Closed Network Privacy Podcast

"Take Your AI Off the Internet"This is the companion audio for the article "Take Your AI Off the Internet: A Practical Guide to Running Local LLMs" and for the Local LLM Downloads hub. Runtime is about 14–16 minutes. Recorded October 2026. It follows up the local LLM mention in Episode 61.Back in Episode 61 I mentioned, almost in passing, that you can run an AI model on your own computer, with no account, no cloud and no log on anyone else's server. A lot of you wrote in asking how. This dispatch answers that.First, the why. When you use a hosted chatbot, your words are processed on someone else's machines, and from there they're within reach of courts, policy changes and product decisions you'll never hear about. In 2025 a federal court ordered OpenAI to preserve ChatGPT conversations, including ones users had deleted. In December the court ordered 20 million de-identified chat logs handed over in the New York Times copyright case, and in January it upheld that order over OpenAI's objection. Separately, a "make this discoverable" checkbox put private shared chats into Google search results. Nobody was hacked in either case. The data simply lived somewhere other than the user's own machine.Then, the how. I explain what an "open-weight" model actually is and how much hardware you need (8, 16 or 32 GB of RAM). I walk through setup on Mac, Windows and Linux using LM Studio, the easy path, or Ollama, the engine. That includes the right way to handle Ollama's "pipe this script into your shell" Linux installer.Finally, staying safe while you do it. That covers how to use the Local LLM Downloads hub, why you should prefer safetensors and GGUF files (a model file can be malware), how to verify what you downloaded, the Ollama cloud setting to switch off, and why you should never open Ollama to the internet.The full written guide has every command, link and source in it. It's on the site and linked below.https://closednetwork.io/local-llms-take-your-ai-off-the-internet/

Show Notes - https://forum.closednetwork.io/t/episode-61-back-on-my-b-s-last-episode/312Website / Donations / Support - https://closednetwork.io/support/BTC Lightning Donations - [email protected] / [email protected] You Patreons & Direct Supporters! - You Keep The Show Going!Support Me On Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/closednetworkDirect Donation Support - https://closednetwork.io/#/portal/signupXMR Chat & Cryptocurrency Donations - https://xmrchat.com/closednetworkPatreon Supporters$20 — Privacy Bad AssMichael Bates (longest-running supporter)TKTryingDavid$10 — Privacy Supporterinferno_potatoMrMilkMustacheDolores YV0$5 — Privacy AdvocateHutchCyathBryan AbshierWebsite Direct SupportersCraig D — Privacy SupporterXMRchat TipsSubversion Stopper —"BASED backgroud music sir, nice."Thank You To Our Moderators:Unintelligentseven - Follow on NOSTR primal.net/p/npub15rp9gyw346fmcxgdlgp2y9a2xua9ujdk9nzumflshkwjsc7wepwqnh354dMaddestMax - Follow on NOSTR primal.net/p/npub133yzwsqfgvsuxd4clvkgupshzhjn52v837dlud6gjk4tu2c7grqq3sxavtJoin Our CommunityClosed Network Forum - https://forum.closednetwork.ioJoin Our Matrix Channels!Main - https://matrix.to/#/#closedntwrk:matrix.orgOff Topic - https://matrix.to/#/#closednetworkofftopic:matrix.orgARMADA NOSTR - https://armada.buzz/s/armada.closednetwork.ioSimpleX Group Chat - https://smp9.simplex.im/g#SRBJK7JhuMWa1jgxfmnOfHz7Bl5KjnKUFL5zy-Jn-j0Follow Simon On The SocialsMastodon - https://closednetwork.social/@simonNOSTR - Public Address - npub186l3994gark0fhknh9zp27q38wv3uy042appcpx93cack5q2n03qte2lu2 - primal.net/simonTwitter / X - @ClosedNtwrkInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/closednetworkpodcast/YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@closednetworkEmail - [email protected]*** Age Verification Update. ***- "America's Chat Control Doesn't Say 'Scan.' It Says 'Sue.'"Citizen Lab’s “AdFection” report on Discover-Tech (published October 15, 2026)https://citizenlab.ca/research/how-discover-tech-turned-targeted-ads-into-a-pipeline-for-spyware/GrapheneOS Update - Clipboard Privacy GrapheneOS added a fantastic new feature to prevent foreground apps from reading your clipboard. I thought the best way to show the benefits of this new feature was to show you how it could be abused.