It’s easy to tell people to use this or that privacy tool, but this always assumes that you trust the service that is providing that tool. How can mere mortals ever hope to obtain sufficient knowledge of the inner workings of these products and service providers that would allow them to make an informed decision? Today, I’ll ask Adrianus Warmenhoven from Nord VPN that question, along with questions about normalizing surveillance and what privacy really means in our digital internet society.

Adrianus Warmenhoven is a Defensive Strategist and Threat Intelligence Manager at NordVPN. He is responsible for getting the most relevant IOCs (Indicators of Compromise), malware samples and their indicators and generally mapping out the threat landscape for the company’s customers.

• Nord VPN: https://nordvpn.com/
• The Follower: https://driesdepoorter.be/thefollower/ 
• Five-Eyes Countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes 
• Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://www.eff.org/ 
• Mozilla Foundation: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/ 
• Give thanks and donate: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/give-thanks-donate/ 

• Send me your questions! https://fdsd.me/qna 
• Support me! https://fdsd.me/support 
• Subscribe to the newsletter: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/newsletter/new-newsletter/
• Check out my book, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1484261887 
• Would you like me to speak to your group about security and/or privacy? https://fdsd.me/speakerrequest 

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

• 0:00:26: Elon Musk buys Twitter
• 0:01:31: What is Mastodon?
• 0:02:36: Interview preview
• 0:04:13: Tell us about Nord and what you do there
• 0:05:25: What is most misunderstood about privacy?
• 0:07:53: How does my privacy overlap your privacy?
• 0:10:08: What threats to privacy aren’t getting enough attention?
• 0:13:02: Doesn’t capitalism require companies to monetize our data?
• 0:16:26: Is it possible compartmentalize our lives today?
• 0:18:32: Why can’t we learn that just because we can doesn’t mean we should?
• 0:22:09: How does privacy in the physical world differ from online?
• 0:24:21: Have we normalized surveillance for the younger generation?
• 0:30:22: How do we know which companies to trust with our privacy?
• 0:38:11: How can companies avoid gathering user data?
• 0:42:47: How important is transparency for consumers?
• 0:45:48: How do VPNs work and how do they fail?
• 0:48:46: How important is it for privacy companies to be in favorable jurisdictions?
• 0:52:19: How can I get more involved with privacy rights?
• 0:56:03: What gives you hope?
• 0:57:59: Bonus content
• 0:58:54: Interview wrapup
• 1:01:51: Give thanks and donate
• 1:03:17: Dear Carey – ask me a question
• 1:04:13: Upcoming stuff