Welcome to Week 2 of our Stupid Sexy Privacy relaunch. This time, we’re going to talk about your hygiene—well, not your hygiene specifically, but your privacy hygiene.
As mentioned, I am currently moving these old episodes off Transistor and back here onto WordPress. That gives me the opportunity to update the show notes, add the full transcript for each episode, and make additional comments relevant to today, in 2024, since the show first went into production in October of 2022.
Sometimes, things don’t change much. This week’s episode is a GREAT example of how things haven’t really changed since we last did the show. This episode went live in October of 2022, and we were talking about people’s Internet connected devices getting hacked by fascists and weirdos.
Well, wouldn’t you know it, but as I started working on this post in October of 2024 … Yup, people’s Internet connected devices were still getting hacked by facists and weirdos.
Most of this is NOT your fault.
It’s the fault of the companies selling Internet-connected devices for not investing in properly securing both those devices AND your information that they’re collecting.
Since we are a United States focused podcast, we don’t quite have the fees, penalties, and other enforcement mechanisms our friends in other countries do. (Or, more often than not, we simply don’t use the tools at our disposal because LOL Rich People Win.)
This stuff is going to keep happening until we have national legislation that mimics the European Union’s GDPR, for example. (Some states, since this show first aired, have passed privacy laws, but until there’s a national standard, it’s way too easy for these companies to skate on ignoring them.)
So, there’s still this question of what you can do to protect yourself that we have today, like we had in 2022, and that answer comes in practicing good privacy hygenie.
Atomic Habits Lead To Good (Privacy) Hygenie
I don’t think there’s a single productivity guru asshole who hasn’t already told you about James Clear’s “Atomic Habits” book. I will say, the book is a decent read, and you can purchase it here.
If you’re not familar, the entire concept of the book is that, if you want to change your habits and your life, the way to do it is to break who you want to become into the smallest component parts and change your mindset about why you’re doing them.
So, for example, if you want to be the kind of guy who Natalie Martinez wants to call — instead of just liking her posts on Instagram like tens of thousands of other losers – you have to first start thinking like that guy would. What habits is that guy doing? Why is he doing them? Understanding the why, instead of simply setting goals, is the first step in changing how you live your life and becoming the person she wants to call.
Make sense? Goals are fine, but goals without rhyme or reason are just sexier tasks to be checked off a To DO list.
What does this have to do with protecting yourself from facists and weirdos?
Well, like I just explained, most companies don’t invest in protecting your data or your devices. And if you don’t think about this stuff — which is most of us — it’s going to bite you in the ass.
Maybe it’s something simple, like your vaccum cleaner shouting racial epithets at you. Maybe it’s something more serious, like your social security number getting hacked and someone uses your identity to commit a crime, landing you in jail. (That’s happened too.)
So practicing good privacy hygenie, like building any good habit, starts with changing your mindset about why you’re doing so in the first place.
How? Well, the first part is easy, although it’s going to sound and feel goofy for a while. Get over it. This shit’s too important to get self-concious over.
Just by listening to this show, you’ve taken that first step in changing your mindset.
If you want to take the next step, as goofy as it sounds, it doesn’t hurt to write down the following in your privacy notebook: “I’m the kind of person who wants to protect myself, and others, from fascists and weirdos.”
Saying it in the mirror helps too.
By changing your thinking and being focused on becoming the person who cares about this stuff, it’ll be easier for you to then build better habits surrounding your privacy hygenie.
Then comes the third step, which we touched on in this episode back in 2022. Once you’ve verbally made the commitment to be the kind of person who wants to protect themselves, and others, from fascists and weirdos, you have to take action.
But doing anything in this day and age that’s new is hard. We’re busy. We’re overworked. The planet’s climate is failing. Fascists are about to take over America. I get it. It’s easy to want to crawl into a ball and die.
So asking anyone to set aside an hour of their time, once a month, seems like a small ask, but I recognize it’s not when we’re all sort of wallowing in this pit of despair.
But, the only person who’s coming to save you is you.
