Sep 17, 2026 · 1 hr 51 min · 18 segments
Byron Tau is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at ProPublica and the author of "Means of Control." He spent five years tracing how the surveillance apparatus built after 9/11 came home…
Byron TauGuest
Shawn RyanHost
I mean, uh, we, we've talked about all, a l- not all, a lot of the ways that these m- companies are collecting on us.
We've talked about the flow of data, how it gets into the government's hands, what the marketers do with it, what the devices are, surveillance pricing, all this stuff.
What, what is it, what are things that people can do to kinda shield themselves from the invasiveness?
Um, you know, i- if you wanna live a normal life, and you wanna have a phone, and you wanna go about your day, and you, you know, you don't wanna live in a w- in the woods in a, on a self-sufficient, um, plot of land where you're, you know, collecting rainwater and, and using your own solar panels, then it's, it's hard to completely opt out of data collection.
One, I do think the content of our communications and the content of our important documents and the content of our emails, um, the, the stuff we, the communications and the d- the documents we write and keep, I think a lot of that's very important to keep private, and there are plenty of ways to do that.
Um, there are encr- I, I basically think you should encrypt your communications, your emails, your documents, um, your files as much as possible, and you can do that- Through, um, a feature built into the Apple phone called Advanced Data Protection.
Um, there are some, you know, there are some third-party encryption platforms out there, including ProtonMail, which has, um, basically a- an encrypted email.
There's, there's a lot of these, um, encrypted drive providers, um, or encrypted email providers.
There's encrypted communications platforms, um, like Signal, like the Glacier platform that you're developing and working on, um, like even WhatsApp.
It collects a lot of information about who you are and who you talk to, but actually th- the communication is, is private.
Um, so keeping the, the content of your communications is, a- and the content of your files private is probably the most basic thing you can do, and, and is isn't so hard, um, but might take a little bit of, of work.
Um, second, you can be careful about your permissions, right? Like, you don't have to let every single app have your location.
You can type every time you want an Uber where you are, or you can drop the little pin on the map, or you can just say, "You know, today I'm at this address, and I want delivery." And sure, they'll store it, um, but it's better than giving this technical backend access to your GPS location.
So turn some of that stuff off, and, and don't let every app that asks have access to your contacts and your calendar and your photo roll.
I mean, uh, we, we've talked about all, a l- not all, a lot of the ways that these m- companies are collecting on us.
We've talked about the flow of data, how it gets into the government's hands, what the marketers do with it, what the devices are, surveillance pricing, all this stuff.
What, what is it, what are things that people can do to kinda shield themselves from the invasiveness?
Um, you know, i- if you wanna live a normal life, and you wanna have a phone, and you wanna go about your day, and you, you know, you don't wanna live in a w- in the woods in a, on a self-sufficient, um, plot of land where you're, you know, collecting rainwater and, and using your own solar panels, then it's, it's hard to completely opt out of data collection.
One, I do think the content of our communications and the content of our important documents and the content of our emails, um, the, the stuff we, the communications and the d- the documents we write and keep, I think a lot of that's very important to keep private, and there are plenty of ways to do that.
Um, there are encr- I, I basically think you should encrypt your communications, your emails, your documents, um, your files as much as possible, and you can do that- Through, um, a feature built into the Apple phone called Advanced Data Protection.
Um, there are some, you know, there are some third-party encryption platforms out there, including ProtonMail, which has, um, basically a- an encrypted email.
There's, there's a lot of these, um, encrypted drive providers, um, or encrypted email providers.
There's encrypted communications platforms, um, like Signal, like the Glacier platform that you're developing and working on, um, like even WhatsApp.
It collects a lot of information about who you are and who you talk to, but actually th- the communication is, is private.
Um, so keeping the, the content of your communications is, a- and the content of your files private is probably the most basic thing you can do, and, and is isn't so hard, um, but might take a little bit of, of work.
Um, second, you can be careful about your permissions, right? Like, you don't have to let every single app have your location.
You can type every time you want an Uber where you are, or you can drop the little pin on the map, or you can just say, "You know, today I'm at this address, and I want delivery." And sure, they'll store it, um, but it's better than giving this technical backend access to your GPS location.
So turn some of that stuff off, and, and don't let every app that asks have access to your contacts and your calendar and your photo roll.
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