Hello and welcome back! During the holidays especially so, the most valuable thing we have is time, so I appreciate you spending some of yours with me.

This week, we tackled a hard truth: we are often paying good money to bring corporate spies into our most private spaces. From "Surveillance Pricing" changing costs based on your battery life, to your TV watching you watch movies—it’s getting crowded in here.

But remember, convenience shouldn't cost you your privacy. Sometimes the best "smart" home upgrade is a "dumb" device that just works without an internet connection.

What is one "Smart" device you absolutely refuse to allow in your house? Reply to this email and let me know!

This episode exposed the devices listening in on us. Here are three things you can do right now to lock down your digital home:

Companies use data from their native apps (battery level, location, purchase history) to charge you the maximum price they think you'll pay. Action: Delete the app and use the mobile website instead. On both iOS and Android browsers, use the "Add to Home Screen" feature. This gives you an icon that looks like an app but runs in the sandbox of a browser, offering significantly better privacy protection against pricing algorithms.

Your Smart TV likely uses "Automatic Content Recognition" to screenshot what you are watching and sell that data to advertisers. Vizio even admits they make more money on data than hardware! Action: The best defense is DNS filtering. Set up NextDNS or PiHole on your home network to block these domains.

The Tor Project just replaced its decades-old encryption with Counter Galois Onion. This fixes major vulnerabilities regarding traffic tracing and forward secrecy. Action: If you need true anonymity or need to bypass censorship, download the Tor Browser or Tails OS. It’s slower than a standard browser, but it makes it infinitely harder for organizations to fingerprint you.

Tor Project Major Update: Decades-old encryption replaced with Counter Galois Onion to fix forward secrecy flaws.

Vizio & Walmart: Financial reports confirm Vizio profits more from selling viewer data than selling televisions.

Surveillance Pricing Exposed: How rideshare apps may charge you more if your battery is low.

Amazon Sidewalk: How your neighbor's Ring camera can bridge your devices to the internet even if you disconnect your WiFi.

Next Wednesday, we are diving deep into mobile privacy. We will break down the real differences between iOS and Android, discuss which one actually protects you, and look at the current news in the mobile space.

Subscribe and Share! Support the Show with Patreon Patreon Update: Starting in December, "Big Fan" tier subscribers get an exclusive bonus episode every month. First up: A deep dive into Flock Safety license plate readers.

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Until next week,
Sudo