Techlore Talks

Peer-to-peer networks have no servers—just devices talking directly to each other. Henry interviewed Mathias Buus Madsen, CEO of Holepunch, about how BitTorrent handled 40 million users without servers, why their messenger Keet can't go down even when usage spikes, their new P2P password manager, and how P2P apps are more energy efficient than data centers.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• Holepunch: https://holepunch.to/• Keet Messenger: https://keet.io• Pears: https://pears.com• Pear Pass: https://pass.pears.com⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00:00 INTRO00:01:25 WHAT IS PEER-TO-PEER (P2P)?00:03:16 BENEFITS OF P2P00:05:38 GET...

SimpleX Chat is the only messaging network where users have no identifiers—no phone numbers, no usernames, no user IDs at all. Henry interviewed founder Evgeny Poberezkin about how unidirectional message pipes create a network where servers don't even know users exist, why this isn't federation, how it compares to Signal and Session, and why the company is based in the UK despite encryption battles.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• SimpleX: https://simplex.chat• Evgeny's Website: https://www.poberezkin.com/about.html⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00:00 INTRO00:01:31 SIMPLEX NAME00:04:20 SIMPLEX TEAM00:05:10 SIMPLEX VS. MAINSTREAM MESSENGERS00:08:05 W...

You don't have to trust Obscura—you just have to trust that not both Obscura and Mullvad are compromised. Henry sat down with Carl, former Bitcoin Core developer and founder of Obscura VPN, to discuss how it's the first VPN that mathematically can't log your activity, what makes it censorship-resistant against networks like the Great Firewall, and what it really means to build privacy that's more than "a pinky promise."🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• Obscura: https://obscura.net• GitHub: https://github.com/Sovereign-Engineering/obscuravpn-client• Trust, 2-Party Relays, and QUIC: https://obscura.net/blog/bootstrapping-trust/• Mullvad: https://mullv...

The Digital Markets Act is a can opener for Big Tech's walled gardens, forcing Apple, Google, and Microsoft to open their platforms whether they like it or not. Henry sat down with Lucas Lasota from the FSFE (Free Software Foundation of Europe) to understand what the DMA actually does, why Big Tech is fighting it in court, and what it means for open source software and your digital freedom.📱 RESOURCES• Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE): https://fsfe.org• Free Software Foundation (FSF US): https://www.fsf.org• Public Money, Public Code campaign: https://publiccode.eu...

This special compilation episode brings together exclusive interviews from the Ad Filtering Dev Summit (AFDS) in October 2024. Henry sat down with developers and leaders from AdGuard, Brave, and the creator of the legendary Peter Lowe block list to discuss the state of ad blocking, new privacy features, and the future of tracking protection.Featured Interviews:Andrey Meshkov (AdGuard CTO) - Apple's new system-wide filtering API and what it means for iOS privacySofia Orlova (AdGuard UX Writer) - Designing ad blockers for everyone from "grannies to techies"Anton Lazarev - How Brave Shields works, AI privacy features...

This is a different kind of Techlore Talks. Henry sits down with Marloes de Koning, a Dutch tech reporter from NRC. This wide-ranging conversation explores tech policy from a journalist's perspective, and asks hard questions about age verification, digital sovereignty, news consumption, the rules & role of journalism, and more.🔗 TAKE ACTION• NRC: https://www.nrc.nl• Twitter/X: https://x.com/MarloesdeK• Marloes' Age Verification article: https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2024/04/19/het-hoofdpijndossier-van-de-porno-industrie-controleren-hoe-oud-je-bezoekers-zijn-a4196562• Marloes' Tornado Cash article: https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2024/03/25/hoe-een-rus-uit-amstelveen-met-zijn-cryptomixer-voor-de-rechter-in-den-bosch-belandt-a4194203• Marloes' Birthday of the Cookie...

