Tonight, on the The Private Citizen, I talk about breaking news from Afghanistan. Not so much the war or the troop withdrawal itself, but how politicians reacted to it. And why we, as freedom-loving, democracy-affirming citizens can not let this blatant (and dumb) propaganda stand.

→ The Private Citizen 82: The Afghan Disaster

The people responsible claim nobody could have predicted what happened in Afghanistan this week. But their experts did in fact did predict it, which wasn’t exactly hard, and then the people in charge lied about it. The public now desperately needs to understand how governments operate, or it will all happen again. And soon.

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I’ve just released the latest episode of The Private Citizen, where I cover Apple’s new privacy-defeating features in iOS and tie that together with some of their recent supposedly privacy-friendly initiatives to explain how its all part of the same strategy: Do things that are best for the company while pretending they have their users’ interests at heart.

It always amazes me how people can be very suspicious of almost every other company but then give Apple a free pass. And this is IT security experts and journalists we are talking about. Well, they were in for a rude awakening last week…

→ The Private Citizen 81: Let’s Talk about Apple

What are the new features Apple is implementing in iOS 15 that have privacy and security people all up in arms? And why none of this should come a surprise to anyone who’s actually paid some attention and is thinking for themselves instead of just buying the company propaganda.

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I’m a day late with this since I had a bit of an emergency last night and couldn’t record the podcast, but I’ve now released the latest episode of The Private Citizen. It’s all about a speech Joe Biden gave recently and why what he said concerns me greatly. And why I think it should concern you, too.

→ The Private Citizen 80: Biden’s Dangerous Cyber Jingoism

The US President says it’s likely that hacker attacks will lead to a real war and that is something that scares me a lot.

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Okay. Now on to the first of the two podcast episodes I released this week.

On Wednesday, my usual release day, I recorded and published an episode of The Private Citizen that covers the recent GameStop kerfuffle. If you haven’t heard about it, or don’t really understand what it was about, listen to that podcast episode. It will be worth your while, because it’s a hilarious story.

→ The Private Citizen 54: Hodl the Stonks

How a number of couch investors ruined some Wall Street guys using a mobile app. And why the Wall Street guys really don’t care. And what it means for the future.

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Oh dear. I am quite behind with telling you about podcasts I’ve recorded.

I was just going to tell you about the episode I’d released this Wednesday and noticed that I didn’t even tell you about the one from last week. So let’s do that first:

On 27 January, I released an episode of The Private Citizen that I had planned to do for many, many months. It is about the potential of spyware in pretty much every single modern car on the market in Europe.

→ The Private Citizen 53: Clippy in Your Car

It looks like you’ve had an accident! Every new car sold in the EU has a black box in it that will activate the car’s microphone and call emergency services in the event of a crash, supplying them with the car’s location. A system that’s ripe for explotation as spyware.

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I’ve just released this week’s episode of The Private Citizen. I’m a day late because Mike and me recorded that episode late into the night yesterday. In fact, it was already Thursday when we were done. I did my best to get it out as fast as possible today, but I unexpectedly had a lot on my plate. But here it is, our discussion of Trump’s last days, Biden’s inauguration and what the future holds for the US and the rest of the world.

→ The Private Citizen 52: A President for All Americans

Donald Trump has left the White House and Joe Biden is now President. What does that mean for the future of the US and beyond? I look back at what happened with Trump and forward at the future with my guest Michael Mullan-Jensen.

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Yesterday, I published the first Private Citizen episode of the year on the newly redesigned website. Unsurprisingly, the episode deals with the insurrection at the US Capitol and the reactions of social media companies, who banned Trump and then just kept the bans going.

→ The Private Citizen 51: The Twitter Coup

After an angry mob stormed the US Capitol last week, Twitter and other social media companies embarked on an unprecedented power grab for control of the public’s opinion.

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As promised last year, I’ve redesigned the website for The Private Citizen. The podcast has also gotten an album art refresh to go along with it. As you can see, I’ve now labelled it more clearly as a politics podcast, to reflect the changes in direction the show has experienced during its first year of operation. As before, the design is supposed to convey what the show is about in one glance and then get out of your way to quickly enable you to access the podcast and the substantial amount of show notes for each episode. Pleas let me know if there are any issues.

I will record and release the first episode of the year today. I was planning on streaming the recording starting at 18:00 CET, but looking at the current time, I might actually be a few hours late with that as I still have a lot of prep work to do. I will post in the Discord when I’m getting ready to go live. See you then, I hope!

I’ve just released the final episode of the year for The Private Citizen. Here, I’m taking a look back at the year through the lens of all the topics I’ve covered. It’s also a good episode to listen to if you haven’t been on board from the beginning and want to know what episodes are particularly interesting to go back to.

Enjoy this last one for the year. And enjoy the holidays. I know I will. And I’ll be back in January recharged and with a fresh outlook on the show.

→ The Private Citizen 50: The Year 2020 in Review

A look back at the first year of this podcast, the topics covered and how the show changed with them.

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It took me a while to get to it, but I’ve just released a fresh episode of The Private Citizen and I’m finally covering the renewed efforts by governments in the US and the EU to re-enter the Crypto Wars. Yes indeed, they are again trying to make it so that ordinary citizens can’t use effective cryptography. Because the state must know everything! This goes incredibly well with lockdowns and face masks orders, I feel.

→ The Private Citizen 49: Crypto Wars Redux

Ever since the Cold War, intelligence services and their sympathisers in Western governments have worked tirelessy to prevent everyday citizens from utilising effective encryption to shield their lives from prying eyes. When the Clipper chip failed, these people switched to influencing legislation to get what they want. And now they are at it again.

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I’ve just released a new episode of The Private Citizen. In the promised follow-up to our pre-election coverage, Mike and myself reconvene and discuss the fallout from the US Presidential Election. Warning: It’s another very long episode!

→ The Private Citizen 48: Trump, Biden and the Role of the Media

A conversation about how Joe Biden won the election, how Trump lost it, what the media had to do with it and what this means for the future.

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Tomorrow, the German Bundestag is set to pass the Drittes Gesetz zum Schutz der Bevölkerung bei einer epidemischen Lage von nationaler Tragweite or as I like to call it: The Total Lockdown Law. Last week, I recorded an episode of The Private Citizen explaining what it is all about.

→ The Private Citizen 47: The German Total Lockdown Law

The German Bundestag is about to debate far-reaching legislation that will permanently enshrine coronavirus-related restrictions into law. In this episode, I examine this law’s privacy and civil liberty implications.

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Coming soon. …Maybe. If I can get it off the ground. Website is almost done.

With all this Joe Biden election malarkey I got kind of distracted from telling you about the latest Private Citizen episode.

So, let’s get you updated before I record a new one this week. Episode 46 was published on Wednesday and in it, I talk about the recent raids against suspects who supposedly spread hate speech online and what these police actions mean for people concerned about their privacy when using the internet.

→ The Private Citizen 46: Fighting Hate Speech vs. Fighting Free Speech

Police raids across Europe to fight hate speech sound like a good idea. But what does “hate speech” actually mean? And does fighting it actually help? Or will it endanger your freedom of speech and maybe even your privacy?

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