Coming Soon: AI Deepfakes So Real You'll Believe Them

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Privacy Tips, the sister podcast for Stupid Sexy Privacy. I'm your host, BJ Mendelson. Today's show is made possible by our friends at DuckDuckGo. So if you enjoyed what we do, check out the DuckDuckGo subscription. It comes with a simple and easy to use VPN, identity theft protection, daily removal service, and more. Additional information can be found, of course, at DuckDuckGo.com/subscribe. And some features and offerings will vary based on your location.

Now my friends, as you know, Stupid Sexy Privacy has wrapped for now. And until we return with new episodes, you can find all of the current episodes available at stupidsexyprivacy.com. All you have to do is click or tap on where it says episodes.

The purpose of Privacy Tips is to give me an opportunity to read from my version of How to Protect Yourself from Fascists and Weirdos. Think of this like the commentary track that used to come with DVDs. You know, back when you actually owned the movie you purchased, instead of just an agreement to access a digital copy of that movie until Apple or whomever decide to revoke access to it.

You'll be able to purchase the professionally recorded version of How to Protect Yourself from Fascists and Weirdos shortly. I'm not actually sure if there are any more holdups on my end. There might be one more thing I have to do this week, but we are otherwise completely ready. So it should be any day—like, it could literally be as soon as I'm done recording this. I might get word that it's out. So as soon as it is available for pre-order and purchase, I will let you know. Until then, this week we're gonna finish up the checklist from Chapter 2.

If you'd like to follow along, all you need to do is go to stupidsexyprivacy.com and click or tap on where it says book.

And I'll see you on the other end of this commercial break.

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Book Excerpt

And we're back. So, as I mentioned, this is the end of the checklist that you're gonna find in Chapter 2. And like I said, if you want to read along, you can go to stupidsexyprivacy.com and click or tap on where it says book.

The entire text of the book is available for free. Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 are there readily available. And then if you want to see the rest of it, all you have to do is subscribe to our weekly newsletter, which is basically just this podcast. So I like to think that's a pretty good deal or fair. And of course we're not gonna share your information with anyone because we're Stupid Sexy Privacy. What would be the point of doing this if we were gonna give away your information? So we do have a newsletter that you can sign up to, and if you do, when you visit the book page, it'll give you access to the entire book. So that said, we are gonna go to the end of Chapter 2. I'm going to finish the checklist ...

-Don't buy gift cards at the store. Buy gift cards online directly from the company. If someone gives you a gift card as a gift, change the PIN after checking the balance on that gift card.

-Get an identity protection PIN from the IRS. This PIN will prevent someone from using your Social Security number to file taxes. Given the alleged actions of DOGE—the Department of Government Efficiency—we have to assume every Social Security number, as well as information tied to those numbers, is compromised. For that same reason, get a copy of your tax transcript from the IRS and look over it for any irregularities.

-Opt outprescreen.com is where to go to stop getting random offers for credit cards. So if you're tired of getting those things in the mail, that is the place to go. And you wouldn't believe what a source of fraud those offers are. So it's actually pretty important. This seems like a really minor thing that's in this checklist, but optoutprescreen.com. Don't sleep on that one.

-Stalkerware is a major problem getting little media attention. If you think someone has installed tracking software on your phone or a laptop, visit the Coalition Against Stalkerware at stopstalkware.org. There you can find steps to remove the stalkerware without alerting the person who placed it on your device. We didn't get too into details throughout this book about stalkerware exactly for that reason, because if I give you advice for one piece of software, it might not work for another piece of software, and it might be something unique to that person's system, or maybe even something that someone made—like a customer-written script. For that reason, we don't really go into specific stalkerware throughout this book. Just be aware though that stopstalkware.org is where you can go to find out how to remove this stuff without alerting the person who is stalking you.

-This is a big one, and it's one you hear a lot that people don't do. They hear that they're supposed to do it, but they don't do it. So if that is you, please pay special attention to this one. Freeze your credit with Experian, TransUnion, Equifax, and Innovis.

-You can call these credit agencies and turn that freeze off if and when you need to open a new credit-based account. So I recommend, for example, if you have a credit card freeze in place and you know you're gonna go and get a credit card for a big purchase, do it at least 24 hours ahead of time just to have enough time for that freeze to come off. And then as soon as you make the purchase, you know, go and put that freeze back on.

-Make sure you check your credit report every year by getting a free one at annualcreditreport.com. That is annualcreditreport.com. Report any issues you find to the credit bureaus as soon as you spot them. It might seem weird that a lot of this is something we also don't get into in the book, but these are things that you would typically find in a personal finance book, and that really wasn't what we were looking to do. The reason why we wanted to do this was because if there is a bankruptcy or if there is some kind of way for someone to get leverage on you, your credit and credit history is something they're gonna check.

Your credit is something fascists and weirdos are gonna take a look at if they can access it too. What you wanna do if you are someone reading this book and you want to be an activist is to basically button up your stuff as much as possible. You don't want to leave anything available, anything exposed that could be used against you.

So if it feels like, "Wait, why are we talking about annualcreditreport.com?"—that's why.

We spent a good chunk of time on this stuff. Speaking of which, we feel credit cards are traps. If you ever need one, get one that you can fund yourself. Get rid of credit card debt by paying the bill with the highest balance first. Don't close the account when you're done. Leave it open every 90 days or so, buy something that's 5 dollars. Good luck finding something that is 5 dollars these days at the time that I am recording this in 2026. But if you can, go home after you've purchased that item and pay it off immediately. This process in the before times was how you build good credit. These days it's also a good way for you to support nonprofit media outlets such as Mother Jones or an annual subscription. So this way you have a guaranteed annual subscription—you know, their charges are gonna pop up on that card. You pay it right off, and otherwise you don't use the card. That's a good way to build credit as well.

