talking about.

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For example, I went to talk to an attorney who claims on his website to be an expert

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in real estate. The guy didn’t know what a land trust was.

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The attorney that I talked to after that didn’t know what an LLC was.

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I mean, first of all, he thought that it stood for Limited Liability Corporation, which

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is wrong.

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It’s a limited liability company.

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It is not a corporation.

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They’re very different things.

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And I quizzed him on Ohio’s Limited Liability Company statute by asking him if a charging

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order is the sole and exclusive remedy for a judgment against an Ohio LLC, which is the

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case.

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And he said, no, no, that can just take your interest.

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Now maybe he just failed to expand on that like he should have, like, you know, was he

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talking about piercing the corporate veil or what?

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But at the end of the day, it says right there, you can read on the website, Ohio’s revised

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code website, that a charging order is the sole and exclusive remedy for a judgment against

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an Ohio LLC.

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That’s one of the reasons why we are an LLC, not a corporation.

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You know, we’ll also ask accountants, certain tax questions that they probably should know.

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And they just, they just don’t know.

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They’ll say like, Oh, I don’t know, I’ll just have to, you know, research it and charge

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you for that.

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And it’s, it’s really disappointing.

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And another thing to keep in mind with a lot of these professionals is they really won’t

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want to give you the time of day

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if you don’t have a lot of assets for them to manage, or if they just think that you’re

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not a very sophisticated person. And that’s very unfortunate. You know, a lot of financial

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planners won’t do anything for you if you don’t give them at least a hundred thousand

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dollars worth of assets to manage.

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So if that’s you, what are you supposed to do?

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Like what really are your options?

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And that’s where we come in, we’ll help you, we’ll charge you a fair hourly rate.

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We won’t take a percentage of your assets or anything like that.

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So now let’s talk a little bit about what we do.

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In addition to making the best podcast and blog content out there, we serve clients like

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you in one-on-one sessions.

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Like I said earlier, we charge an hourly rate, which at the time of this recording, we don’t

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disclose for many reasons.

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Like first of all, it’s subject to change, especially with, you know, the way that the

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dollar is going, who knows what it’s actually going to be worth a year from now.

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And hourly rates can be very misleading.

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So in our particular case, we do quite a bit of pro bono work.

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We’ll text our clients oftentimes for free.

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We can’t guarantee that for everybody, it just depends on the circumstances and what

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exactly you’re asking for.

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You know, like if you were to ask us, you know, what password manager we recommend, we’ll

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give you a couple of options and some very basic reasons why.

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But if you were to follow up and say, okay, can you help me get it set up properly and

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help, you know, migrate my existing data over into it and things like that, you know, that’s

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something that we would set up, you know, a paid session for.

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So just as an example, a few nights ago at like 11 or 12 at night, I was texting one of

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our clients through Signal for free, helping explain to her what our options are for executing

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and passing contracts back and forth with someone in a more private secure manner than

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using something like DocuSign.

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You know, good luck finding somebody else who’s willing to do something like that for

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you.

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And finally, regarding our hourly rates, we like to discuss what we offer in more detail

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with prospective clients, and we can also talk about how others mislead what their billing

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rates actually are.

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You know, Warren Buffett famously says, “Price is what you pay, value is what you get”.

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So if you can find somebody else who offers the services that we offer, which, you know,

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off the top of my head, I’m not even sure who that would be, but if you can find somebody

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else who would do it, and for a cheaper rate than we will, you have to ask yourself some

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other questions.

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Like, how are they securing your data?

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You know, are they willing to help you out quickly over text for free?

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You know, like all hours of the day, sometimes I’ll help people at three in the morning.

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You know, we’re also willing to help people out on holidays and weekends as well.

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And you know, again, good luck trying to find other people who will do that for you.

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So there’s a lot more to consider than just the hourly rate, but that gets kind of lost when

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people, you know, see that on the screen without all of the other context that goes

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on behind it.

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So right about now, you might be wondering, under what circumstances would you request

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a meeting with us?

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Or what do they look like?

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Our requests from clients generally fall under one of three categories.

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The first being acute issues. That might be something like you need help dealing with

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a scam, or maybe you’ve been hacked, or you think that you might have been hacked.

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We can help you with something like that.

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The second would be education.

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You might just be curious about something you might want to learn more about device and

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browser fingerprinting and how you can protect yourself from that.

