Techlore Talks

DNS quietly reveals everywhere you go online - even on encrypted sites. In this interview, John Todd (CTO at Quad9) provides a DNS masterclass: how DNS works, the privacy implications, how to change your DNS, why Quad9 collects nothing on you, why they are being sued, DNS vs. VPNs, and how a nonprofit can fund itself without compromising privacy.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• Quad9: https://quad9.net ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS(00:00) - INTRO (01:00) - WHAT IS QUAD9? (01:30) - HOW IS IT FREE? (02:48) - WHAT'S RECURSIVE DNS? (04:11) - DNS PRIVACY CONCERNS (07:19) - DEFAULT DNS PROVIDER + OPTIONS (09:15) - DNS ON iOS (1...

Josh Summers spent a decade living in western China before 14 police officers showed up at his door, accused him of espionage, and confiscated every device his family owned. This Techlore Talks interview covers what 17 days of interrogation taught him about digital privacy while traveling, and the practical steps that could make the difference for you.Stop handing out your real email address. addy.io gives every site an alias that forwards to your normal inbox. Open source, self-hostable, with browser extensions and mobile apps. 🚀 Get started for free: https://addy.io/?utm_source=techlore🔗 SOURCES & LINKS<...

Flock Safety is one of several companies quietly building a searchable database of everyone's car — no warrant required, and no way to opt out. In this Techlore Talks interview, Bob from DeFlock breaks down how ALPR technology works, what "end-to-end encryption" really means in Flock's case, why this issue is bipartisan, and what you can do about it in your own city.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• DeFlock: https://deflock.org• No ALPRs Week of Action: https://noalprs.com ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS(00:00) - INTRO (01:38) - WHAT IS FLOCK? (03:27) - WHY HAS FLOCK SPECIFICALLY BLOWN UP? (04:53) - THE FUNDAMENT...

California created a free service that deletes your personal information from over 600 registered data brokers. Tom Kemp, Executive Director of the California Privacy Protection Agency (Cal Privacy), breaks down how the DROP system actually works, why data brokers face fines of up to $40 million a day for non-compliance, what to do if you live outside California, and more.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• Cal Privacy: https://cppa.ca.gov/• DROP: https://privacy.ca.gov• California Safe at Home Program: https://www.sos.ca.gov/registries/safe-home ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS(00:00) - INTRO (01:44) - CPPA VS. CAL PRIVACY (02...

Once you use Strongbox, a community favorite KeePass client, it's hard to use anything else. Alex Logan is the VP of Engineering at Applause, the company behind Strongbox. He dives into why KeePass syncing works differently than cloud-based password managers, how Strongbox's sync tries to close that gap, what the Applause acquisition actually changed, the open source nuance that trips people up, and whether a Windows or Android client is ever coming.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• Strongbox: https://strongboxsafe.com/• Strongbox Subreddit: https://reddit.com/r/strongbox• KeePass: https://keepass.info/• Have I Been Pwned: https://hav...

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 F...

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...

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 ⏱️ TIMEST...

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...

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 BAC...

The federal government doesn't need a warrant to buy your location data, your financial records, or your private information from data brokers. The Surveillance Accountability Act wants to change that. In this Techlore Talks interview, Henry sits down with Naomi Brockwell, host of NBTV and president/founder of The Ludlow Institute. They discuss the bill, Naomi's three-pillar approach to fighting the surveillance state, why decentralization doesn't automatically provide privacy, and what you can actually do right now.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• Surveillance Accountability Act: https://surveillanceaccountability.com• Contact your rep (script included): https://surveillanceaccountability.com/support• Naomi Bro...

AI is everywhere - including Firefox. But, unlike most services, Mozilla allows you to turn it off completely. In this interview, Henry sits down with Adam Fishman, Mozilla's VP of Product, to cover the philosophy behind Firefox's AI features, how Smart Window works, the controls that let you turn everything off, the importance of "having a seat at the table", and the surprising story of how Anthropic's Claude found several security vulnerabilities in Firefox.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• Firefox: https://www.firefox.com• Mozilla AI: https://www.mozilla.ai• Mozilla Common Voice: https://commonvoice.mozilla.org ⏱️ T...

Most people think their passwords are safe. Most people are wrong. Henry sits down with Ryan Luibrand, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Bitwarden, to cover why open source changes the trust equation, the LastPass data breach, how KDF algorithms work, whether storing your TOTP codes in your password manager is a good idea, and more.🔗 SOURCES & LINKSWritten breakdown: https://techlore.tech/password-manager-security-explained-with-bitwarden/Bitwarden: https://bitwarden.comPrivacy Policy: https://bitwarden.com/privacy/Compliance & Audit Reports: https://bitwarden.com/compliance/Security White Paper: https://bitwarden.com/help/bitwarden-security-white-paper/Security Readiness Kit: https://bitwarden.com/resources/bitwarden-security-readiness-kit/HackerOne Bug...

