Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons Podcast

What would you do if you suddenly lost your bank account – and potentially access to all your funds? What about your credit cards? How long could your business stay afloat if you could no longer receive payments? Most of us take financial services for granted, but they can be taken away at any time – for almost any reason. And sometimes the reason is just that they don’t like you – or someone in power doesn’t like you, who can put pressure on the financial company. In many cases, this amounts to financial censorship. My guest today, Rainey Reitman, is the head of the Freedom of the Press Foundation and author of a book on this very subject called Transaction Denied. We’ll learn about how this happens, what the impacts are, and what we can do about it.

Interview Notes

Freedom of the Press Foundation: https://freedom.press/ 

EFF: https://www.eff.org/ 

Protect the Stack: https://protectthestack.org/ 

Pretty much infra: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/we-need-talk-about-infrastructure 

Santa Clara Principles: https://santaclaraprinciples.org/ 

Cryptocurrency 101: https://podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2022/06/06/cryptocurrency-101/ 

The Curse of Cash (book): https://www.amazon.com/Curse-Cash-Large-Denomination-Constrain-Monetary/dp/0691178364 

Further Info

My book: https://fdsd.me/book 

My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter 

Support the mission: https://fdsd.me/support 

Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons 

Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch 

Table of Contents

0:00:13: Intro

0:02:45: Why did you start FPF?

0:08:25: What are some examples of financial censorship?

0:14:44: What are the impacts of this?

0:20:35: What can you do when this happens?

0:23:45: Are you entitled to know why you were cut off?

0:26:10: How do KYC laws impact your rights?

0:31:14: How might regulators infringe free speech?

0:35:56: How might my reputation after me here?

0:41:40: Should we codify banking rights?

0:46:21: What about using cash or cryptocurrency?

0:50:18: What bank practices should we change?

0:54:32: What should the government be doing here?

0:58:36: What’s next for you and FPF?

0:59:47: Wrap-up

1:02:40: Patron podcast preview

1:04:08: Looking ahead

As part of my ongoing series on creating a full backup of all your old emails, we want to take some time to verify that we got everything okay. In today’s Tip of the Week, I’ll give you several pointers on how to go about doing this. In the last installment, we’ll make a couple backups and (optionally) delete everything from your email provider.

In the news: AI firms want your financial data; Google Search moves to AI chat format; AI bots transcribing all your meetings; Mayo Clinic using AI to transcribe ER visits; CISA exposes credentials in massive screw up; school buses are being turned into mass surveillance machines; FBI wants access to all the license plate readers; some in Congress are trying to kill license plate readers.

Article Links

Experts warn of privacy risks as AI firms looks to connect to financial accounts: https://therecord.media/experts-warn-of-privacy-cyer-risks-ai-finance

Google Search as you know it is over: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/google-search-as-you-know-it-is-over

You Are Being Recorded: https://blog.yaelwrites.com/you-are-being-recorded

Mayo Clinic is Using AI to Listen to Emergency Room Visits: https://www.404media.co/mayo-clinic-is-using-ai-to-listen-to-emergency-room-visits

US cyber agency CISA exposed reams of passwords and cloud keys to the open web: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/us-cyber-agency-cisa-exposed-reams-of-passwords-and-cloud-keys-to-the-open-web

‘BusPatrol’ Put AI Cameras in Tens of Thousands of School Buses. Now They Want to Give Cops Access: https://www.404media.co/buspatrol-put-ai-cameras-in-tens-of-thousands-of-school-buses-now-they-want-to-give-cops-access

The FBI Wants to Buy Nationwide Access to License Plate Readers: https://www.404media.co/the-fbi-wants-to-buy-nationwide-access-to-license-plate-readers

A Bipartisan Amendment Would End Police License Plate Tracking Nationwide: https://www.wired.com/story/a-bipartisan-amendment-would-end-police-license-plate-tracking-nationwide

Tip of the Week: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/verify-your-email-archive/ 

Further Info

Privacy Guides (search engines): https://www.privacyguides.org/en/search-engines/ 

My Proton referral link: https://pr.tn/ref/ZMNG3DNK 

My book: https://fdsd.me/book 

My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter 

Support our mission! https://fdsd.me/support 

Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons 

Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch 

Table of Contents

Use these timestamps to jump to a particular section of the show.