And if you’re commiting to be the kind of person who wants to protect themselves, and others, from the fascists and weirdos, I’m going to ask you to do this anyway.
And we’re going to use a tactic from James Clear’s book to make it as fun as possible. (Why fun? Because if it’s an hour of tedium that you spend once a month, you’re not going to look forward to it, meaning it’ll be harder for you to commit to doing it regularly.)
The goal here is for you to set aside one hour a month, on or around the last day of the month, to update all the software on your home devices. So that’s your printer, your computer, your modem, your router, that god damn racist vaccum cleaner. Your humidifer. Anything in your home that’s connected to the Internet.
(You don’t need to update your passwords unless one of those devices falls victim to a databreach, or if you’ve fallen victim to a databreach. A great way to track that is to sign-up over at Have I Been Pwned, which can track the email addresses you use to register for each device, as well as other online accounts.)
The Cue, The Craving, The Response, and The Reward
What can this one hour a month task look like? Let me give you an example of practicing good privacy hygenie once a month using Clear’s Four Laws of Behavioral Change. They center around: The Cue, The Craving, The Response, and The Reward.
The Cue: The more steps there are between you and your new habit, the harder it’ll be for you to keep acting on that new habit. So if the cue is a once a month, one-hour slot in your schedule to update the software on your most important devices, the goal here would be to reduce the chance of anything interfering with that one-hour slot. Meaning, you need to guard this time slot with your life and not schedule anything near or around it.
The Craving: If it’s not fun, you won’t do it. So find something you really like. Sex, drugs, rock & roll. Maybe all three at the same time. I’m not going to judge you. But whatever that thing is that you look forward to, set it aside and give it to yourself only after you’ve completed your task of updating all your software.
The Response: You want completing this new habit to be as easy as possible. So, the first month is when you’ll have to do the most amount of work. This will involve writing down in your privacy notebook every device that’s connected to the Internet. It’ll also involve opening up your DuckDuckGo Browser, and bookmarking any pages related to updating the software connected to those devices. This way, when you get to the end of the month, everything is right there in front of you. You know what you have, what needs to be updated, and the places to go to update them.
The Reward: Make this one hour fun. Yes, you got your awesome reward at the end, to feed your craving, but don’t just sit there and mutter to yourself for an hour while you patiently update all your software. Play some good music. Go outside, but still be connected to your Wi-Fi. Make that one hour as enjoyable as you can, and if you finish early? Even better.
These are just examples or different ways to think about it, but the point here is, you want to build a new habit, and you don’t want it to feel like work. So one hour, once a month, updating your devices. Do whatever you can to make it simple, easy, fun, and rewarding to do.
Good Privacy Hygenie & Extreme Privacy
Same advice as Episode 1, honestly: Use a privacy notebook.
If you want maximum privacy, you’re going to want to use KeePassXC, not 1Password.
Although if you’re worried about your safety and security, honestly, having any Internet-connected device in your home is a bad idea. For example: In 2023, a year after this episode first came out, the FTC fined Amazon for not deleting the voice recordings made via the Echo by children.
We’ll talk more about Faraday Bags later, among other Extreme Privacy tactics, but if you’re in this situation, or you just want maximum protecting from invasive surveillance, you’re going to want to rid your home of anything that connects to the Internet beyond a hardened phone using Graphene OS — more on that later too — and a hardened laptop.
Show Notes From 2022 (Slightly Revised for 2024)
Hi! Welcome to our educational and hopefully funny miniseries about how to protect yourself from fascists and weirdos.
Just a note before we begin that Stupid Sexy Privacy is sponsored by DuckDuckGo. So if you like the show, go check them out and let them know we sent you.
In today’s episode, comedian Rosie Tran explains why you should practice good privacy hygiene. This is especially important for your Internet-connected devices. Otherwise, your fancy robot vacuum cleaner may start shouting racial slurs at you. No. We’re not joking.
Also in this episode: We share more from B.J. Mendelson’s first book on privacy, “Privacy: And How We Get It Back.” Roger Wayne, the narrator of the world-famous “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck,” is the voice actor who narrated the audiobook. This week’s excerpt features a fun history lesson about World War 1. Great to know because World War 3 looks like it’s just around the corner!
