Techlore Talks

Every major global event brings the same scam tactics wearing a new mask. In this interview, David Ruiz, journalist and privacy advocate at Malwarebytes, breaks down how to identify (and avoid) scams, stalkerware vs. nation-state spyware, and what privacy is actually about.
🔗 SOURCES & LINKS
• Malwarebytes: https://malwarebytes.com/
• Coalition Against Stalkerware: https://stopstalkerware.org/
• Citizen Lab: https://citizenlab.ca/
• Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://eff.org/
⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) - INTRO

(01:31) - DAVID'S BACKGROUND

(06:38) - POLICY BEHIND-THE-SCENES

(09:18) - WORLD CUP SCAMS

(16:58) - BEHAVIORAL VS. TECHNOLOGICAL DEFENSES

(18:53) - SCAMS VS. MARKETING

(21:49) - RESPONSIBILITY

(24:35) - WHERE TOOLS FIT + MALWAREBYTES TOOLS

(28:42) - MALWAREBYTES RELATIONSHIP TO BIG TECH

(31:30) - ANALYTICS

(33:56) - COALITION AGAINST STALKERWARE

(41:46) - STALKERWARE VS. GOVERNMENT SPYWARE

(44:32) - STALKERWARE IS MOSTLY ANDROID?

(47:44) - DAVID'S TECH STACK

(50:29) - FINAL THOUGHTS

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Your bank can freeze your account, block your transfers, and demand explanations for how you spend your own money. Cake Wallet founder & CEO Vik Sharma learned this firsthand when trying to transfer $90 between his accounts. In this interview, he shares this story, along with the history of Cake Wallet, why financial privacy matters, the importance of decentralization, Bitcoin vs. Monero, silent payments, and more.
Thank you to PikaSim for sponsoring this episode! Visit https://pikasim.com/techlore and use code "TECHLORE" for 10% off your anonymous eSIM.
🔗 SOURCES & LINKS
• Cake Wallet: https://cakewallet.com/
• Monero by Cake Wallet: https://monero.com/
• Cupcake: https://cupcakewallet.com/
⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) - INTRO

(01:47) - HOW VIK GOT INTO CRYPTO

(03:32) - THE VALUE OF DECENTRALIZATION

(06:15) - THE VALUE OF CRYPTO FOR SKEPTICS

(08:54) - CAKE WALLET PHILOSOPHY + VISION

(12:48) - TECHNICAL VS. PHILOSOPHICAL CRITICISM

(15:30) - "WE CAN'T SEE THAT"

(18:39) - SPONSOR

(20:30) - BLOCKCHAIN PRIVACY CONCERNS

(27:29) - ZCASH RECEPTION

(29:25) - SILENT PAYMENTS

(31:10) - CUPCAKE

(34:03) - PRIVACY & SECURITY VS. MARKETING

(38:39) - CENSORSHIP RESISTANCE

(40:02) - CURRENT CONCERNS

(42:28) - HOW TO FOLLOW

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End-to-end encrypted file sharing may sound simple, but for Cryptee, it took five years to ship. In this interview, Henry sits down with John Ozbay, founder and CEO of Cryptee, to talk through why: preventing CSAM, why client-side scanning doesn't work, how Cryptee's solution was designed to raise the barrier to mass spread without compromising encryption, and the broader philosophical question of where developer liability ends and moral responsibility begins.
🔗 SOURCES & LINKS
• Cryptee: https://crypt.ee
• Stop Chat Control: https://stopchatcontrol.eu
• Open Web Advocacy: https://open-web-advocacy.org
• EDRI: https://edri.org
⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) - INTRO

(04:08) - E2EE SHARING HESITATIONS

(14:09) - HOW IS BIG TECH HANDLING THIS?

(16:24) - LOCAL SCANNING

(19:27) - HOW ARE CHAT APPS HANDLING THIS?

(21:24) - E2EE BACKUPS

(22:40) - HOW MUCH IS THIS CONSIDERED?

(25:38) - CRYPTEE'S SOLUTION

(42:09) - THREAT MODELING

(48:18) - MEGA'S APPROACH

(53:16) - LIABILITY VS. RESPONSIBILITY

(01:01:40) - HOW TO ENGAGE PRODUCTIVELY

(01:09:48) - CHAT CONTROL & ULTERIOR MOTIVES

(01:21:34) - IS CHAT CONTROL DEAD?