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Sometimes we’ll get requests like, “Hey, can you sit down and explain to our daughter why

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she shouldn’t be documenting her entire life story on Fecesbook?”

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And the third is just ongoing maintenance.

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So internally, we do regular maintenance for things like updating our passwords or reviewing

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our devices and apps and services to make sure that they’re the best ones for the job

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and that we still need them.

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So we recommend that our clients do the same, and we can sit down with you and talk about,

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you know, what’s going on in your life or in your business or with your career, talk

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about what your needs are, what kind of devices and apps and services you’re using, and not

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only help make sure that those tools are right for you, but that you’re using them in a private

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and secure manner.

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So once you decide that you want to request a meeting, you can reach out to us and we’ll

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follow up and schedule a time to talk to you through one of our secure channels.

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You can go to the contact section of our website at biggerinsights.com to see all the different

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ways that you can reach out to us.

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But at the time of this recording, you can talk to us through Signal, Session, Briar,

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Matrix, Email, SMS, Mastodon, and Twitter.

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However, not only is that subject to change, but as of now, we prefer that you reach out

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to us using Signal or Session.

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And if you do that, you’ll probably get the best and quickest response out of us.

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Now let’s go over a few things that we do not do just to make sure that we’re all on

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the same page.

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We don’t give financial, tax, legal, health, or other professional advice in this podcast

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or our website for many reasons, one of which is we just don’t know who you are and what

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your circumstances are.

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Another thing that we definitely do not do is sell our customers data or sell sketchy

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products.

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It is possible that we might recommend certain products or services that either we use ourselves

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or that we strongly believe in, but you’re not going to hear us peddling sketchy products

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like LastPass or NordVPN or something like that, like a lot of other content creators

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do out there.

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But for more legitimate products and services that we believe in, like Proton or Tutanota

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or Mullvad or Nitrokey or something like that, we would consider helping them market their

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products and services because we believe in them.

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We think that they’re doing a great job and we think that that would not only do them

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and us a favor, but our listeners and our clients as well. It’s a win, win, win.

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Let’s switch gears and talk about what sets us apart from our competitors.

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We’ve alluded to this earlier, but we believe we take a very comprehensive approach to helping

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you build a successful future that you’d be very hard-pressed to find elsewhere.

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The services that we provide our clients are engineered not only to satisfy their privacy

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and security goals, but we do so within a framework that takes their financial and technology

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needs into account.

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We think this is very important and we think it’s very much underappreciated.

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We also focus very heavily on our client’s individual needs.

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Every client’s situation is different in terms of risk tolerance, threat model, family matters,

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financial means, etc.

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We focus on tailoring our services to each client’s specific situation and needs.

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Just as an example, for some people, an iPhone might be the best choice for them, but for

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00:31:35,000 –> 00:31:40,280
others, we might recommend a Google Pixel with GraphineOS or CalyxOS.

433
00:31:40,280 –> 00:31:43,040
It just depends on the situation.

434
00:31:43,040 –> 00:31:48,000
We’re not one-trick ponies and we don’t recommend the same thing to all of our clients because

435
00:31:48,000 –> 00:31:55,200
this stuff is extremely complicated. And you don’t really learn and realize and appreciate

436
00:31:55,200 –> 00:32:01,600
that until you’ve had the experiences that we’ve had, not only through our own research,

437
00:32:01,600 –> 00:32:04,320
but helping all of our other clients.

438
00:32:04,320 –> 00:32:07,600
Another thing that sets us apart is we’re very flexible.

439
00:32:07,600 –> 00:32:11,120
A lot of our clients have a 9 to 5 JOB.

440
00:32:11,120 –> 00:32:17,720
If that’s you, then you might be painfully aware as to how difficult it can be to work

441
00:32:17,720 –> 00:32:24,120
with accountants and lawyers and other professionals who also work the same schedule.

442
00:32:24,120 –> 00:32:30,400
I remember one time I was working a job and I was interested in buying some rental real

443
00:32:30,400 –> 00:32:37,040
estate and I just remember how painful and frustrating it was to try to balance working

444
00:32:37,040 –> 00:32:43,280
my job so I didn’t get canned, but also dealing with the banks and the title companies and

445
00:32:43,280 –> 00:32:49,160
the real estate agents and viewing the homes and talking to insurance companies and mortgage

446
00:32:49,160 –> 00:32:54,240
brokers because all these people work from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday.

447
00:32:54,240 –> 00:32:58,160
We understand that and we have clients from all over.

