By Joel from CryptoTech Solutions
The podcast currently has 4 episodes available.
Hey Gang,
Sorry I’ve been away for so long, but spent the summer moving half-way across the country…literally. If you’re in the Washington, DC area and you’re interested privacy or cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin, Dash, or Monero), then contact me at [email protected] or on Twitter @CrypTecSolution because I’d love to hangout with like-minded people. If you don’t live in DC but you’re interested in these topics and have a question you’d like answered, please feel free to contact me then as well.
Today’s guest is Maggie McNeill – author, activist, and sex-worker. I interviewed Maggie all the way back on April 14th about sex worker privacy. Unfortunately, we ran into a slew of technical difficulties. The video chat program that I typically use to record episodes wouldn’t work on Maggie’s computer; so we switched to a different video chat program, but I wasn’t really setup properly to record on that one, and…bottom line… the video was unusable.
I just want to apologize to Maggie. She took the time and effort to appear in the video, she was incredibly gracious during all of the technical difficulties, it has taken me months to edit the show when it should have taken days, and now, I’m not even using the video. Sorry Maggie.
That being said, I was able to salvage most of the audio after running it through some post-production analysis software. I had to did edit out some of the worst bits, but thankfully those were mostly during moments of casual conversation and not during Maggie’s actual answers. There are some sections of poor audio quality that I left in because I feel that it’s good enough for you to still follow the conversation, and they were just too important to cut out.
The final edit of the interview is about 35 minutes long, and it think you will find it extremely interesting. During that short time, Maggie points out quite a few things about privacy in the sex industry that are not intuitively obvious as well as raising several challenges that sex workers and their customers face regarding digital and financial privacy.
To my surprise, Maggie was extremely skeptical that encryption tools or digital currencies, like Bitcoin, could actually help alleviate any of those problems. In her opinion, all the tools available are work-arounds that are either too technically complicated or inconvenient to be effective, and, to a certain point, I agree with her.
These solutions are tools to work around the system because the system unjustly limits people’s freedom and choices. That means maintaining your digital privacy does additional effort and requires using a patch-work set of tools that are foreign to most. But this doesn’t mean these tools can be effective, or even easy to use, once you get to know them. So my plan for future episodes is to take each the issues Maggie raises and do a show about a tool that addresses those specific concerns.
If you are a sex worker and you’re proficient with digital privacy tools or your really into cryptos like Bitcoin, Monero, or Dash, then please contact me. I would really like to interview you and get your perspective on how these tools have hopefully made you safer and improved your business.
Additionally, before the interview I take a few minutes discuss a timely crypto-project. Eros.Vision is a website that claims it is going to build the perfect tool for the sex work industry – a completely decentralized marketplace built on top of Zeronet and Ethereum technologies.
The website bills itself as the “OpenBazaar of Sex,” but I cover 7 reasons to fear that it might just be the latest in a rash of ICO (initial coin offering) scams to defraud investors.
Overall, I’m really proud of how this episode turned out, and I think you’re going to love it. If you haven’t already, go check out the real OpenBazaar…because it’s pretty awesome. And of course, don’t forget to visit Maggie’s website and buy her new book, The Form of Things Unknown.
Enjoy!
Today’s Links:
Maggie’s Website: https://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/
Maggie’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/maggie_mcneill?lang=en
Maggie’s books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Forms-Things-Stories-Maggie-McNeill/dp/1541065182/
OpenBazaar’s Website: https://www.openbazaar.org/
OpenBazaar’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/openbazaar?lang=en
Support the Show:
Buy Bitcoins: https://www.cryptotech.solutions/buy-bitcoins/
Tips / Donations:
Bitcoin: 1yNUcjgLqgzdGYQYWspJGcnDVHyT4HdmU
Dash: XjvWzZjZZfibv25H4E289zy9k7gK9pxc8h
In today's show, I interview CEO/founder Todd Weaver about his computer company Purism and how they were fixing Vault 7 exploits before it was cool.
As anyone watching this show probably already knows, Vault 7 is an archive of documents released by WiliLeaks that prove the CIA recently lost control of a suite of hacking tools, including malware, viruses, trojans, and un-patched “zero day” exploits, which allow an attacker to subvert most common operating systems and take control of the target’s device.
Unfortunately, many of the vulnerabilities “exposed” in Vault 7 have been known to the privacy and security community for a number of years, but device and software manufactures have not addressed these exploits because: 1) up to this point, most customers don’t seem to care about digital privacy and security; and 2) fixing many of them would reduce the manufacturing company’s own ability to gather lucrative data on its customers.
Thankfully not all companies think this way – Enter Purism. For the last three years, Purism has been producing high-quality privacy, security, and freedom focused computers and software.
In this interview, Todd discuss how the privacy, security, and freedom philosophy influences Purism’s hardware design choices (Purism is the first company to introduce physical kill switches for device microphones, cameras, and transmitters – which should be an industry standard in my opinion), software development, and even the corporate structure of the company.
During the interview, Todd also gave us a look behind the curtain on Purism’s development of a privacy and security focused mobile phone, which goes on pre-order in 3Q2017 and is set to be released in 2Q2018!
Overall, it was a great interview from a solid company that is leading the industry on privacy, security, and freedom. Enjoy!
Today’s Links:
WiliLeaks Vault 7 Archive: https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/
Todd Weaver’s post on Vault 7: https://puri.sm/posts/what-the-cia-vault-7-documents-mean/
Purism philosophy on digital privacy, security, and freedom: https://puri.sm/why-purism/
Purism’s Core Team: https://puri.sm/about/team/
Purism’s Privacy, Security, and OpenSource Advisory Board: https://puri.sm/about/advisory-board/
Today’s Sponsors:
ProtonMail: https://www.cryptotech.solutions/protonmail
Webcam Stickers: http://astore.amazon.com/joecry-20/detail/B01J8UO94U
Tips / Donations:
Bitcoin: 1yNUcjgLqgzdGYQYWspJGcnDVHyT4HdmU
Dash: XjvWzZjZZfibv25H4E289zy9k7gK9pxc8h
Welcome! CryptoTech.Solutions is my attempt to encourage the use of digital privacy tools and cryptocurrencies by everyone, NOT just techies! My goal is to create product review and step-by-step tutorial videos, podcast interviews with developers and activists in the digital privacy and cryptocurrency communities, and blog about current events affecting digital privacy. My favorite cryptocurrencies at the moment are: Bitcoin, Dash, and Monero.
Today’s Sponsors Are:
CryptoTech’s Amazon Store: We’ve created a small Amazon Shop that sells books and gear related to digital privacy and cryptocurrency.
http://astore.amazon.com/joecry-20
ProtonMail: A completely private and end-to-end encrypted email service.
https://protonmail.com/signup?ref=cryptotech
Nord VPN: An easy-to-use, privacy-centered VPN service to protect your web traffic.
https://go.nordvpn.net/aff_c?offer_id=15&aff_id=3425
Paxful: A easy and private way to buy Bitcoin instantly online.
https://paxful.com/roots/buy-bitcoin?affiliate=bqWkbP3mdAw
Bitcoin Tip Payment Channel: PM8TJXkG7WMNpSpWCHWyjFVU28fRaKqdtAo9m4XQmUDc5ESuVpg3CTeFoQREqcjyw13LPQ4BTsdYSjLqfhRNMu72BDWbGfCf2Y54dQv4fzYVp64aDF4x
E-mail me @: [email protected] PGP: 0d02 0d5b dedc 9a85 525c 00c6 d4c2 1436 7430 a025
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cryptotech.solutions/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CrypTecSolution
The podcast currently has 4 episodes available.