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGTwnru_9ZUMotorola Signature 27 confirmed to support GrapheneOSIt’s confirmed: The mysterious Motorola phone getting support for the privacy-focused GrapheneOS will be the Motorola Signature 27 that was announced earlier this week.https://9to5google.com/2026/09/24/motorola-signature-27-confirmed-to-support-grapheneos/Self hosting Is becoming normalized!We Forgot What Tech Enthusiasm Was About: ft. GamersNexushttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr92U_8bXjUAI Labs Are Planning for the "Day After"

Show Notes - https://forum.closednetwork.io/t/episode-60-lets-talk-on-reticulum-w-guest-qbit/202Website / Donations / Support - https://closednetwork.io/support/BTC Lightning Donations - [email protected] / [email protected] Network Podcast Dispatch Feed - https://feeds.yellowball.fm/q0ZxyeThank You Patreons & Direct Supporters! - You Keep The Show Going!Support Me On Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/closednetworkDirect Donation Support - https://closednetwork.io/#/portal/signupXMR & Cryptocurrency Donations - https://xmrchat.com/closednetworkPatreon Supporters$20 — Privacy Bad AssMichael Bates (longest-running supporter)TKTryingDavid$10 — Privacy Supporterinferno_potatoMrMilkMustacheDolores YV0$5 — Privacy AdvocateHutchCyathBryan AbshierWebsite Direct SupportersCraig D — Privacy SupporterXMRchat TipsSubversion Stopper —"BASED backgroud music sir, nice."Thank You To Our Moderators:Unintelligentseven - Follow on NOSTR primal.net/p/npub15rp9gyw346fmcxgdlgp2y9a2xua9ujdk9nzumflshkwjsc7wepwqnh354dMaddestMax - Follow on NOSTR primal.net/p/npub133yzwsqfgvsuxd4clvkgupshzhjn52v837dlud6gjk4tu2c7grqq3sxavtJoin Our CommunityClosed Network Forum - https://forum.closednetwork.ioJoin Our Matrix Channels!Main - https://matrix.to/#/#closedntwrk:matrix.orgOff Topic - https://matrix.to/#/#closednetworkofftopic:matrix.orgSimpleX Group Chat - https://smp9.simplex.im/g#SRBJK7JhuMWa1jgxfmnOfHz7Bl5KjnKUFL5zy-Jn-j0Follow Simon On The SocialsMastodon - https://closednetwork.social/@simonNOSTR - Public Address - npub186l3994gark0fhknh9zp27q38wv3uy042appcpx93cack5q2n03qte2lu2 - primal.net/simonTwitter / X - @ClosedNtwrkInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/closednetworkpodcast/YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@closednetworkEmail - [email protected]://reticulum.network/Nomadnethttps://github.com/markqvist/nomadnetMeshChatXhttps://meshchatx.com/Reticulum GOhttps://reticulum-go.quad4.io/

Show Notes - https://forum.closednetwork.io/t/episode-59-collect-first-justify-later/199Website / Donations / Support - https://closednetwork.io/support/BTC Lightning Donations - [email protected] / [email protected] You Patreons & Direct Supporters! - https://www.patreon.com/closednetworkhttps://xmrchat.com/closednetworkDirect Support - https://closednetwork.ioSubscribe Without Patreon - https://closednetwork.io/#/portal/signupMichael Bates - Privacy Bad AssDavid - Privacy Bad AssTK - Privacy Bad AssTrying - Privacy Bad AssVO - Privacy Bad AssMrMilkMustache - Privacy SupporterHutch - Privacy AdvocateInferno_Potato Privacy SupporterDolores Y - Privacy SupporterDirect Support - Craig D Thank You Producers! You Produce This Show!TOP LIGHTNING BOOSTERS !!!! THANK YOU !!!@bon thousands and thousands and thousands of SATs sats!!