Listen to this episode to learn:
- Why you should set aside a dedicated time each month to ensure that all the software on your most important devices is up to date.
- Why you should keep your most important passwords offline (and how to decide if it’s important and what’s not.)
- How and when the American government started invading the privacy of its citizens.
Key Episode Takeaways
-Investing in security to protect your devices and information is not a top priority for most companies. So once a month, you need to set up some time to make sure your software is up to date.
-If the device is important (like your router and modem) you want to keep those passwords offline, in your privacy note book. You bought one already, right?
-All other passwords can be kept in a password manager like KeepassXC (for advance listeners) and 1Password (for everyone else.)
Episode Highlights
💡 Our goal is to educate & entertain so, we may sound a bit ridiculous. Some might say snarky even.
We want you to remember what we’re saying, so we will say it multiple times and in many different ways, including some which may be aggressive or hilarious. We’re trying to find an inroad into the deepest pathways of your brain and your memory so you’ll remember what we say.
💡 This show features a realistic take on what data privacy can look like for all of us.
By using the Internet, intrinsically, we give up some of our data and to use so many of our favorite services a bit more. But we probably aren’t ever going to stop using them completely, and so all of this advice is given within that framework. We can minimize the amount of data being collected by doing simple things like taping over our camera and using DuckDuckGo instead of Chrome and Safari.
💡 Most companies don’t invest in good cyber security, meaning that customers are, unfortunately, responsible for protecting themselves and their data through practicing good privacy hygiene. That means building good habits is important to keep yourself safe from facists and weirdos. We recommend setting aside some time, once a month, to make sure your software is up to date for your most important devices.
Top Quotes
[2:30] “If you access the service through your phone or laptop, you can put the passwords into your Password Manager. There are exceptions, like for your One Password Master Password, but almost everything else can go into One Password online.”
[2:54] “So, why do you want to keep track of these Internet-enabled devices? They’re easy to hack. That’s really the bottom line here.
And that’s because most people just use the default username and password for those devices and then forget to update the software on a regular basis.
[5:05] “For most Americans, the government collecting data en masse and doing who knows what with it, is less than desirable. But this government collection of data has also been occurring for over 100 years, longer than you and I have been alive.
[8:25] “If you’re an American, World War I is usually a blip on the radar screen of history class. This is because America didn’t get involved in the global conflict until near the end of the war, and also because most history teachers are stuck teaching to tests generated by large for-profit companies that have swindled their way into completely dominating the American education system.”
Support The Show
- Our Sponsor: DuckDuckGo
- Recommended Password Manager: 1Password.com
- *Affiliate Link: Delete Me
- Get Your Privacy Notebook: Get your Leuchtturm1917 Journal here.
- *Recommended book on building good habits: “Atomic Habits”
- BJ’s First Privacy Book: Audible
*You don’t need to use these affiliate links. They don’t cost you anything extra to use. But. IF you do use these links, it’ll kick a couple of dollars our way to help support this project.
For more news and tips concerning maintaining your privacy and security, we recommend listening to our friends at Smashing Security.
Reserve Your Seat
BJ Mendelson and Amanda King are the authors of the upcoming book, “How to Protect Yourself From Fascists and Weirdos.” They are designing an email-based course around the topics discussed in the book and on our show. So, if you want more information on how to protect yourself from fascists and weirdos, complete with step-by-step details and tutorials, we recommend reserving a seat for the course.
All you need to do is email us at BJMendelson@Duck.com with “Privacy Course” in the subject line.
We’ll let you know when this course becomes available for purchase.
Did You Know?
There’s an audio error in this episode where Rosie reads the same line twice. You’re not losing your mind. It was a mistake BJ made in writing the episode.
This episode was originally posted in October of 2022. The story about the Internet-connected vacuums shouting racial epithets at their owners? Yeah, that happened in October of 2024. Nothing’s changed on the privacy front, which … Is really depressing, man.