Google just announced a policy that could kill F-Droid and open source app distribution on Android. Marc Prud'hommeaux from F-Droid's Board of Directors calls it an "extinction event"—here's why that matters even if you've never used F-Droid.🔗 TAKE ACTIONKeep Android Open (sign the petition): https://keepandroidopen.orgF-Droid Website: https://f-droid.org🧡 SUPPORT TECHLORE• Become a Techlorian: https://techlore.tech/support/#/portal/signup• All Support Methods: https://techlore.tech/support/🔐 MORE FROM TECHLORE• Homepage & Newsletter: https://techlore.tech• Our Course...

Even with encryption and 2FA, if someone steals your logged-in laptop, you're compromised. Michael Altfield created Buskill - an open source USB "dead man switch" - to solve this analog attack vector. In this interview, you’ll hear about the real incidents that inspired it, the advocacy work that fueled it, and the collaborative engineering efforts that turned it into a practical tool for protecting sensitive data.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• https://tech.michaelaltfield.net/• https://buskill.in/• https://github.com/BusKill⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00:00 INTRO00...

Ricardo Signes, Chief Engineer at Fastmail, explains why Gmail's email experience has become increasingly fragmented, and what it would take to actually fix the decades-old IMAP protocol that powers most of the internet. We dive deep into JMAP (the modern replacement Gmail won't adopt), privacy-by-design vs. encryption theater, and the hidden trade-offs between convenience and security that no one talks about. If you've noticed your email client feeling broken, this interview reveals why.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• Fastmail: https://fastmail.com• Fastmail Values Statement: https://fastmail.com/about/values• Cyrus IMAP/JMAP...

When you sign into Chrome, Google collects your entire browsing history to build behavioral profiles for targeted ads. In this interview, Firefox CTO Bobby Holley breaks down why Mozilla maintains Gecko as an independent engine, how Firefox approaches privacy differently from Google and Apple, and why the stakes for browser independence are higher than ever.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 INTRO01:24 CTO DAY IN THE LIFE03:34 STICKING WITH GECKO OVER CHROMIUM06:33 COMPETING ON PRIVACY09:06 PRIVACY IN FIREFOX21:03 INSPIRATION FROM THE TOR PROJECT22:57 WHAT USERS GAIN...

In this Techlore Talks episode, we sit down with Jose Briones to explore whether dumb phones really offer better privacy and how digital minimalism can transform your relationship with technology. Jose breaks down practical strategies for reducing screen time, the importance of device segmentation, and why mindset, not just hardware, matters most. Whether you're considering a dumb phone or looking to reclaim your focus, this conversation will challenge how you think about your devices.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• https://josebriones.org/• https://www.dumbphones.org/• https://www.youtube.com/c/josebrion...

Wessel Klein Snakenborg, founder of NovaCustom, joins me to discuss building privacy-focused laptops with CoreBoot firmware, Intel Management Engine disabling, and full Linux compatibility. We dive deep into their custom hardware approach, Qubes OS certification, supply chain security, and why they chose to compete directly with Big Tech on hardware quality while maintaining complete user control.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• https://novacustom.com/• https://doc.qubes-os.org/en/latest/index.html⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Introduction & What Nova Custom Does01:00 Company Origins & The Meaning Behind "Nova Custom"02:35 Extensive Hardware Customization Options03:40 Operating System Choices & Linux Focus...

Session CTO Kee Jefferys to discusses their decentralized messenger that uses private routing by default, requires no phone number, and runs on a network of thousands community-operated nodes. We dive deep into the technical decisions behind Session, including why they chose decentralization over perfect forward secrecy and how they're building a trustless messaging platform.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• https://getsession.org/• https://www.linkedin.com/in/kee-j-090502157/⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00:00 INTRO00:02:21 WHY SESSION WAS STARTED00:04:12 THE TEAM BEHIND SESSION00:05:30 SESSION USER THREAT MODELS00:09:20 REGISTRATION & USER ID00:13:07 IS KEY VERIFICATION UNNECESSARY?00:14:58 ONION ROUTI...