@fireflygow - 5,000 sats!!frigolay - 34,540 SATs.. HOLY SHITEwardemoff - 5,000 SATsSilas ThornbrookXMR CHAT BOOSTS- HookersOnPhonics - $20Thank You To Our Moderators:Unintelligentseven - Follow on NOSTR primal.net/p/npub15rp9gyw346fmcxgdlgp2y9a2xua9ujdk9nzumflshkwjsc7wepwqnh354dMaddestMax - Follow on NOSTR primal.net/p/npub133yzwsqfgvsuxd4clvkgupshzhjn52v837dlud6gjk4tu2c7grqq3sxavtJoin Our CommunityClosed Network Forum - https://forum.closednetwork.ioJoin Our Matrix Channels!Main - https://matrix.to/#/#closedntwrk:matrix.orgOff Topic - https://matrix.to/#/#closednetworkofftopic:matrix.orgSimpleX Group Chat - https://smp9.simplex.im/g#SRBJK7JhuMWa1jgxfmnOfHz7Bl5KjnKUFL5zy-Jn-j0Join Our Mastodon server!https://closednetwork.socialFollow Simon On The SocialsMastodon - https://closednetwork.social/@simonNOSTR - Public Address - npub186l3994gark0fhknh9zp27q38wv3uy042appcpx93cack5q2n03qte2lu2 - primal.net/simonTwitter / X - @ClosedNtwrkInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/closednetworkpodcast/YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@closednetworkEmail - [email protected] Thanks to - EloquentWinter for creating - A Linux guide on MAC address randomizationhttps://forum.closednetwork.io/t/a-linux-guide-on-mac-address-randomization/189TOPICSIN THIS EPISODE01The Man Who Built FISA — And Watched It BreakThe FBI lawyer who designed the bureau's FISA safeguards says that after he left in 2006 they were dismantled — and the system ballooned into Section 702.02EU Chat Control: The Majority Said No. The Scan Survived.A parliamentary majority voted against message scanning on 9 July — and it survived anyway on a second-reading technicality, now running to 2028.03SCOTUS, Flock & the Cameras That Don't Care.The Supreme Court ruled that reconstructing your movements is a 'search' — but 113,000+ license-plate cameras keep rolling, and the fix isn't in a courtroom.04Your Face Is a Password You Can't Change.Madison Square Garden's facial-recognition system leaked — watchlists included — after a single phishing call. Why every face database is a breach-in-waiting.05Tools to Own the Stack.Three open-source projects worth your time — one per fight: DeFlock, SimpleX Chat, and GrapheneOS.Timestamps are estimates based on segment order — update after the final edit.00:00Cold Open & Episode Rundown02:00The Man Who Built FISA08:30EU Chat Control Update14:30SCOTUS, Flock & the Cameras20:00Your Face Is a Password You Can't Change25:00Tools to Own the Stack28:00OutroSEGMENT TAKEAWAYSThe Man Who Built FISAFISA (1978) was sold as a reform, but it legitimized surveillance the government had previously run with no statute at all.The FISA court rarely says no because the real filtering was designed to happen upstream, inside the FBI.Bowman built that pipeline — embedded lawyers, months of review, personal sign-off. After he left in 2006, it went passive.The Carter Page applications (17+ errors; a doctored email; a guilty plea) showed the cost.2008's Amendments Act created Section 702 — blanket categories, no named targets, a queryable database of Americans' data.Thesis: the danger isn't who builds a surveillance system — it's everyone who inherits it.EU Chat ControlTwo proposals, one name: 1.0 (temporary, voluntary) vs. 2.0 / CSAR (permanent, mandatory).26 Mar 2026: Parliament rejected the temporary rules 307–306; the derogation expired 3 April.9 Jul 2026: more MEPs voted to kill the revived scheme than keep it (reported 314–276), but rejecting the Council needed 361 votes. It survived — extended to 3 April 2028, with an E2E carve-out.The permanent CSAR could be adopted as soon as October 2026.Client-side scanning is the core danger; 500+ scientists call it infeasible; Signal would exit the EU. Watch Germany.SCOTUS, Flock & the CamerasChatrie v. United States (29 Jun 2026, 6–3): a geofence is a 'search'; police generally need a warrant. Built on Carpenter (2018).The Court didn't ban geofence warrants and never mentioned ALPRs — a principle above a system it doesn't touch.Scale: 113,000+ cameras; ~20B detections/month across ~5,000 departments vs. ~240M drivers.A 2 Jul 2026 ACLU report documented Flock misleading councils (the Oshkosh 'heat map' reversal).At least 82 