***
Need a Privacy Audit?
We are giving away all of our tips and strategies to help protect you from fascists and weirdos FOR FREE.
But. We’ve found some people prefer or need a more 1-1 setting based on their situation.
So, we offer privacy audits where BJ will walk you through each step and recommendation from this show and answer any questions you may have.
You can book a Privacy Audit by emailing BJ at BJMendelson@Duck.com. Make sure to include Privacy Audit in your subject line.
Audits cost $200 and take place over two, one-on-one secure video calls via Signal. The first call will walk you through the checklist, and the second call, scheduled for a week later, will see how you’re doing with the implementation and answer any remaining questions you may have.
Stupid Sexy Privacy Episode 2 Full Transcript:
Duck Duck Go Commercial: (Singing) Every search you make, every click you take, they’ll be watching you.
Are you tired of being tracked online? There’s a simple solution: DuckDuckGo. It’s an all-in-one privacy app with a built-in private search engine, web browser, one-click data clearing, email protection, and more, all for free.
Download the app today and get the most comprehensive privacy protection with the push of a button. DuckDuckGo. Privacy simplified.
Practicing Good Privacy Hygenie
Rosie Tran: Hello everyone, this is Rosie Tran and welcome to Stupid Sexy Privacy, a WayWO.tv special report sponsored by our friends at DuckDuckGo.
You may have heard my voice at the end of every episode on WayWO.tv. I’m the one asking you to leave a review. Which by the way, I hope you’ve done, right? You’ve left us a review? Okay, great … Unless you’re lying! (Dramatic Music plays)
… *Clears Throat* Well, I’m a lot more than a voice. I’m also WayWo.tv’s intrepid reporter, and over the course of this mini-series, I’m gonna share with you short, actionable tips you can use to protect your privacy. These tips were sourced by our fearless leader, he really hates when we call him that, BJ Mendelson.
BJ, for those of you who may not know, is the author of the book, Privacy, and How We Get It Back, a book that was published in the before times. (Whispers: This means before COVID. )
BJ is currently writing a sequel called How to Protect Yourself from Fascists and Weirdos. So everything we’re going to hear in this mini-series is the most up-to-date information he’s researched, bringing us into 2023 and beyond.
Throughout the series, you’re also going to hear from some special guests and experts in the information security field.
*Chime*
You hear that sound? That means it’s time for today’s Privacy Tip!
*Fun music plays*
Did you get your privacy notebook?
If not, go back and listen to our first episode. Then get yourself a privacy notebook. We’re gonna use it a lot throughout this mini series. This week’s episode is a perfect example. That’s because today we want you to make a list in your privacy notebook of all the internet connected devices that you own.
This can include your router and modem of course, but also your Amazon Echo device, your Smart TV and even your humidifier. Yes, even your humidifier. If it’s in your home and it connects to the Internet, you wanna keep track of it.
Here’s how we determine what goes in the privacy notebook offline and what goes into your One Password Manager online.
If you access the service through your phone or laptop, you can put the passwords into your Password Manager. There are exceptions, like for your One Password Master Password, but almost everything else can go into One Password online.
But… If you own a device in your home that can also connect to the internet, those are the devices you want to document in your privacy notebook for maximum security. You’re going to want those usernames and passwords offline. Makes sense?
So, why do you want to keep track of these Internet-enabled devices? They’re easy to hack. That’s really the bottom line here.
And that’s because most people just use the default username and password for those devices and then forget to update the software on a regular basis.
So in your privacy notebook, we want you to come up with new, stronger passwords for all of your home devices. And you also want to make a note of the last time you updated their software.
We’ll have more to say about Internet-connected devices next week, but for right now, we want to leave you with this actionable suggestion: Set aside an hour on the last day of every month. This is going to be your time to practice good privacy hygiene.
One of the things you’ll do on that day is to update the software on all of your home devices. You don’t need to change the passwords unless one of those devices suffers a data breach.
Regular software updates is the easiest thing you can do to protect yourself from fascists and weirdos, but you have to make it a habit if you’re going to succeed.
