Privacy Files

In this episode of Privacy Files , we continue our multipart series on the dark web. We examine the complexities of dark web crimes and discuss their far-reaching impacts. To help us navigate this subject, we talk to Tammy Harper. Tammy is a Senior Threat Analyst, Dark Web Investigator and Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) consultant. Dark web crimes are surprisingly nuanced. While no...

Watch YouTuber Kitboga Bait Scammers: https://www.youtube.com/@KitbogaShow/featured Have a scam for Kitboga to look into? Email him at: hello@kitbogashow.com Scam call centers are big business. Employees head into a typical-looking office building and put in their 40-plus hours every week sitting in cramped cubicles. But unlike most common office workers, these employees spend their days trying to...

You might not be familiar with the term Real-Time Bidding (RTB), but if you browse the web, you're likely participating in this privacy-compromising activity hundreds of time each day. According to the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), "RTB is the largest data breach ever recorded. It tracks and shares what people view online and their real-world location 294 billion times in the...

When you think about the dark web, culture is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. However, to really understand something, culture is one of the first places you should look. When you understand a culture, you can recognize patterns. And when you recognize patterns, suddenly, a full story emerges. In this episode of Privacy Files, we interview Evan Blicker (https://www.linkedin.com/in...

The internet is a lot of things. It is informative...sometimes deceptive. It brings people together when they are separated by great physical distances. It makes shopping easier than at any other time in human history. But there is also a dark side. But is it as sinister as the media makes it out to be? The dark web conjures up images of a deep recess within the web where anything goes. A place wh...

There are approximately 18 million students enrolled in degree-granting colleges and universities in the United States. Globally, that number balloons to 235 million students. And as technology evolves, it finds its way into today's college campus life one way or another. But is it always for the betterment of students? Can college students maintain their privacy during a period in their life...

***NOTE: The audio in the first eleven minutes might be a little challenging to listen to, but after that it improves. This was our first episode recorded outside of our Privacy Files studio. Recording remotely does introduce some additional recording challenges. In this episode, we were recording inside a convention center expo hall where we had to contend with a considerable amount of ambient no...

Globally, there are more than 50 million people creating original content for social media. Make no mistake about it. The influencer industry is huge. In many cases, being an influencer is like being a Hollywood celebrity. Strangers will often recognize influencers in public. But life as a content creator is not all about money and fame. Living life in the public eye comes at the expense of person...

Since 2000, there have been more than two million marriages every year in the United States. In fact, the average cost of a wedding in America is approximately $25,000. But what about the privacy cost? Planning a wedding often involves communicating with ten or more vendors. From photographers and caterers to musicians and cake bakeries, wedding planning requires providing your personal contact in...

To learn more about our guest Robert Kerbeck and to buy the book RUSE : https://www.robertkerbeck.com/ To those in the world of corporate espionage, Robert Kerbeck is known as the best corporate spy there ever was. He perfected the art of social engineering, or "rusing" as Robert likes to call it, to gain access to sensitive internal information from some of the largest companies in the...

The Virtual Private Network (VPN) business is hot. What was once the domain of the corporate world is now a ubiquitous phenomenon. Today there are 1.5 billion VPN users worldwide--making this a nearly $50 billion global market. In this episode of Privacy Files , we take a hard look at the world of VPNs. What's driving the growth in VPN adoption? Who's using VPNs, for what and why? Are all...

World Password Day is May 4, 2023. And with 80% of hacking-related breaches being linked to passwords, this Intel-conceived annual event, is an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of strong passwords and fight back against bad actors. It's a great reminder to take inventory of your accounts and reassess all login credentials--especially financial accounts. Take an extra hard lo...

Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) has been receiving a lot of press lately. There is so much data freely accessible online today that many experts say spy agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) should focus their research efforts on OSINT sources first, long before employing covert techniques like wiretapping or reading an adversary's mail. In...

Imagine a future where YOU own your data and not Big Tech. Imagine a future where you control what personal information you share, with whom and for how long. Decentralized identity offers this future and the technology and standards are being developed today. When available, decentralized identity will put an end to the practice of giant corporations storing your sensitive personal data--only for...

Identity theft is big business for bad actors. In 2021, there were nearly 1.7 million reports of identity theft in the United States, translating into $56 billion in losses. Credit card fraud is the second leading form of identity theft with nearly 400,000 cases being reported in the United States in 2021. In 2023, worldwide payment card fraud losses are expected to exceed $35 billion. In fact, gl...

Each year in the United States, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) processes approximately 160 million individual tax returns. Personal income taxes in America is anything but a simple process. In fact, there are literally more than 800 forms and schedules available to accommodate a wide variety of income reporting scenarios. But with approximately 92% of all tax returns in the United States being...

In the United States, there are nearly 40,000 private detectives and investigators. Jobs for private detectives and investigators are expected to grow 13% through 2030. Globally, the private investigation services market stands at $18.2 billion USD in 2022. In fact, private investigation services account for 20% of the entire global security services market. So what's responsible for the growi...

In this episode of Privacy Files , we wrap up our two-part series on Smart Devices and Privacy. We highlight another handful of popular smart devices and discuss the privacy and security implications of employing them in your home. From baby monitors and security systems (including Ring doorbell cameras) to smart cars and digital assistants, we give you the pros and cons and how to better protect...

Today, smart devices are practically everywhere. In fact, there are now 15.14 billion internet-connected devices worldwide. That number is expected to double by 2030. In 2020, the number of Inernet-of-Things (IoT) devices surpassed the number of non-IoT devices. And there's no looking back. Worldwide, 127 devices are connected to the internet every second of the day. And by 2025, it is estimat...

In this spellbinding episode of Privacy Files , Rich and Sarah peel the layers off of the Chinese Spy Balloon incident that occurred over the United States from January 28 to February 4 2023. While this incident may have been an attempt by the Chinese government to gather intelligence from American military installations, there are further concerns that the technology included in the balloon's pay...

The video game industry is the largest category within the entertainment industry, generating hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue annually. Estimates put the video game industry at five to ten times the box office revenue of the movie industry. More than half of Gen X, Gen Y and Gen Z play video games. In fact, an astonishing 81% of Gen Z plays video games. But just exactly how private is g...

In this episode of Privacy Files , Rich and Sarah observe Teen Tech Week by addressing some of the safety issues teenagers encounter while navigating the online world. The discussion was enhanced by welcoming a guest, the mother of a teenage daughter, to provide insight into the growing issues teens face online. Teens spend hours and hours on their mobile devices every single day. However, when th...

Nearly 1.2% of all emails sent are malicious in nature. That's approximately 3.4 billion phishing emails sent every single day. In this episode of Privacy Files , we examine how the increase in remote work is raising the risk level for data breaches at companies around the world. One growing threat is zero-click exploits. These are cyber attacks that don't even require the victim to click a link....

In Part 2 of our two-part series on TikTok and Privacy , we start off by looking at the mental health effects of being on the short-form video app. From feeding users a constant stream of harmful content to shaming people about their body image, TikTok has come under tremendous heat from critics around the world. While TikTok's community guidelines state that bullying and other forms of harassment...

More than 1.5 billion people use TikTok worldwide. Nearly one-third of the world's internet users are on the ultra popular short-form video hosting app. In 2022, TikTok was the most downloaded app on earth. But what is TikTok doing with all of this user data? Is it really just a harmless app for watching silly dancing videos? Or is there more to the story? In Part 1 of this 2-part Privacy Files se...