jurisdictions have canceled ALPR contracts. The durable fix is local — stop collection.Your Face Is a Password You Can't ChangeMSG breached by ShinyHunters via a phishing call; ~45GB / ~26M claimed records, including facial-recognition records and threat profiles.MSG used facial recognition for years — including to bar opposing lawyers. Second breach in under a year; class actions filed.A pattern, not an accident: Clearview's client list leaked in 2020; Mercor exposed biometrics + ID docs in April 2026.Biometrics are irreversible — you can't reissue your face. The safeguard is not building the database.TOOLS MENTIONEDOpen source · not sponsored · no affiliate relationships.DeFlock · pairs with the Flock segmentCrowdsourced ALPR camera map on OpenStreetMap; has mapped ~half of Flock's ~100,000-camera network so you can see and route around them.deflock.orgSimpleX Chat · pairs with Chat ControlMessenger with no user identifiers at all — the metadata-resistance layer E2E encryption alone doesn't give you. Audited by Trail of Bits.simplex.chatGrapheneOS · pairs with every segmentHardened, de-Googled Android on Pixel — the endpoint is where client-side scanning and biometric capture actually land.grapheneos.orgSOURCES & REFERENCESSegment 1 — FISANaomi Brockwell × Spike Bowman (YouTube)Segment 2 — EU Chat ControlClosed Network — Chat Control live trackerEU Perspectives — Q&AEuronews — temporary scanning extensionPatrick Breyer — Chat Control trackerSegment 3 — SCOTUS / FlockTruthout — SCOTUS ruling & Flock (Mike Ludwig)Supreme Court — Chatrie v. United States (PDF)SCOTUSblog — geofence rulingACLU — Flock Safety credibility reportSegment 4 — Facial Recognition / BreachesTechCrunch — worst breaches of 2026 so farThe Next Web — MSG 45GB leakLaw360 — MSG sued over breachBiometric Update — Mercor biometric breachPrivacy Guides — breach roundup Jul 3–9Segment 5 — ToolsDeFlock (project site)404 Media — DeFlock maps ALPRs worldwideAdafruit — DeFlock overviewSimpleX Chat (GitHub)GrapheneOS (site)

Show Notes - https://forum.closednetwork.io/t/episode-58-the-price-of-being-watched/198Website / Donations / Support - https://closednetwork.io/support/BTC Lightning Donations - [email protected] / [email protected] You Patreons & Direct Supporters! - https://www.patreon.com/closednetworkhttps://xmrchat.com/closednetworkDirect Support - https://closednetwork.ioSubscribe Without Patreon - https://closednetwork.io/#/portal/signupMichael Bates - Privacy Bad AssDavid - Privacy Bad AssTK - Privacy Bad AssTrying - Privacy Bad AssVO - Privacy Bad AssMrMilkMustache - Privacy SupporterHutch - Privacy AdvocateInferno_Potato Privacy SupporterDolores Y - Privacy SupporterDirect Support - Craig D Thank You Producers! You Produce This Show!TOP LIGHTNING BOOSTERS !!!! THANK YOU !!!@bon thousands and thousands and thousands of SATs sats!!@fireflygow - 5,000 sats!!frigolay - 34,540 SATs.. HOLY SHITEwardemoff - 5,000 SATsSilas ThornbrookThank You To Our Moderators:Unintelligentseven - Follow on NOSTR primal.net/p/npub15rp9gyw346fmcxgdlgp2y9a2xua9ujdk9nzumflshkwjsc7wepwqnh354dMaddestMax - Follow on NOSTR primal.net/p/npub133yzwsqfgvsuxd4clvkgupshzhjn52v837dlud6gjk4tu2c7grqq3sxavtJoin Our CommunityClosed Network Forum - https://forum.closednetwork.ioJoin Our Matrix Channels!Main - https://matrix.to/#/#closedntwrk:matrix.orgOff Topic - https://matrix.to/#/#closednetworkofftopic:matrix.orgSimpleX Group Chat - https://smp9.simplex.im/g#SRBJK7JhuMWa1jgxfmnOfHz7Bl5KjnKUFL5zy-Jn-j0Join Our Mastodon server!https://closednetwork.socialFollow Simon On The SocialsMastodon - https://closednetwork.social/@simonNOSTR - Public Address - npub186l3994gark0fhknh9zp27q38wv3uy042appcpx93cack5q2n03qte2lu2 - primal.net/simonTwitter / X - @ClosedNtwrkInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/closednetworkpodcast/YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@closednetworkEmail - [email protected] Thanks to - EloquentWinter for creating - A Linux guide