448
00:32:58,160 –> 00:33:05,480
We do almost all of our work electronically, so we can serve people in a lot of different

449
00:33:05,480 –> 00:33:10,600
hours throughout the day, so if you have a job, just keep that in mind.

450
00:33:10,600 –> 00:33:14,080
We might very well be able to make something work for you.

451
00:33:14,080 –> 00:33:18,960
We also have a lot of in-depth knowledge on privacy and security.

452
00:33:18,960 –> 00:33:23,720
That allows us to come up with very creative solutions for our clients.

453
00:33:23,720 –> 00:33:29,960
If you want to live a more private and secure life, I regret to inform you that that can

454
00:33:29,960 –> 00:33:37,480
be a very long, painful, and quite frankly scary experience to do on your own.

455
00:33:37,480 –> 00:33:44,040
We can help you navigate these challenges and avoid a lot of the pitfalls that not only

456
00:33:44,040 –> 00:33:50,840
we’ve fallen into, but our other clients have as well. And I’ll give you a perfect example.

457
00:33:50,840 –> 00:33:59,680
We make heavy use of incognito browsing, not saving sessions, using VPNs and Tor, and

458
00:33:59,680 –> 00:34:06,480
uBlock Origin for blocking a lot of creepy web content, and we recommend that our clients

459
00:34:06,480 –> 00:34:10,720
do as well, but there’s nuance to discuss there.

460
00:34:10,720 –> 00:34:17,120
You’ll want to understand not only what to do and how to do it, but when to do it.

461
00:34:17,120 –> 00:34:23,280
A lot of services are becoming increasingly antagonistic toward people who use these kinds

462
00:34:23,280 –> 00:34:28,120
of privacy and security tools and techniques, and if you aren’t careful, you can really

463
00:34:28,120 –> 00:34:29,720
get burned.

464
00:34:29,720 –> 00:34:36,000
So in my personal case, I’ve learned the hard way that if you have an eBay account and

465
00:34:36,000 –> 00:34:41,640
their systems observe you logging in with a fresh session from an IP address that they

466
00:34:41,640 –> 00:34:46,720
haven’t seen before, they’re going to watch you very, very closely, and if you start doing

467
00:34:46,720 –> 00:34:51,160
things like changing your password, they’re going to lock your account.

468
00:34:51,160 –> 00:34:56,720
And then on top of that, their customer support is almost impossible to contact.

469
00:34:56,720 –> 00:35:01,280
So this is something that I learned the hard way, and I have an eBay account that’s been

470
00:35:01,280 –> 00:35:06,560
locked for years because last time I went in there, the only thing that I was trying

471
00:35:06,560 –> 00:35:14,760
to do was beef up my password and use an email alias so that I could delete the email address

472
00:35:14,760 –> 00:35:17,880
that was originally associated with that account.

473
00:35:17,880 –> 00:35:23,360
And a very short while after I did that, they sent me an email explaining to me that they

474
00:35:23,360 –> 00:35:27,560
thought something weird was going on and they locked my account and that I wouldn’t be able

475
00:35:27,560 –> 00:35:31,960
to get into it again without contacting customer support.

476
00:35:31,960 –> 00:35:36,000
And there’s a lot more to that story, which I’m not going to go into here.

477
00:35:36,000 –> 00:35:40,520
But the point is that these tools and techniques are very helpful and we think that people

478
00:35:40,520 –> 00:35:45,920
should be using them, but you need to know how they work and you need to know what the

479
00:35:45,920 –> 00:35:46,920
risks are.

480
00:35:46,920 –> 00:35:52,200
And we’re going to do our best to explain that throughout the episodes of this podcast,

481
00:35:52,200 –> 00:35:54,200
but that’s kind of difficult to do.

482
00:35:54,200 –> 00:35:57,680
And that’s why we recommend that you become a client so that we can sit down with you

483
00:35:57,680 –> 00:36:03,320
and explain these things in a way that’s tailored to your specific situation.

484
00:36:03,320 –> 00:36:07,840
Another thing that makes us different is we are honest with our clients.

485
00:36:07,840 –> 00:36:13,240
I have a decade of experience working in the professional services industry, and I can

486
00:36:13,240 –> 00:36:20,000
tell you from that experience that most professionals and businesses are not going to tell you what

487
00:36:20,000 –> 00:36:21,000
you need to hear.

488
00:36:21,000 –> 00:36:23,960
They’re going to tell you what you want to hear.

