Deconstructing Conventional

Glenn Meder: Digital Shackles - Are We Sleepwalking Into A High-Tech Prison?

• Christian Elliot • Episode 49

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What if the surveillance capabilities monitoring you today had existed during the American Revolution? According to privacy expert Glenn Meter, "The founding fathers would have been rounded up and executed—just a footnote in history." This chilling perspective frames our conversation about the digital control grid being constructed around us all.

Glenn pulls back the curtain on how seemingly beneficial initiatives like child safety bills and digital IDs serve as Trojan horses for eliminating anonymity and privacy. "All of these companies are working together to put this surveillance state in," he explains, revealing the coordinated effort behind what appears random. Most alarming is his breakdown of Central Bank Digital Currencies—not simply digital money, but programmable control systems that can instantly punish speech or behavior deemed unacceptable.

The infrastructure for a Chinese-style social credit system already exists in America, just wrapped in different packaging. From carbon scores appearing on flight bookings to AI systems embedded in operating systems taking screenshots every second, the mechanisms for monitoring and controlling citizens grow more sophisticated daily. Even electric vehicles and smart homes serve this agenda: "They're pushing electric cars because they're controllable. They can't control a gas-powered car with no computers."

Yet amid these sobering revelations, Glenn offers both practical solutions and genuine hope. His Privacy Academy provides step-by-step guidance for non-technical people to reclaim digital sovereignty without becoming overwhelmed. "It's not just as simple as a VPN," he cautions, outlining a methodical approach anyone can follow to escape digital surveillance.

The window to preserve liberty remains open, but narrowing. Constitutional principles offer powerful leverage against federal overreach, and human ingenuity continues to create pathways to freedom. "We, the people, have the power," Glenn reminds us, "we just need to wake up."

Ready to protect yourself and your family? Join Glenn's upcoming webinar specifically for our listeners and discover practical steps to secure your digital life before the surveillance state closes its grip. The technology to control humanity exists—but so do the tools to remain free.

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Speaker 1:

Hello everyone, welcome to episode number 49. If you've been following my work, then you know I like to talk about two main topics health and freedom and to talk about those. We often have to talk about the systems that empower health and freedom or the systems that infringe on them. My guest today is a man named Glenn Meter. Glenn is the face behind the company, the Privacy Academy, which is all about helping people understand the agendas and risks inherent in the tech industry. About helping people understand the agendas and risks inherent in the tech industry and teaching people how to become private and secure online. I wanted to bring him on today because I perceive him to be a systems level thinker and someone who isn't afraid to talk about tough topics. Like me, he is a man on a mission to help people live free, and his work attempts to tackle a big topic. So what I do for people in the health realm removing overwhelm, pointing out gimmicks, clarifying the important and distilling complexity down into action steps Glenn does that for the complicated world of tech. So during the interview, we zoomed out and looked at what is happening internationally in terms of free speech, privacy and technocracy ie the use of technology to enslave people and I asked Glenn to stress test my perspectives on some of the things that I think are happening in the world of tech today and some reasons we ought to remain vigilant. So I actually had two topics I wanted to ask Glenn about during the interview, but he only had a small window of time, so I may bring him back on to talk more, but today I figured I'd just mention the two extra topics here in the intro to add some additional context for the conversation I'm about to play for you and, by the way, I'm not claiming to speak for Glenn in this introduction. I don't know his perspective on some of what I'm about to say. Anyway, the first of the two topics we didn't get to are that of hackers, spammers and online predators, and the second was the topic of Doge, or the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, and some of the red flags I see happening in that arena. So first, on the topic of hackers, spammers and online predators, boy oh boy. If you want a reason to start working to establish your digital privacy, that topic alone is reason to take Glenn's course.

Speaker 1:

Here's just a few of the things I came across as I was studying for this episode. The first was that hackers, or even the government, have the ability to turn on our mics and cameras on our devices without us knowing that, and that includes the hidden cameras on your smart TV or even the cameras in our fancy new vehicles that literally watch you while you drive. And, like I said, they can be turned on without us knowing it. Next was an article I found in the Epoch Times about zero click attacks, and the short version is that if hackers want to, they have a way to try to find something they can install on your device and you no longer need to click anything in order to open something. So they can install on your device and you no longer need to click anything in order to open something. So they can just hack your device with a call, a text or an email and exploit weaknesses and various apps that you already have and get them to open files and run programs without your awareness. Essentially, any number of apps could be a Trojan horse, and even some suspect that the operating systems themselves are allowing that capability. That's why open-sourced software is so important.