on MAC address randomizationhttps://forum.closednetwork.io/t/a-linux-guide-on-mac-address-randomization/189TOPICSEncourage curiosity - This week ties together a single thread: someone else holds your data, and therefore holds the power. From algorithmic pricing to supply-chain malware to government scanning to cloud-AI assistants — and the hopeful counter-move, taking your data back. The episode theme is curiosity: in every story, one extra question would have changed the outcome.Segment 1 — Surveillance PricingInspired by More Perfect Union, "We Found the Radical Solution to Surveillance Pricing"Surveillance pricing (a.k.a. personalized / surveillance-based pricing) = charging you an individual price based on sensitive data about you — purchase history, browsing, geolocation, social activity, even biometric and financial signals. The economic endgame is "perfect price discrimination": charging each person their exact maximum.DoorDash holds a patent describing promotions based on a user's stress level.Delta Air Lines (with AI firm Fetcherr) has talked about expanding generative-AI pricing to ~20% of domestic fares, with ambitions to go further. Senators (Gallego, Blumenthal, Warner) and House members demanded answers.A Groundwork Collaborative / Consumer Reports / More Perfect Union study found different shoppers charged different prices for identical Instacart items. Former FTC chair Lina Khan has voiced concern.The "radical" fix is a law: New York's proposed One Fair Price Act would ban surveillance pricing outright — one posted price for everyone.Defensive moves (partial): private/container browsing, block cookies, disable ad personalization, use a VPN, compare logged-out vs. logged-in prices. Honest caveat: this is a structural problem — regulation, not browser tricks, is the real fix.Curious question: Is this price the market — or is it me being read?Segment 2 — "Arch malware btw": the AUR supply-chain attackInspired by Michael Tunnell and Switched to Linux — developing story, June 2026.The Arch User Repository (AUR) is community-maintained, unvetted package build scripts (PKGBUILDs). In a ~24-hour window, a coordinated attack poisoned a large number of packages — reports cite 1,500+ touched, with community trackers confirming ~400–500 malicious package names and rising.How: Attackers adopted orphaned packages (abandoned by maintainers — anyone can claim them) and edited the PKGBUILD to add a pre/post-install hook that pulls a malicious npm package, atomic-lockfile (Sonatype tracked one strand as the "Atomic Arch" campaign).Payload: A Linux infostealer + optional root-only eBPF rootkit. Targets developer secrets — browser creds/cookies, SSH keys, GitHub creds, Vault/npm tokens, Docker/Podman, VPN configs, shell history, Slack/Teams/Discord/Telegram, crypto wallets. eBPF lets it run in-kernel and hide processes/files/connections.If you were hit and the rootkit deployed: rotate every credential (from a clean machine) and reinstall from scratch. A normal uninstall is not enough.Status: Maintainers are removing malicious commits and banning accounts; the official repos of Arch-based distros (CachyOS, Garuda, Chaotic-AUR) were not infected — only users who installed/upgraded a compromised AUR package during the window. Community checker script + affected-package list were published within hours.Action checklist (Arch users):pacman -Qm → list your foreign (AUR) packages.Compare against the community list / run the checker script (CachyOS advisory).If matched → rotate credentials from a clean machine, then clean-reinstall.Curious habit: Before installing, ask who maintains this, when did it last legitimately update, and did ownership recently change? On the AUR, read the PKGBUILD — the malicious line was visible to anyone who looked.Segment 3 — UK Device Scanning: 90 Days to ComplyInspired by "Signal's Warning: The UK's Phone Scanning Plan Just Got Real"The UK government signaled that phone makers (Apple, Google) will get ~90 days to start scanning photos on young people's devices for nude images. Running alongside: Online Safety Act powers for Ofcom aimed at encrypted messaging (key report expected ~April). The mechanism: client-side scanning — every message/image checked on your device, before encryption.Why it matters: Client-side scanning doesn't break encryption directly — it inspects content before the lock clicks shut. The "end-to-end encrypted" label survives, but the privacy guarantee (nobody is looking) is gone.Signal's position: scanning won't protect children and builds surveillance infrastructure that "endangers us all."Security: once scanning exists on every device, the match-database can be expanded — swap it and you're scanning for slogans, documents, faces. Signal would withdraw from the UK rather than build a backdoor. Mullvad raised parallel alarms.Misdiagnosis: real child safety = better-funded education, social services, AI-platform guardrails — not default scanning. Rallying phrase: "Surveillance is not safety."Bigger picture: This is a template (cf. the EU's "Chat Control"). Sympathetic justification + a mechanism that, once built, can point anywhere.Curious question: Not is the goal good? (it usually is) but what else can this machine do once built, and who decides what it points at next?Segment 4 — iOS 27 at WWDC: the Privacy Fine PrintApple WWDC 2026 keynote coverage.Genuine wins: New Siri AI (next-gen Apple Intelligence) uses a tiered architecture — simple requests on-device, moderate ones via Private Cloud Compute (inspectable, hardened). Plus stronger family safety: child-account setup, parental controls, redesigned Screen Time, new Safari safeguards.The fine print (two concerns):Total context access. Siri AI indexes across your messages, emails, photos, and apps — a unified, queryable view of your whole digital life. Conversation history syncs via iCloud ("with privacy protections"), but strength depends on whether you've enabled Advanced Data Protection (Apple's E2EE for iCloud — not on by default).New Google dependency. Apple made official a Gemini partnership — the heaviest reasoning routes to Google Cloud. Apple says queries are anonymized and tokenized so neither Apple nor Google can link them to you (Federighi: "privacy in AI is non-negotiable"). Critics counter that PCC/anonymization is "only as private as the weakest link" — if Google retains any path to usage data for training/debugging, the guarantee weakens.Takeaway: Apple's defaults are still among the best of the mainstream — but don't let "privacy" in a keynote switch off your curiosity. On update: review Siri AI indexing settings, turn on Advanced Data Protection, and understand where your hardest queries travel.Curious question: A magical assistant that knows everything about you is, by definition, a system granted everything about you. Did you make that trade on purpose?Segment 5 — Self-Hosting 101: What to Migrate FirstOriginal recurring segment — Part 1 (scope). Part 2 next week: hands-on photos build.Self-hosting = run the services yourself, on hardware you own, instead of renting space on a company's servers. It's the deliberate counter-move to every other story this week. Honest caveat: you become your own IT department (backups, updates, downtime). Don't eat the elephant at once — scope first.The five candidates (ranked by impact-to-effort):Photos — highest emotional and surveillance value (faces, locations, timestamps). Self-host with Immich (Google-Photos-like: app, auto camera-roll backup, face/object search). Difficulty: moderate; biggest single win.Calendar — a forward-looking map of your life. CalDAV via Radicale or Nextcloud; syncs to your existing calendar app. Easy–moderate; great first project.Contacts — your social graph (everyone else's data too). CardDAV on the same Radicale/Nextcloud server — bundle it with calendar. Easy.File backups — documents and digital paperwork. Often Nextcloud.