489
00:36:23,960 –> 00:36:30,880
Now, because I have a conscience and I have integrity, this made me very unpopular at

490
00:36:30,880 –> 00:36:32,760
my previous job.

491
00:36:32,760 –> 00:36:39,000
When push came to shove, I always yielded to our clients and told them what they needed

492
00:36:39,000 –> 00:36:45,320
to hear and gave them what they needed at the expense of my career and my employer.

493
00:36:45,320 –> 00:36:50,240
I would make decisions that were in the best interest of our clients, even if they didn’t

494
00:36:50,240 –> 00:36:51,720
understand them.

495
00:36:51,720 –> 00:36:57,360
And I remember like it was yesterday, my boss pulled me into his office one day because

496
00:36:57,360 –> 00:37:00,680
he was very upset about something that I did.

497
00:37:00,680 –> 00:37:05,600
And what he said to me was, “Perception is everything.”

498
00:37:05,600 –> 00:37:12,920
Now what he meant by that was it was okay and justifiable for us as a company to do

499
00:37:12,920 –> 00:37:19,360
things that went against our client’s interests as long as they perceived that we were acting

500
00:37:19,360 –> 00:37:21,480
in their best interest.

501
00:37:21,480 –> 00:37:27,160
And that really created a lot of friction between me and my employer because I just don’t believe

502
00:37:27,160 –> 00:37:29,720
in that philosophy at all.

503
00:37:29,720 –> 00:37:36,520
You know, I don’t want to live in a world where everyone thinks that it’s okay to exploit

504
00:37:36,520 –> 00:37:41,800
other people to the extent that they just don’t perceive that that’s what you’re doing.

505
00:37:41,800 –> 00:37:47,360
I mean, that’s basically our surveillance economy in a nutshell.

506
00:37:47,360 –> 00:37:53,880
Companies like Fecesbook, for example, thrive on secrecy because the vast majority of users

507
00:37:53,880 –> 00:37:58,280
have not perceived yet that they’re being taken advantage of.

508
00:37:58,280 –> 00:38:03,920
And as long as that’s okay, these companies are going to continue to exploit their users

509
00:38:03,920 –> 00:38:09,640
and extract every penny out of them that they can, no matter what the consequences are.

510
00:38:09,640 –> 00:38:11,960
And we just don’t believe in that at all.

511
00:38:11,960 –> 00:38:16,320
So we’re trying to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

512
00:38:16,320 –> 00:38:22,120
Along these lines, another thing that sets us apart is we have integrity, something that’s

513
00:38:22,120 –> 00:38:25,480
severely lacking in the services business.

514
00:38:25,480 –> 00:38:31,000
We can admit when your needs are beyond the scope of what we have to offer.

515
00:38:31,000 –> 00:38:37,720
I worked at a company once that would accept any project that someone brought to them.

516
00:38:37,720 –> 00:38:43,120
I mean, they would agree to do things that they had absolutely no business doing, things

517
00:38:43,120 –> 00:38:48,640
that they have never done before, things that could actually really hurt people if something

518
00:38:48,640 –> 00:38:54,360
went wrong, and it really bothers us when we see companies doing stuff like that.

519
00:38:54,360 –> 00:38:59,760
So if we can’t help you with something, we’ll be the first to admit that. We’re not just

520
00:38:59,760 –> 00:39:03,800
going to pretend like we can help you with something just to rack up fees.

521
00:39:03,800 –> 00:39:06,360
That’s not how we work for a number of reasons.

522
00:39:06,360 –> 00:39:12,320
I mean, not only is that a moral issue, but if we’re sitting here fumbling around trying

523
00:39:12,320 –> 00:39:16,680
to help you with something that we have no business working on, that also means that

524
00:39:16,680 –> 00:39:21,640
we’re not helping another client who has something that we should be helping them with.

525
00:39:21,640 –> 00:39:28,040
And finally, we take your data and your privacy seriously.

526
00:39:28,040 –> 00:39:30,080
We do this in many ways.

527
00:39:30,080 –> 00:39:36,200
First of all, we collect a very, very minimal amount of data about our customers.

528
00:39:36,200 –> 00:39:41,200
So even if we were to get compromised, which is very unlikely, there would be very little

529
00:39:41,200 –> 00:39:44,200
information to get compromised.

530
00:39:44,200 –> 00:39:51,920
And second of all, the data that we store about our clients is stored locally only on

531
00:39:51,920 –> 00:40:01,680
devices that we physically control in multiple locations using open-source encryption standards.