Age verification laws are spreading fast, but most coverage is either panic or dismissal, with very little clarity on what these laws actually say, who they apply to, or what they mean for free software. In this episode of Techlore Talks, Henry sits down with Jithendra Palepu, who has a legal background and Free Software Foundation Europe volunteer, to actually make sense of it. Age verification, age estimation, age gating, and self-declaration—why the difference matters enormously. We examine what California's AB 1628 actually requires, we discuss why MidnightBSD's decision to ban California users may have backfired against the very pr...

Every time you open Google Maps, it knows where you are, what you searched, how long you stayed, and where you went next. Organic Maps collects none of that. In this interview, Henry sits down with Alexander Borsuk, co-founder of Organic Maps, to talk about what mainstream maps apps are collecting, how an entirely offline-first approach changes the privacy picture, and where Organic Maps is headed next, including live public transit and opt-in traffic data.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• Organic Maps: https://organicmaps.app• Organic Maps GitHub: https://github.com/organicmaps• OpenStreetMap: https://openstreetmap.org• OsmAnd: htt...

Most people think turning off location services protects them from being tracked. It doesn't. In this interview, David Dunn from privacy-focused cellular provider Cape breaks down what carriers actually collect, how threats like IMSI catchers and SIM swaps work, and how Cape is building a mobile network specifically designed to minimize that exposure.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• Cape: https://www.cape.co• Cape + Proton collab: https://www.cape.co/cape-and-proton⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00:00 INTRO00:01:01 WHAT CELLULAR CARRIERS SEE00:02:50 THE CONCERNS00:04:08 ABUSE OF DATA00:05:28 LTT SIM SWAP ATTACK00:06:33 PHONE CALL BEHIND-THE-SCENES00:12:24 CELL TOWER...

Artyom Zorin, co-founder and lead developer of Zorin OS, explains why this Linux distribution is seeing explosive growth, its user-friendly approach, business models & incentives, privacy, open source, and more.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• Zorin OS: https://zorin.com• Zorin OS Pro: https://zorin.com/os/pro/• Zorin OS Education: https://zorin.com/os/education/⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00:00 INTRO00:02:55 ZORIN OS VS. UBUNTU00:04:14 PACKAGE COMPATIBILITY00:07:01 OPEN SOURCE? FREE?00:11:46 BUSINESS MODELS + INCENTIVES00:14:48 TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC00:16:00 PRIVACY BY DEFAULT00:17:51 SECURITY MODEL00:19:48 WHY UBUNTU?00:21:16 DESKTOP ENVIRONMENTS00:25:03 RELEASE SCHEDULE00:26:26 COMPATABILITY LAYERS00...

Most ad blockers start by blocking everything—then you become tech support for friends & family when pages break. Henry interviewed JP Schmetz, founder of Brave Search and CEO of Ghostery, about making trackers visible, why there are only 3 search indexes in the world, reinventing the open web with AI, and how to avoid becoming "the family CTO."🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• Ghostery: https://www.ghostery.com/• Who Tracks Me Database: https://whotracks.me/• Ghostery Private Search: https://www.ghostery.com/private-search• Brave Search: https://search.brave.com/⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00:00 INTRO00:01:32 ORIGINS WITH GHOSTERY00:03...

Most password managers use your master password as the encryption key—which means it can be phished and brute-forced. Passbolt uses a random private key instead. Henry interviewed co-founder Remy about why they optimized Passbolt for teams, how granular permissions prevent credential leaks, and why self-hosting matters for businesses.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• Passbolt: https://www.passbolt.com⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 INTRO01:20 PASSBOLT TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC05:52 PASSWORD MANAGER BASICS06:51 PASSBOLT TYPICAL CUSTOMER07:41 PASSWORD MANAGER OPTIONS10:33 ATTACKS ON BUSINESSES13:17 PASSBOLT BUSINESS MODEL16:24 SELF-HOSTING19:22 PROPRIETARY TECHNOLOGY22:09 SUITE VS. FOCUSED PRODUCT24:12 FEATURE REQ...

Ad blockers have broad permissions to intercept all your web traffic—which means you need to know which ones to trust. Henry interviewed the CTO and co-founded of AdGuard about why they pivoted from data collection to privacy protection, how DNS filtering differs from local ad blocking, and Apple's revolutionary new API that lets ad blockers work system-wide on iOS without ever seeing your traffic.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• AdGuard: https://adguard.com/• AdGuard Home: https://adguard.com/en/adguard-home/overview.html• AdGuard DNS: https://adguard-dns.io/• AdGuard VPN: https://adguard-vpn.com/• AdGuard Mail: https://adguard...