(01:25:33) - HOW JOHN GOT INVOLVED

(01:34:44) - CHANGING OVER TIME + RIGHT TO REPAIR + LINUX

(01:41:32) - CLOSING THOUGHTS

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Firefox now has a free built-in VPN with 50GB of bandwidth per month. In this interview, Henry sits down with Ajit Varma, Head of Firefox at Mozilla, to break down exactly how it works, what Mozilla can and can't see, the difference between Firefox VPN and Mozilla VPN, and why no other major browser is likely to follow Mozilla's lead on this.
🔗 SOURCES & LINKS
• Firefox VPN: https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/features/vpn/
• Mozilla VPN: https://www.mozilla.org/products/vpn/
⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) - INTRO

(01:23) - THE FIREFOX PHILOSOPHY

(05:14) - TARGET USER

(06:47) - TECHNICAL FEATURES

(08:48) - FIREFOX VPN VS. MOZILLA VPN

(14:57) - PROXY EXTENSION DEMAND

(16:21) - MULTI-HOP

(18:14) - TRUST

(20:21) - VPN VS. PROXY PROTECTION

(24:09) - LOGGING

(25:04) - LOCATION

(28:09) - RECEPTION & POPULARITY

(29:28) - MOBILE

(31:10) - SAFETY VS. PRIVACY

(33:14) - TOR

(34:35) - STREAMING

(35:10) - ORIGIN OF FIREFOX VPN

(37:31) - FREE VPN POSITIONING

(40:22) - 50GB FREE & UPGRADE PATHS

(42:38) - COSTS TO RUN

(43:23) - USING MOZILLA VPN & FIREFOX VPN?

(44:37) - USING CUSTOM DNS

(47:23) - AD BLOCKING

(49:10) - WHAT'S NEXT?

(50:36) - HOW TO FOLLOW

🎥 VIDEO
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Most people know DuckDuckGo as a search engine, but they're also creating a full privacy ecosystem covering a browser, VPN, data broker removal, and app tracking protection. In this Techlore Talks interview, Henry sits down with Peter Dolanjski, Director of Product at DuckDuckGo, to cover what Google is actually collecting, why incognito mode doesn't do what most people think, how DuckDuckGo's contextual ads differ from Google's behavioral targeting, and more.
🔗 SOURCES & LINKS
• DuckDuckGo: https://duckduckgo.com
• Duck AI: https://duck.ai
• No-AI DuckDuckGo: https://noai.duckduckgo.com
⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) - INTRO

(01:20) - PETER'S BACKGROUND AT MOZILLA

(02:56) - EXPLAINING THE ROLE

(06:05) - WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU USE GOOGLE

(11:31) - ILLEGAL GOVERNMENT DATA ACQUISITION

(14:32) - "DO NOT TRACK ME" & INCOGNITO MODE

(16:29) - GOOGLE VS. DDG SEARCH PRIVACY

(20:08) - PERSONALIZATION

(23:12) - WHAT DATA DDG COLLECTS

(25:00) - SEARCH ENGINE AGE VERIFICATION

(26:01) - THREAT MODEL/TARGET USER

(29:04) - MAXIMALIST PRIVACY VS. PRIVACY FOR ALL

(32:48) - DDG SEARCH IN iOS SETTINGS

(34:55) - REVENUE & ADS

(38:39) - PRODUCT EXPANSION

(41:33) - WHY THE DDG ECOSYSTEM?

(44:06) - EPHEMERAL BROWSING

(48:10) - DDG BROWSER TECHNOLOGY

(50:33) - EXTENSION SUPPORT

(54:29) - WHY PLATFORM-BASED?

(56:55) - PASSKEYS

(57:24) - PROGRESSIVE WEB APPS

(58:42) - FINGERPRINTING

(01:00:42) - OPEN SOURCE

(01:01:58) - APP TRACKING PROTECTION

(01:08:37) - MICROSOFT CONTROVERSY

(01:11:06) - AI

(01:15:14) - NO AI

(01:16:51) - PERSISTENT ID?

(01:18:29) - WHAT'S MISSING IN THE ECOSYSTEM?

(01:21:09) - WHAT'S NEXT?

(01:22:24) - HOW TO FOLLOW

🎥 VIDEO
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🧡 SUPPORT TECHLORE
Keep Techlore Talks independent & growing:
★ Support this podcast ★