-If it's too good to be true, it probably is. Actually, you know what, let me back up for a second, because I feel like we kind of blew by this also in the book. And again, this is sort of the difference between my version and Amanda's version, right? Which is like the final version's tight and it doesn't really have like these little tangents I tend to go on.

Yeah, I really do stand by that—that we feel credit cards are traps. Credit cards are traps. They are not your friend. Do not get one. If you have one, work to get rid of it as fast as you can. I know that's easier said than done because most Americans have credit card debt, and most Americans have that debt because they are putting everyday expenses on those credit cards. So if you're like, "BJ, I can't do that right now," I know. That's what we mean when we say "in the before times." We're not talking about right now. This is sort of like—in a normal situation you would do this kind of thing. As long as you're in that normal situation, you do what you can to survive. It's as simple as that.

But if you're listening to these tips and you're like, "Man, I wish I could pay off a credit card," believe me, I've been there.

So if you're in that situation, you know, the thing we always tell people is do the best you can, and forgive yourself for the things you can't do, and don't sweat it. I feel personally that credit cards are traps, and we don't want people to get credit cards and shackle themselves to that debt. So we want you to pay it off as fast as you can. And if you can't, we totally get it.

Crypto is essentially a Ponzi scheme. So like, if it's too good to be true, it probably is. Crypto's a good example of that, right?

This may seem redundant until you learn that AI deepfakes will get so convincing you may not know if the person you're chatting with is who they say they are. I know that sounds crazy, but that is the world that we are increasingly approaching. We do discuss that in the book. We do talk about AI as we get a bit deeper into this. But it is a real possibility and it's something that you should think about. Is it likely? No. But a lot of these things aren't likely. These are just things that you should know about and prepare for so that if it happens, you're like, "Okay, I know what to do."

So if it's a celebrity that wants to video chat with you, it's probably not that celebrity. Like, 99 percent sure it's not—unless of course you've paid for that privilege through something like OnlyFans or Cameo, in which case, bravo. Shannon Elizabeth is on OnlyFans, and you can do with that information what you will.

-If sharing a link, delete everything after the question mark. This is something that is particularly an issue with activists who don't know this. They want to share something, or they read something and they want to share it, not realizing that everything after the question mark is tracking you. So there are some exceptions—like a YouTube video and Zoom. If it's got a Zoom link and it's got a question mark, you don't want to mess with that. But you should not be using Zoom at all. You should be using Signal for your video calls. And you can use linkcleaner.app—link cleaner dot app—to help you share links without any tracking info.

-To spot phishing emails, always, always, always look at the sender's email address for sketchy domain names. This is what I personally struggle with because if you're already this far into me reading the book excerpts, you already know that I have a minor bit of dyslexia. And so this is something I really struggle with, and it's something that a lot of people who don't have dyslexia struggle with as well. To spot phishing emails, always look at the sender's email carefully and look at it for sketchy domain names. And what I mean by sketchy is that an email from your friends at stupidsexyprivacy.com won't be sent to you from stupidsaxyprivacy.com. But you might miss that capital A and the incorrect spelling, and that's usually where people get tripped up. So always look at the domain name.

-And last but not least, if you get something weird either by email or text, block the sender. If it's through email, report the message as spam. If it's a weird link from a company that you regularly do business with, call the company and ask if that was them reaching out. If you're unsure whether something is weird, send it to scamwise.com to review.

And that's all we got for the checklist. There's one more thing in Chapter 2, which we will include as we begin the actual book. And I'll explain what that means next week, because Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 were kind of meant to be like the standalone thing. But I'll explain why when we get to next week's edition of Privacy Tips.

Outro

Today's episode of Privacy Tips was recorded in Hollywood, California, and sponsored by DuckDuckGo. It was written, produced, and hosted by me, BJ Mendelson. Before we go, I want to give a shout out to the production team at Stupid Sexy Privacy, which includes Andrew Van Voorhis, Rosie Tran, and Amanda King. These are some of my favorite people. I very much miss hearing Rosie and Andrew's voices. You're kind of stuck with mine for the moment, just due to some budgeting issues and a couple other production hiccups that are totally my fault. I'm working to clean up those issues, and so we will hopefully have everyone back as soon as we can.

And of course we'd like to thank our friends at DuckDuckGo, who made all this possible. We would not have had enough runway for me to take the time that I did to write with Amanda How to Protect Yourself from Fascists and Weirdos and how to get the podcast going with Rosie and Amanda without DuckDuckGo. So like, if you like this stuff, even remotely, I know you hear commercials a lot when you listen to podcasts. I hate commercials—I hate them, I hate them, I hate them. But even I made an exception for DuckDuckGo because all of this—I just couldn't do it. It would not have been financially feasible for me to have taken on a project this big. So if you enjoy what we do, you can always check them out.

If you enjoyed today's show, we hope you'll take a moment to leave a review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you may be listening. This won't take more than two minutes of your time. You see, we have this crazy goal, and we need your help to achieve it. We want 5 percent of Americans to be 1 percent better at protecting themselves from fascists and weirdos. Leaving us a review can help make that happen. That's because your reviews will help other people find this show. They are very important. So if you're ever like, "I don't have money, but I'd like to help the show," leave us a review. And it's not just true for us—it's true for any podcast that you listen to. The reviews are invaluable. So that is a good way to help the shows that you enjoy.

Please take a moment to leave us a review if you can, and we will see you next Thursday on Privacy Tips. I know this episode came out early. It's because I am going to be heads down for the next few days just to make sure everything with the book is ready, and then I have to do press outreach. And that's gonna be such a huge time suck. So I wanted to get this out early so that we did not miss our Thursday window. So I'll see you next week.