Why are there so many possible podcast topics cropping up exactly when I have so little time to produce new Private Citizen episodes? I hope I can catch up on all of this stuff at some point…

• HTTPS Is Actually Everywhere
• India, Japan flex cyber-defence muscles as China kicks the Quad — Tokyo’s new cyber-security policy names China, Russia, North Korea as sources of increasing threat
• FCC details $1.9 billion program to rip out Huawei and ZTE gear in the US — Carriers with under 10 million customers as well as some schools, libraries, and health care providers can apply for FCC funding to dispose of Chinese-vendor network equipment from October 29.
• When you “Ask app not to track,” some iPhone apps keep snooping anyway — To test Apple’s privacy protections, we watched the data flow out of 10 popular apps.
• Study: Effectiveness of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency
• Kidnapping, assassination and a London shoot-out: Inside the CIA’s secret war plans against WikiLeaks

I read a very interesting story today that I think I want to make a single-episode topic on The Private Citizen in the future (along the lines of the well received episode 14). Apparently the Stasi, the principal intelligence service of the Communist GDR, was able to intercept West German B-Netz mobile phone communications in West Berlin from 1975 onwards.

• Staatliche Hacker: Stasi hörte seit 1975 Autotelefone in West-Berlin ab — Das B-Netz der Deutschen Bundespost wurde spätestens seit 1975 von der DDR-Staatssicherheit abgehört.

This story about the Quad alliance taking on China also needs to be covered, I think:

• “Quad” group seeks to set security standards for global tech industry — USA, India, Australia, and Japan pledge to build own 5G tech, share space data, secure rare earth supply chains, and more
• Quad Principles on Technology Design, Development, Governance, and Use (whitehouse.gov)

Some more stories for The Private Citizen that I should have a closer look at once I have the time:

• Google Report Spotlights Uptick in Controversial ‘Geofence Warrants’ by Police — Digital privacy rights defenders contend that geofencing warrants grab data on everyone near a crime, without cause.
• Zensurvorwürfe: Will Xiaomi vor allem Porno-Werbung filtern? — Warum laden Xiaomi-Smartphones Wörterlisten mit politischen Begriffen herunter? Möglicherweise soll damit auch explizite Werbung gefiltert werden.
• Indictment, Lawsuits Revive Trump-Alfa Bank Story

Here we go again. I’ve got more Private Citizen topics than I know what to do with. Well, once I have time to podcast again, I’ll owe listeners some extra episodes, so I’m guessing all of these links will come in handy.

• Lithuania tells its citizens to throw Xiaomi mobile devices in the bin — Baltic state’s cyber security centre uncovers remote censorship blocklist function in Mi 10T handset

This is another topic for an upcoming episode of The Private Citizen, I think:

• Suex to be you: Feds sanction cryptocurrency exchange for handling payments from 8+ ransomware variants — Russia-based biz targeted in Uncle Sam’s crack down on cyber-extortion

I’m currently on the road and unable to record any podcasts. But I am working and came across some potential topics for future Private Citizen episodes today. So let me just park a few links here for future reference. They might help you as well, just be aware of the source of each story – obviously something I always carefully examine on the podcast.

• How surveillance capitalism will totally transform the domain name system
• Top German Court Says Facebook Must Inform Users About Deleting Their Posts Or Suspending Their Account, Explain Why, And Allow Them To Respond
• The digital identity imperative