532
00:40:01,680 –> 00:40:08,520
Now there are some caveats to that, which depend on a couple of things like how you contact

533
00:40:08,520 –> 00:40:09,520
us.

534
00:40:09,520 –> 00:40:15,400
So for example, if you fill out the new client request form at the bottom of our website,

535
00:40:15,400 –> 00:40:21,200
that information gets emailed to us and a copy of it is stored in our website.

536
00:40:21,200 –> 00:40:27,480
If you email us, that email might be sitting in, you know, Proton’s servers until we get

537
00:40:27,480 –> 00:40:29,160
around to deleting it.

538
00:40:29,160 –> 00:40:35,280
But even in those cases, just keep in mind that we clean that stuff up on a regular basis.

539
00:40:35,280 –> 00:40:41,920
We tend to not keep any data laying around for longer than we think is necessary.

540
00:40:41,920 –> 00:40:46,720
So if you were to contact us through our website, we would record your information and reach

541
00:40:46,720 –> 00:40:47,920
out to you.

542
00:40:47,920 –> 00:40:52,360
And then eventually we would delete that message request from our website and from our email

543
00:40:52,360 –> 00:40:54,200
inbox.

544
00:40:54,200 –> 00:40:59,160
And if any of that concerns you, just keep in mind, like we said earlier, you can contact

545
00:40:59,160 –> 00:41:00,880
us in other ways.

546
00:41:00,880 –> 00:41:05,200
We can talk to you through Briar or Session or Signal or something like that

547
00:41:05,200 –> 00:41:10,320
if that’s what you want to do. I mean, just compare that to what a lot of other companies

548
00:41:10,320 –> 00:41:11,320
do.

549
00:41:11,320 –> 00:41:15,720
I’ll go to professional services firms on a regular basis and I’ll see that they’re

550
00:41:15,720 –> 00:41:20,240
storing their client information in Google Drive, which is pretty terrifying.

551
00:41:20,240 –> 00:41:24,040
We would never do that. Although we do have a Google account,

552
00:41:24,040 –> 00:41:26,920
we don’t store any of our customers’ data in it.

553
00:41:26,920 –> 00:41:33,440
Oh, and I forgot to mention, if you do want to email us, we do put our PGP public key

554
00:41:33,440 –> 00:41:36,040
up on our website in the contact section.

555
00:41:36,040 –> 00:41:41,360
So if you really want or need to email us for some reason, you can also use PGP to encrypt

556
00:41:41,360 –> 00:41:43,000
that message.

557
00:41:43,000 –> 00:41:46,520
And we’re currently using Proton as our email provider.

558
00:41:46,520 –> 00:41:51,520
So if you have a Proton Mail account, which you can create for free, then you can email

559
00:41:51,520 –> 00:41:55,280
us from your Proton account and that’ll be end-to-end encrypted.

560
00:41:55,280 –> 00:41:59,520
All right, so to wrap this up, let’s go over some action items.

561
00:41:59,520 –> 00:42:03,160
The first is consider visiting our website.

562
00:42:03,160 –> 00:42:08,920
We don’t put ads up there so we don’t benefit directly by you visiting, but you might see

563
00:42:08,920 –> 00:42:15,680
some content you like, like our blog posts or our podcast episodes. Or our FAQ section

564
00:42:15,680 –> 00:42:20,800
if you have some questions that we didn’t answer in this episode. Make sure you consider

565
00:42:20,800 –> 00:42:23,240
subscribing to our podcasts.

566
00:42:23,240 –> 00:42:28,200
We probably won’t be pumping out episodes on a daily basis or anything like that.

567
00:42:28,200 –> 00:42:34,120
So when they do come out, you know, we think that they’re probably going to be pretty important.

568
00:42:34,120 –> 00:42:38,920
Anybody who knows me personally knows that I’m a pretty minimalist person and I don’t

569
00:42:38,920 –> 00:42:42,240
usually say things unless they need to be said.

570
00:42:42,240 –> 00:42:46,680
So go ahead and subscribe and give us the chance to prove to you that the information

571
00:42:46,680 –> 00:42:49,920
that we’re going to be sharing is going to be worth your while.

572
00:42:49,920 –> 00:42:53,360
And finally, don’t be shy about contacting us.

