Fascists & Weirdos Are Hunting You on LinkedIn

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(Also, apologies. This newsletter should have been out Thursday morning. I will do my best to get ahead on these so we don't miss another day.)

Hello everyone, 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 enjoy what we do, check out their DuckDuckGo subscription. It comes with a simple and easy-to-use VPN, identity theft protection, data removal service and more. Additional information can be found at DuckDuckGo.com/subscribe. (And some features and offerings will vary based on your location.)

What's Going On This Week?

Now, my friends, Stupid Sexy Privacy has wrapped, and you can find all the episodes online at stupidsexyprivacy.com. All you have to do is click on that episodes page.

And please pardon our dust as we undertake a nice overhaul, I think, of the Stupid Sexy Privacy website. So pardon us if links don't work and things don't go where they're supposed to — we are working on it.

The purpose of Privacy Tips is to give me an opportunity to read from my version of "How to Protect Yourself from Fascists & Weirdos." You'll be able to purchase the professionally recorded audiobook in October, which is far better than what I'm giving you here.

Actually, October is next week, so it should be anytime now. We're just waiting. I think the only holdup at this point is me. I never got around to finishing the PDF that's supposed to go with the audiobook. I will take care of that this weekend. That is on me, so I think I am the holdup at this point.

As we go through my version of the book, I'm also going to take some time to explain how to do certain things and expand on certain concepts that are covered. I think we're still going through the Chapter 2 checklist, so this will be pretty straightforward, like last week's, and I think next week's will also be the end of the checklist.

So it'll be kind of straightforward, but as we go into the actual book, I will opine a bit more.

We also have interviews that we're going to share. Next week's episode, which I'm excited to share with you, features an interview with Dr. Viet Trinh at Ohio State University.

Dr. Trinh joined me to talk about policing and Flock safety cameras. You can catch a preview by watching the above video.

So that will be next week's episode, which I think is Oct. 1. So October is literally right around the corner.

This week, though, we're going to go through the checklist. I did a fun interview with David Gerard that ran over on the Monroe Gazette. So that's why that interview is not included in today's episode. We're going to link to our sister newsletter — it is also a podcast, I guess. The Monroe Gazette is where I try to cover local news, but I wind up talking way more about national stuff than I do anything local.

But over at the Monroe Gazette, we'll have the David Gerard interview from "Pivot to AI." (Which can be found right here.)

So that is why Dr. Viet Trin's interview is running next week and not this week with this episode.

Let's get to our checklist though. Again, it's pretty straightforward. I hope you enjoy it. I hope you find it useful, and if you would like to get in touch with us with questions, comments or concerns, you can find me on Signal at BJMendelson.32.

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Book Excerpt

Okay everyone, we're back and we are going to continue with this week's book excerpt. If you are following along, all you have to do is visit stupidsexyprivacy.com and click or tap on the word "book," and you will get the entire "How to Protect Yourself from Fascists & Weirdos" right there for free.

If you want to read more than Chapter 2, all you have to do is sign up for the newsletter. It does not cost you a thing. And you get these wonderful weekly editions of Privacy Tips delivered to your inbox — usually on Thursday morning, unless I am running late like I am today, which is why today's episode's a little behind schedule.

All right, we're going to go into this week's book excerpt. And again, this is just me reading off the Chapter 2 checklist. And I'll explain why that was when we get to next week's episode.

From the checklist:

-Consider poisoning the photos you upload to stop AI companies from stealing them. Nightshade is a program that can help you do that.

We didn't say too much about poisoning AI in the book. That was something that was kind of cropping up as I was completing it, so that is definitely something that we will come back to in a future edition of Stupid Sexy Privacy or Privacy Tips. So I don't have much to elaborate on poisoning your photos, but that is something you can do, and it's something that we quickly highlighted in the book.

-Use a sticky note or tape on any internet-connected camera in your home. We recommend Silent's reusable stickers for this. On your phone, you do not need to cover up all of your cameras — just the front-facing one.

-Emails sent between Proton users, which is the email service we recommend, are encrypted except for the subject lines. If you send an email from Proton to a non-Proton customer, this is very important — you will need to take additional steps to send an encrypted email. Proton does provide a handy little guide for that. We have it linked on our contact page, which is where we tell you to use Proton Mail. So if you want to learn a bit more about those steps and just a bit more about why you should be using Proton Mail instead of anyone else, go to stupidsexyprivacy.com and click on our contact page. We have a whole thing over there on Proton.

-If you're using a Mac, turn on the firewall they provide and FileVault. If you're using Windows, switch to Ubuntu. Nothing you do will keep you safe.

-Also for Mac customers, we recommend Knock Knock and Task Explorer to help scan and keep your computer free of malware. That's Knock Knock and Task Explorer. We also recommend Lulu. Lulu helps monitor outgoing connections made from your device. All three of these programs are free and offered through the Objective-See Foundation, a nonprofit focused on Mac security. You run Knock Knock and Task Explorer at least once a week.