0:00:07: Intro

0:00:47: News preview

0:02:13: AI financial advisors

0:08:42: Google Search making big changes

0:17:30: You are being recorded

0:25:07: Mayo Clinic ER AI transcripts

0:31:37: Major CISA credentials screwup

0:35:54: School bus surveillance

0:43:37: FBI wants nationwide ALPR access

0:49:04: Congress looks to ban ALPRs

0:53:19: Tip of the Week

1:00:32: Patron podcast preview

1:01:05: Looking ahead

When you’re working for your employer, no matter where you are, you’re on company time, using company equipment. Your employer has a responsibility to protect their assets – not just their equipment and facilities, but their data, as well. That gives employers several reasons to monitor you and any devices you might be using for work – including your mobile phone, potentially. While your rights to privacy are limited, they’re not eliminated. Today I’ll ask Jodi Daniels (Red Clover Advisors) and Jan Rosenfeld (iVerify) to help us understand what personal information might be gathered, how it might be used, and what we should do to protect ourselves.

Interview Notes

iVerify (Jan Rosenfeld): https://iverify.io/ 

Red Clover Advisors (Jodi Daniels): https://redcloveradvisors.com/our-team/jodi-daniels/ 

Microsoft Recall: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/retrace-your-steps-with-recall-aa03f8a0-a78b-4b3e-b0a1-2eb8ac48701c 

WiFi Pineapple: https://shop.hak5.org/products/wifi-pineapple 

Further Info

My book: https://fdsd.me/book 

My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter 

Support the mission: https://fdsd.me/support 

Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons 

Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch 

Table of Contents

0:00:20: Intro

0:01:54: Lingo

0:03:45: Why do employers monitor employees?

0:10:23: What privacy rights do employees have?

0:17:27: How do employers monitor mobile phones?

0:24:07: What can be learned using mobile profiles?

0:30:27: How are laptops monitored?

0:34:31: Can employers monitor encrypted traffic?

0:36:17: What are the privacy risks for computor monitoring?

0:41:41: How else might I be tracked at work?

0:48:05: How might my data be correlated with my colleagues?

0:52:38: What about job applicant privacy?

0:55:59: What happens when I leave a company?

1:02:15: How can we best protect employment data?

1:05:22: How do I handle privacy violations?

1:06:55: Wrap-up

1:10:49: Patron podcast preview

1:11:25: Looking ahead

In the next phase of withdrawing our email data from the cloud, we’re going to download a complete archive of every email we’ve ever sent. It’s not as easy as it should be, but it’s also not that difficult. I’ll give you an overview in today’s Tip of the Week, but you should read the full blog for detailed steps.

In the news: Venmo finally makes transactions private by default; FCC extends software update window for banned routers; Meta employees push back on surveillance; Proton Mail adds post-quantum crypto; turn off ChatGPT ad tracking; AI chatbots giving out people’s real phone numbers; Canada’s updated surveillance bill is still bad; Utah wants to effectively ban anonymous VPN use; LLMs want access to your health records; Microsoft Edge is a poor password manager; Canvas hacked during finals; Chrome installing a 4GB AI model on everyone’s computers.

Article Links

Venmo privacy finally being fixed eight years after ‘alarming’ fails: https://9to5mac.com/2026/05/11/venmo-privacy-finally-being-fixed-eight-years-after-alarming-fails

US: FCC Relaxes Foreign-Made Router Ban to Allow for Security Updates: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/us-fcc-relaxes-foreign-router-ban

Meta employees launch protest against mouse-tracking tech at US offices: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/society-equity/meta-us-employees-organize-protest-against-mouse-tracking-tech-2026-05-12

Proton Mail introduces post-quantum encryption: https://proton.me/blog/introducing-post-quantum-encryption

Turn Off ChatGPT’s New Ad Tracking: https://onlinesafety.substack.com/p/turn-off-chatgpts-new-ad-tracking

AI chatbots are giving out people’s real phone numbers: https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/05/13/1137203/ai-chatbots-are-giving-out-peoples-real-phone-numbers

