Privacy Please

A Problem Lounge Show

Welcome to "Privacy Please," a podcast for anyone who wants to know more about data privacy and security. Join your hosts Cam and Gabe as they talk to experts, academics, authors, and activists to break down complex privacy topics in a way that's easy to understand. In today's connected world, our personal information is constantly being collected, analyzed, and sometimes exploited. We believe everyone has a right to understand how their data is being used and what they can do to protect their privacy.Please subscribe and help us reach more people! This podcast is part of The Problem Lounge network — conversations about the problems shaping our world, from digital privacy to everyday life.

  1. 23 maj

    S7, E272 - They Know What You Watched

    Send us Fan Mail SHOW NOTES  The Pornhub breach is being reported as a data story. It's actually a story about shame as a weapon. In December 2025, a hacker group called ShinyHunters claimed to have stolen 200 million records from Pornhub Premium users — including email addresses, locations, and intimate watch and search history. They sent extortion demands. The data was verified as real. In this episode of Privacy Please, Cameron Ivey breaks down: ✅ What was actually stolen — and why it's worse than most breaches ✅ The three-way blame game between Pornhub, Mixpanel, and a mysterious 2023 employee access ✅ Why ShinyHunters is one of the most dangerous and active hacker groups operating right now ✅ The bigger question nobody's asking: why does this data still exist? ✅ Five things you can do right now to protect yourself 🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED: Check your email in breaches: haveibeenpwned.comFreeze your credit: annualcreditreport.com (links to all three bureaus)Data removal: DeleteMe — joindeleteme.comFollow the reporting: bleepingcomputer.com | malwarebytes.com/blog📰 SOURCE REPORTING: BleepingComputer — ShinyHunters extortion demand (December 2025)Malwarebytes — Pornhub/Mixpanel/SoundCloud breach roundupEuronews — Pornhub investigation coverageReuters — user data verificationPanda Security — breach overview🎙️ Privacy Please is part of the Problem Lounge Network 🌐 theproblemlounge.com 📺 YouTube: The Problem Lounge Network If this one hit different — share it.  Support the show

    17 min
  2. 5 maj

    S7, E271 - One File to Rule Them All

    Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Privacy Please, Cameron Ivey investigates Palantir Technologies — a data analytics company founded in 2003 with CIA backing that has quietly become embedded across nearly every major arm of the U.S. federal government. This week's investigation covers: The USDA Deal On April 22nd, the Department of Agriculture signed a $300 million blanket purchase agreement with Palantir to build "One Farmer, One File" — a unified digital profile for every American farmer. The deal was awarded without competitive bidding. The IRS Bombshell The same week, The Intercept revealed — based on documents obtained by watchdog group American Oversight — that Palantir has been running financial crime surveillance operations inside the IRS since 2018. The IRS has paid Palantir over $130 million for access to a platform that cross-references bank records, tax filings, transaction histories, and more across millions of Americans. The Immigration Enforcement Machine Palantir's ICE contracts — now over $145 million — power the agency's case management, deportation targeting, and real-time location tracking of immigrants. A tool called ELITE creates individual dossiers on deportation targets by pulling data from the Department of Health and Human Services. The Pushback That's Working New York City's public hospital network canceled its Palantir contract after community organizing and City Council pressure. In the UK, 229,000 people have signed petitions to remove Palantir from the National Health Service. Public pressure is moving the needle. Five Things You Can Do Right Now Cameron closes with specific, actionable steps every listener can take — from requesting your IRS transcript to freezing your credit to contacting your representative about sole-source contracting. Privacy Please is part of the Problem Lounge Network. New episodes weekly. theproblemlounge.com Chapter Markers  00:00 — Cold Open01:30 — Intro & Show Welcome02:45 — Act One: The USDA Deal06:00 — Act Two: Who Is Palantir?11:30 — Act Three: The Empire Expands (ICE, Policing)17:00 — Act Four: Your Tax Returns Are In There Too24:00 — Act Five: The Layer Nobody's Talking About30:00 — Act Six: The Part That Gives Me Hope34:30 — What You Can Actually Do (5 Tips)39:00 — Closing Reflection (Adjust timestamps after editing)Support the show

    22 min
  3. 20 apr.

    S7, E270 - The 40-Minute Hack That Stole the Blueprint for AI | The Mercor Breach

    Send us Fan Mail A normal data breach steals names and passwords. This one may have stolen the recipe for building the world’s most powerful AI models, and it happened through software most people will never notice until it breaks. We follow the Mercor breach from the first warning signs to the moment poisoned Python packages hit PyPI and spread in minutes across systems that were set to auto-update.   We walk through what Mercor actually does in the AI economy, especially RLHF (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback), and why that behind-the-scenes work shapes how tools from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google behave. Then we unpack Lite LLM, the open source “plumbing” that connects apps to multiple AI services, and how a supply chain attack can bypass the company you’re targeting by compromising the dependencies everyone trusts.  From there, the focus shifts to the fallout: contractors whose Social Security numbers and identity documents may be exposed, companies scrambling to assess backdoors and credential theft, and the bigger fear that proprietary AI training data sets and labeling strategies are being auctioned on the dark web. We also dig into the compliance controversy around SOC2 and ISO 27001 style certifications and what happens when security audits become performance instead of protection.  If you care about cybersecurity, data privacy, AI governance, and open source risk, listen through to the end for concrete steps you can take right now. Subscribe, share this with a friend who uses AI tools, and leave a review with your take on who should be held accountable. Support the show

    13 min

Om

Welcome to "Privacy Please," a podcast for anyone who wants to know more about data privacy and security. Join your hosts Cam and Gabe as they talk to experts, academics, authors, and activists to break down complex privacy topics in a way that's easy to understand. In today's connected world, our personal information is constantly being collected, analyzed, and sometimes exploited. We believe everyone has a right to understand how their data is being used and what they can do to protect their privacy.Please subscribe and help us reach more people! This podcast is part of The Problem Lounge network — conversations about the problems shaping our world, from digital privacy to everyday life.

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