That’s why we suggest setting aside one hour, once a month, to update the software on your home’s internet-connected devices.
*Fun Music*
Rosie Tran: Are you still listening? We hope so because we have a special surprise. Back in 2017, BJ’s first book on privacy came out. It was called Privacy and How We Get It Back. Broadway actor Roger Wayne did the narration for the audio edition of the book. Our editor, Andrew, was nice enough to go through the audiobook and pull out the sections that are still very much worth sharing with you today.
So if you stick around and listen to this mini series after every privacy tip, you’ll hear another excerpt from BJ’s book, Privacy and How We Get It Back. Take it away, Roger!
World War 1 & The End of Privacy
Roger Wayne: 2. The First World War and the Last Days of Privacy.
As America enters the First World War, it does so with a wary eye on issues abroad, the rise of fascism and communism, and domestic, the waves of immigrants who seemingly don’t want to assimilate. These issues, as well as the war itself, lead to the government making a series of decisions that altered the privacy of American citizens, and citizens of countries around the world, forever.
For most Americans, the government collecting data en masse and doing who knows what with it, is less than desirable. But this government collection of data has also been occurring for over 100 years, longer than you and I have been alive. There seem to be specific moments, historically speaking, where the public gets worked up about government data collection. Then we forget about it, and the data collection continues until someone else reminds us that it’s happening. This enrages the public all over again, and we’re lulled back to sleep with iPads filled with episodes of Fuller House.
We forget that this sort of mass data collection on the civilian population has been going on forever. And so a little reminder now and again that this is happening isn’t the worst thing. Here’s a quick test to show you what I mean.
Remember that time the NSA was passing around sexy photos of people that they came across in their data collection efforts? No? Well, that was only a few years ago. How soon we forget.
Also, I don’t see much of a point in wasting your time talking about what the American government, or any government really, does on the data collection front. They’ve been doing it forever, and will continue to do it long after all that’s left on this earth are Ryan Seacrest and his larva. The only exception I want to make is this: I want you to know how mass data collection and surveillance all got started. It’s important to understand when the relationship between the American government and its citizens changed to the point where mass data collection was deemed necessary in the first place. Because what stems from that change, I argue, is the end of privacy.
It was during this time that the government started collecting data and asking private companies to share their data with them as well. Other countries followed suit, because if the Americans could get away with doing this, then why not them? As technology became more sophisticated, the ability of the government and those companies they were collaborating with to obtain even more data grew.
And since those companies and the government were sharing all that data anyway, someone had the bright idea to start making a profit from it. So everything that we talk about in this book has a clearly defined starting point. And that starting point is World War I.
*Commercial Break*
Smashing Security Advertisement:
Guest: I’m a Facebook hipster. I then deleted my Facebook account and then re-upped it in 2005 and have not been able to get off the stupid things since.
Announcer: So why can’t you get off?
Guest: What are your… You guys!
Announcer: The award winning Smashing Security podcast, hosted by Graham Cluley and Carol Theriot each week. It takes an irreverent look at cyber security and online privacy, helping you find out what’s happening with your data. Find it in Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, and all good podcast apps, or at smas It’s not all filth.
*Back to the show*
Roger Wayne: Don’t trust those Germans!
If you’re an American, World War I is usually a blip on the radar screen of history class. This is because America didn’t get involved in the global conflict until near the end of the war, and also because most history teachers are stuck teaching to tests generated by large for-profit companies that have swindled their way into completely dominating the American education system.
So if it’s not the Pilgrims, the Revolution, the Civil War, or World War II, The odds are good most kids aren’t going to learn about it because it won’t be on the test. Given this trend, it’s not surprising that we don’t stop to examine or think about the war to end all wars anymore, aside from maybe marveling at how badass Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman looked fighting her way across No Man’s Land in the movie. She did indeed look pretty badass.
Although the United States didn’t join World War I until near its end, people in America took sides from the very beginning. Some went to other countries, such as France and Canada, in order to fight against the Germans. There were also reports of German Americans and recent immigrants to America from Germany, who left the US to fight for Germany. Then there were reports that Germany had thousands of men already in America who were going to take part in an invasion of Canada in order to force the British to split their focus between two fronts.