Canada’s Bill C-22 Is a Repackaged Version of Last Year’s Surveillance Nightmare: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/05/canadas-bill-c-22-repackaged-version-last-years-surveillance-nightmare

Utah’s New Law Targeting VPNs Goes Into Effect May 6th: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/utahs-new-law-regulating-vpns-goes-effect-next-week

A.I. Chatbots Want Your Health Records. Tread Carefully.: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/technology/personaltech/microsoft-copilot-health-ai-chatbots.html

Microsoft Edge security alert: All saved passwords unencrypted: https://proton.me/business/blog/microsoft-edge-passwords-exposed

‘The Biggest Student Data Privacy Disaster in History’: Canvas Hack Shows the Danger of Centralized EdTech: https://www.404media.co/the-biggest-student-data-privacy-disaster-in-history-canvas-hack-shows-the-danger-of-centralized-edtech

Chrome silently installs a 4 GB local LLM on your computer: https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/05/07/chrome-silently-installs-a-4-gb-local-llm-on-your-computer/5230893

Tip of the Week: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/download-all-emails/ 

Further Info

PG’s Data Protection Authority: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/activism/legal/dpa-directory/ 

Donate to Session: https://getsession.org/donate 

My book: https://fdsd.me/book 

My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter 

Support our mission! https://fdsd.me/support 

Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons 

Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch 

Table of Contents

0:00:07: Intro

0:00:19: News tidbits

0:02:53: News rundown

0:05:21: Venmo finally private by default

0:08:57: Banned router updates extended

0:11:28: Meta employees protest surveillance

0:15:47: Proton Mail gets post-quantum crypto

0:19:44: ChatGPT’s new ad tracking

0:24:37: Chatbots giving our people’s phone numbers

0:28:57: Canada C-22 bill still a privacy nightmare

0:32:49: Utah VPN law delayed

0:40:47: AI wants your health info

0:48:14: Edge decrypts all saved passwords

0:53:40: Canvas hit with ransomware

0:56:08: Chrome silently installs 4GB LLM

1:01:06: Tip of the Week

1:09:28: Patron podcast preview

1:09:55: Looking ahead

Cindy Cohn has been on the front lines, defending your digital rights, for three decades. With the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), she has litigated several seminal legal cases that have directly impacted the lives of all Americans. As she retires from her role as Director of the EFF, she’s written a memoir about her time there and documents several of these legal fights called Privacy’s Defender. Today I’ll ask Cindy about the key parts of these cases, how we interpret our rights in the digital realm, and what we can do to ensure a free and open internet.

Interview Notes

Cindy Cohn: https://www.eff.org/about/staff/cindy-cohn 

Privacy’s Defender: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262051248/privacys-defender/ 

Give thanks (donate): https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/give-thanks-donate/ 

Clipper Chip: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip 

Secure Drop: https://securedrop.org/ 

Geofence warrants case: https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-supreme-court-shut-down-unconstitutional-geofence-searches 

404 Media’s FOIA Forum: https://www.404media.co/foia-forum-archive/ 

Further Info

My book: https://fdsd.me/book 

My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter 

Support the mission: https://fdsd.me/support 

Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons 

Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch 

Table of Contents

0:00:15: Intro

0:01:13: Lingo

0:03:52: What if you had lost the Bernstein case?

0:09:18: What re-ignited the Crypto Wars?

0:13:54: Can we prevent all crime with surveillance?

0:16:37: How do our rights apply in the digital world?

0:21:29: Should national security trump our rights?

0:26:58: Can’t courts handle secret evidence?

0:29:20: How does loss of privacy create a power imbalance?

0:35:02: How does privacy improve democracy?

0:36:54: How to you translate technogy to law?

0:40:49: Are we losing online anonymity?

0:44:13: How important are whistleblowers?

0:47:08: How can we protect privacy from the next crisis?

0:54:24: How do we avoid burnout and keep fighting?

0:57:47: How do we get a federal privacy law?

1:02:37: What’s next for you and the EFF?

1:06:48: Wrap-up

1:08:37: Donate to rights organizations

1:10:27: Patron podcast preview

1:11:05: Looking ahead