573
00:42:53,360 –> 00:42:58,560
Like I said earlier, you can contact us on Signal, Session, Matrix, Email, SMS, Mastodon,

574
00:42:58,560 –> 00:42:59,760
Twitter.

575
00:42:59,760 –> 00:43:04,400
We might add other means of communication in the future, although we’re probably never

576
00:43:04,400 –> 00:43:07,320
going to open a Meta or a TikTok account.

577
00:43:07,320 –> 00:43:10,760
So you can go ahead and cross that off your list.

578
00:43:10,760 –> 00:43:16,080
And if you have an issue, like with this podcast, for example, go ahead and reach out to us

579
00:43:16,080 –> 00:43:17,080
directly.

580
00:43:17,080 –> 00:43:21,360
And give us the chance to make things right, like if there’s a technical issue, like if

581
00:43:21,360 –> 00:43:27,000
you can only hear us out of your left ear or, you know, we mix up a date or something

582
00:43:27,000 –> 00:43:28,000
like that.

583
00:43:28,000 –> 00:43:29,240
Give us the chance to correct it.

584
00:43:29,240 –> 00:43:34,600
If it’s serious enough, we might, you know, re-edit the episode and republish it.

585
00:43:34,600 –> 00:43:40,000
You know, don’t just flame us with a one-star review because we said something stupid like

586
00:43:40,000 –> 00:43:46,440
oh the IRA contribution limit is $6,000 and it’s really $6,500 or something like that.

587
00:43:46,440 –> 00:43:49,560
You know, give us a chance to fix our errors.

588
00:43:49,560 –> 00:43:55,240
And that’s especially important because this is a privacy-focused podcast produced by a

589
00:43:55,240 –> 00:43:57,600
privacy-focused business.

590
00:43:57,600 –> 00:44:03,280
And because of that, you know, we’re concerned that the platforms that are hosting our content

591
00:44:03,280 –> 00:44:08,320
are going to downrank us severely because of the privacy protections that we put in

592
00:44:08,320 –> 00:44:09,320
place.

593
00:44:09,320 –> 00:44:13,760
And if we couple that with, you know, some one-star reviews because of something stupid

594
00:44:13,760 –> 00:44:20,800
that we can correct, then this important information might not ever see the light of day.

595
00:44:20,800 –> 00:44:27,880
Feel free to contact us for a consultation or to provide general feedback or requests

596
00:44:27,880 –> 00:44:29,640
or questions.

597
00:44:29,640 –> 00:44:34,080
If there are some specific things that you want us to talk about, like the Linus Tech

598
00:44:34,080 –> 00:44:40,360
Tips hack or Intel Management Engine or something like that, just let us know, you know, drop

599
00:44:40,360 –> 00:44:43,600
us a message on Signal and it’ll take two seconds.

600
00:44:43,600 –> 00:44:49,680
And finally, reach out to us if you think that you might see a potential scam regarding

601
00:44:49,680 –> 00:44:53,120
somebody posing as Bigger Insights.

602
00:44:53,120 –> 00:44:55,360
This is actually quite common.

603
00:44:55,360 –> 00:45:01,160
You might see something like someone claiming to be Linus Tech Tips or Elon Musk or something

604
00:45:01,160 –> 00:45:06,840
like, “Hey, yeah, this is totally Linus or Elon Musk.

605
00:45:06,840 –> 00:45:11,680
Go ahead and give us some Bitcoin and we’re going to double it and send it back to you”

606
00:45:11,680 –> 00:45:13,440
or something stupid like that.

607
00:45:13,440 –> 00:45:16,640
If you see anything like that, let us know.

608
00:45:16,640 –> 00:45:22,200
We’re not going to ask you for crypto, we’re not going to ask you for money unless you’re

609
00:45:22,200 –> 00:45:27,360
a client and you owe us money, then we’ll send you an invoice.

610
00:45:27,360 –> 00:45:32,600
But if anything looks fishy, just contact us through one of our official channels, which

611
00:45:32,600 –> 00:45:36,680
you can see on the contact section of our website and we’ll get back to you.

612
00:45:36,680 –> 00:45:38,920
All right, that’s everything.

613
00:45:38,920 –> 00:45:41,120
Thank you for staying all the way until the end.

614
00:45:41,120 –> 00:45:45,040
We hope that you enjoy our future content.

615
00:45:45,040 –> 00:45:49,200
Make sure you reach out to us if you want a consultation and have a great rest of your

616
00:45:49,200 –> 00:46:15,320
day.