Frank Karlitschek, CEO and founder of Nextcloud, joins me to discuss the evolution from OwnCloud to Nextcloud, the challenges of building sustainable open-source businesses, and why digital sovereignty matters more than ever. Please note: Due to Jitsi connection issues during recording, Frank's video quality is compromised in the first half but normalizes as the interview progresses. We dive deep into Nextcloud Hub 10's new end-to-end encryption features, AI capabilities, and Frank's vision for competing with Big Tech while maintaining user privacy. 🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• https://nextcloud.com/team/• https://x.com/fkarlitschek• https://mastodon.social/@Karlitsche...

Viktor Vescei from IVPN gives us a brutally honest VPN interview. He admits you can't truly verify no-logs claims, explains why most audits are "snapshots in time," and reveals why IVPN shut down their affiliate program due to industry-wide misinformation. This is an insider's perspective on what's really broken in the VPN industry and how to actually evaluate providers.🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• https://www.ivpn.net/⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00:00 - Intro00:01:54 - Viktor's background & journey to IVPN00:04:47 - IVPN's 15-year history00:07:33 - VPN company ownership & acquisition attempts00:11:24 - IVPN's brutally honest blog00:12...

In this interview, Dan Saltman, CEO and founder of Redact.dev, discusses their approach to data deletion. We dive deep into why people are increasingly concerned about their digital footprints, the technical challenges of building privacy software, why deleting data online is important, data removal services, and Dan's philosophy that "perfect is the enemy of good" when it comes to digital privacy.📱 RESOURCES IN VIDEO• https://redact.dev/• https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-saltman/⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:00:00 Introduction to the interview01:00 Daniel Saltman Intro 03:35 Common Use-Cases of Data Deletion Services06:20 Why Bother Delet...

Join us for an in-depth conversation with benny Vasquez, Chair of the AlmaLinux OS Foundation, as we explore the fallout from Red Hat's controversial licensing changes and how AlmaLinux emerged as a community-driven solution. We discuss the technical differences between CentOS Stream, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and AlmaLinux, the importance of open source governance, and the challenges of maintaining a stable enterprise Linux distribution. Whether you're a system administrator affected by these changes or simply interested in the evolving open source landscape, this interview offers valuable insights into the future of enterprise Linux.📱 RESOURCES IN VIDEO:• AlmaL...

This interview dives deep with Dallas, the owner of PrivacyPost.io, to explore the world of secure mail forwarding in the US. We'll unpack the complexities of CMRA vs. residential addresses, the growing importance of end-to-end encryption, and how PrivacyPost caters to digital nomads, RVers, and anyone seeking enhanced privacy with some clever South Dakota workflows!📱 RESOURCES IN VIDEO• PrivacyPost: https://privacypost.io• WorldPost: https://worldpost.io⏱️ TIMESTAMPS0:00 Intro0:42 Guest Introduction3:05 What organisations do you run?6:03 What service are you providing?7:47 What separates PrivacyPost from other mail services?11:10 Wh...

Join us for an exclusive interview with Vishnu Mohandas, the visionary founder of Ente, a revolutionary photo app that prioritizes privacy. In this insightful conversation, we delve into the challenges and triumphs of building a privacy-first photo app, exploring topics like the birth of Ente, its unique approach to privacy, cutting-edge AI features, and the future of photo storage and sharing.📱 RESOURCES IN VIDEO• Ente: https://ente.io• Vishnu Mohandas: https://vishnu.tech/⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Vishnu Intro01:09 Did Google Photos inspire you?03:04 Was privacy a concern for people when you worked at Google?<...

Owning (or renting!) privately is a challenge, and Jonathan Steele is a lawyer who will break it down for us. Is renting more private than owning a home? How do celebrities do it? From Trusts, LLCs, Nominee agreements, plausible deniability, the legality of privacy tools, and so much more to help non-legal experts understand the complex world of privacy in the legal system. Jonathan Steele is a practicing lawyer who answers many questions for us!📱 RESOURCES IN VIDEO• Steele Fortress: https://steelefortress.com/• Law Site: https://www.steelefamlaw.com/⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Teaser00:26 About Jonat...