-Setting up Lulu can be a little confusing. You get a whole lot of dialogue boxes when you first install it, and if you don't know what those things are, it can be a little overwhelming at first, but it is worth doing. So if you choose to use Lulu — and I personally use it, I've been using it for a year or so now since we first came across the program — but it does take some time. Just, if you're going to use it, read through the documentation about how to appropriately use it and how to navigate those, because you're going to install it, you're going to get hit with like a wave of pop-ups and you're not necessarily going to know what they are. So do read the documentation if you have a few minutes just to kind of figure those out.

-Back up your files on an external hard drive instead of the cloud. Make sure you have a third backup option in addition to the external hard drive, which is your first, and your laptop, which is your second. A third backup option should include your most important documents. Give this to a trusted friend or family member on a flash drive. If no friends or family are available, put this info on a flash drive and keep it in a safe.

-Anytime you're asked to accept cookies in your browser, reject them. If you can't, select only the necessary ones.

-Watch out for LinkedIn connections. If you don't know who someone is on LinkedIn, do not connect with them. Remove any followers you do not know on social media platforms that you use. Fascists and weirdos will try to find everything they can to attack and discredit you. LinkedIn is usually their first stop because most normal people use it, ostensibly, to find jobs.

-Run Block Party, which can delete your older posts on many social media platforms such as LinkedIn. (This keeps Fascists & Weirdos from going through your old stuff, looking to find things to hurt you with.)

It also is very good at tightening up your security settings. After publication, Block Party was purchased by the people who put out Delete Me. So at this time, at the time that I'm recording this and talking to you, there doesn't appear to be any major changes, but that's something just to keep an eye on — that Block Party was sold to another company. So in the future, if you're listening to us, there might be some things that change there.

-If you work at home, don't forget to disable your cameras and microphones. Talk to your human resources department about what information the company collects, what they do with it and if you can opt out. They will probably say no, but it is a conversation worth having. And if they say no, this is when you unionize and make them say yes. We're a pro-union family here at Stupid Sexy Privacy. So any chance we can to tell you to join a union or form your own, we're going to do it. And that's just another good example of that.

-Speaking of opt-outs, many doctors' offices and hospitals now use software like MyChart and Phreesia. Phreesia allows you to write to opt out of any data sharing if you email them and request it. Epic, the company behind MyChart, did not respond to our request to clarify whether or not you can opt out of any data sharing involved with their app.

You can, however, speak to your doctor's office to share your privacy concerns. HIPAA does not protect your medical information at all. Like, people think that HIPAA is like this magical thing that shields everything, and it does not. So that is very important for you to keep in mind when you're using MyChart and Phreesia. That HIPAA does not protect you there. So always be aware of what medical data is being collected by your apps and devices.

-If you're the victim of a scam, visit victimconnect.org or call them directly at 1-855-4-VICTIM. That's 1-855-484-2846. That number again is 855-484-2846. As they describe the service: The Victim Connect Resource Center is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week, anonymous and confidential hotline where victims and survivors of crimes can receive support, information and referral options confidentially and compassionately.

-If you are the victim of a romance scam, blackmail or identity theft, you are not alone. Tell your friends and family and ask for help. Report scams whenever you can, and if these scams lead to identity theft, which they probably will, report it to the FTC ASAP at identitytheft.gov. Follow the FTC's suggestions on what to do next. You'll also need the FTC report, by the way, to bring to the police to file an official report, so do not lose it. And that website again is identitytheft.gov.

And finally, for this week: don't open random links. I mean, if you're listening to this, you probably have a good idea not to do that, but let's repeat it. Do not open random links. If you have a question about whether or not that link is legit, we recommend running it through VirusTotal.com. That's virustotal.com/gui/home/url, and that's a great place to go if you have questions about the legitimacy of whether or not a link you sent is safe to click on.

That's all for this week. I mentioned these are pretty straightforward. We'll finish the checklist next week, and we'll also have Dr. Viet Trinh join us as well. If you have any questions about anything we talk about in this book excerpt, again, you can find me on Signal at BJMendelson.32.

Outro

Today's episode of Privacy Tips was recorded in Hollywood, California, and sponsored by DuckDuckGo. It is 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. They will return — it's just a question of money.

When there is enough money, they will return. So let's give a shout-out to Andrew VanVoorhis, Rosie Tran and Amanda King.

We will try to bring you new episodes of Stupid Sexy Privacy as soon as we can. They are expensive to produce, but we are going to try our best. And of course, we like to thank our friends at DuckDuckGo.

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% of Americans to be 1% better — just 1% 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 the show. So please take a moment to leave us a review, and we'll see you next Thursday on Privacy Tips.