As entering the war looked more and more likely, Pervasive anti-German sentiment finally became such an issue that presidential candidates were weighing in on whether or not any German Americans could be trusted. Entering the war itself was also an election issue, with Woodrow Wilson running for a second term as president with a slogan that said, “He kept us out of war.”
And when America finally entered the war, not long after Wilson was re-elected president, Wilson decided to do a series of things that altered the fabric of the country to deal with these perceived troubles at home.
Concerns about spies in America date back to 1798 and the Alien Enemies Act, which allowed for the government to arrest and seize the property of citizens of other countries residing in the U.S. However, Wilson’s actions following our entry into World War I in 1917 were without precedent toward American citizens at that time.
First, some German Americans were rounded up and placed in internment camps. while others were forced to register with the government as part of the government’s effort to track their movements and whereabouts during the conflict. Then Wilson and Congress passed The Espionage Act.
(To be continued!)
*Commercial Break*
Duck Duck Go: Tired of being tracked online? DuckDuckGo can help. Tracking is a comprehensive program. Trackers lurk nearly everywhere online for websites, emails, and even apps in your phone.
That means you need a multi-pronged solution. DuckDuckGo’s all-in-one privacy app can be used as an everyday browser with private search, tracking, blocking, encryption, and now email protection built in. It’s the free, easy button for online privacy. Download the app today! DuckDuckGo. Privacy simplified.
*Back from Commercial*
Rosie Tran: Thank you for listening to Stupid Sexy Privacy, a WayWO.tv special report.
Do you need a privacy audit? To help fund new episodes of WayWO.tv, BJ is offering one-on-one privacy audits. These are private, one-time consultations that are conducted securely through Signal.
During the audit, BJ will walk you through all 23 steps from our special report to help you better protect your privacy. Now, just to be clear, we’re going to share all 23 steps with you here, for free, in this podcast miniseries.
Because these are all tactics you can use right now to help protect yourself from fascists and weirdos, and we want to help keep everyone safe.
These privacy audits are meant for people who may need some extra help implementing these steps or have additional questions that they want answered. You can have your one-on-one privacy audit with BJ by sending an email to bjmendelson@duck.com. That email again is bjmendelson@ duck.com.
And we’ll see you next time right here on WayWO.tv, right?
Additional Privacy Resources: Practice Good Privacy Hygenie
-If you would like to sign-up for the Privacy Audit Wait list, you can email BJMendelson@duck.com with “Privacy Audit” in the subject line. The audits cost $200 and consist of two, one-hour sessions, using Signal, that walk you through the Privacy Steps detailed throughout this show.
-If you are being stalked or harassed, I encourage you to reach out to Carrie Goldberg’s Victims Rights Law Firm.
-If you require more advanced technical assistance in securing your privacy from fascists and weirdos, I recommend reaching out to the offices of Michael Bazzell.
–DuckDuckGo: Private Search, @ Duck Email Forwarding Service, and a free browser that keeps you from being tracked around the web by creepy ads. There’s also an app that helps track, and block, the numerous apps on your phone that have stalker ware baked into them. Yes. They sponsored the show, but only because I asked them and I actively use these services. myself*
–1Password: There are a lot of great password managers out there. This is the one I use and recommend.
–Delete Me: I can’t recommend this service enough. I use it. My Dad uses it. My sister uses it. If you have the time and patience to go through the data-broker list, more power to you. But if you got a little extra money, let these guys do it for you AND keep watch for any additional info about you that gets leaked.
–Leuchtturm 1917 Bullet Journal Notebook: This is what we recommend to use as a “privacy notebook” throughout the show. Any notebook will do. You do not need to use this one. This is just the one we recommend and I use.
–Permission Slip from Consumer Reports: This is a fairly new app that makes removing your information from numerous databrokers, and other parties, very easy. The best part? It’s free, although they do have a premium service you can upgrade if you’d like.