Speaker 1:

Another thing I found as I was researching is and I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by this but scammers can just buy massive amounts of your data and the more of it they have, the more targeted they can get with how they try to scam you. So I actually have a dear client who recently had a healthy five figures wiped out of her bank account by a scammer. Just two days ago my one of my credit cards was compromised and I have to get replaced, and I never lost the card. I have no idea where someone could have hacked that, but it was a great reminder that I have to do a better job of protecting my data. And lastly, I'll mention a post by Jeff Childers, who wrote a.

Speaker 1:

He writes a really popular substat called coffee and COVID, if you don't know him, but he had a post on May 6 of 2025, that did a bang up job of laying bare the predatory use of social media to entrap minors into filming or photographing, let's say, naughty behaviors. That essentially gets used to build a blackmail control file on the child and then the predator keeps escalating what the child is supposed to do to keep the previous bad behavior from being revealed to the public. So Jeff described it as the worst, most horrifying story he's ever had to cover, largely because of the scope of it and how heinous the escalation is to what the children are asked to do, so I'll link to that article in the show notes. But the breadth of the problem is shocking and it has the stated goal of being a tool, to quote accelerate the collapse of the West from the inside. Ouch, it is seriously well organized.

Speaker 1:

So, parents, please teach your kids about these threats. And a great place to start with, maybe. Maybe just have them watch the documentary the Social Dilemma, or you can play for them the recent disgusting interview with Mark Zuckerberg in the last few weeks, where he talks about normalizing the idea of kids having AI friends in lieu of real friends. It is just gross how much influence and control they want to exert over our kids lives, and they are happy to exploit loneliness in order to do that. So, quick aside, I applaud Jeff for the article and I deeply respect his work, but I think he's also got some blind spots regarding some of what's happening in the tech world, and I'll mention a bit more about that as I go on.

Speaker 1:

Okay, moving on my on my next episode, I'm actually going to tell you about the experience my wife and I have gone through and making the switch to de googled, privacy based phones, and some of you may remember episode number 36, where I interviewed Sean Patrick Theriault and we talked about digital sovereignty and the risks of staying in the big tech ecosystem, and back then I had not yet switched to a privacy based phone. So that was a big step for us to break up with our iPhones and exit one more section of the walled garden of big tech. So if you have not switched to a privacy phone, you can check out my upcoming my interview with Sean, or I have an upcoming interview next week where I'll talk all about my process of going through that. Okay, so the next topic that I did not have time to cover with Glenn is probably going to be a bitter pill for some of you, and you'll hear me say in the interview I do think there's a lot of good that is happening today in terms of corruption getting some much needed sunlight, and I also think things like the vaccine industry is finally getting much of the well deserved criticism, and I could list many more examples of wins we can celebrate.

Speaker 1:

But this show isn't just about cheerleading things I like. It's also about attempting to sharpen our discernment to see through the narratives and the agendas and the spin or the frameworks of the so-called conventional experts. So to set the table for the rest of what I have to say, one filter that I apply in order to try to have discernment about world events is the quote from Montague Norman from 1924. Back then he was the head of the Bank of England and I think we would all do well to apply that lens to today's political landscape, even if it brings up some uncomfortable questions. So Montague said of the bankers, the people who control the money supply. He said we must use the political party system to divide the populace over questions of no importance.

Speaker 1:

So if you want to hear the full quote and a lot of commentary I have about that, you can check out episode number 32, which is currently my fifth most popular episode. So what I hear in that quote is that politics, the political party system, is puppeteered by those who control the money to be a distracting theater. Politics is akin to a magician getting you to watch one hand while the trick is being performed in the other one. That is essentially what I think is happening today, and some of the smartest people I know are being fooled by it in real time. Are you listening, jeff Childers, if you've heard episode number 32 about deception and control and my perspective on the covert global governance system. Then you've heard me encourage everyone to keep an eye on the prize of everything related to digital. So to me that represents the end game of what power hungry people want to do.

Speaker 1:

So my intent with the rest of my comments here isn't necessarily to get you to agree with everything I say. If all this episode accomplishes is for you to say, okay, that's fair, I didn't know that or I hadn't thought of that, then if that happens, I've done my job. And again I'm here to stretch your thinking. So let me give you my really uncomfortable thesis here and then I'll give you the evidence. I see that I think could give us all some healthy skepticism, and, by the way, I'll have a bunch of links for you in the show notes in case you care to read more. So here's my thesis and why I think, really why I wanted to have Glenn on the show.

Speaker 1:

I think here in the US we are being slow walked into a surveillance state, into a social credit system that would rival or exceed that of China, and it pains me to say this, I take no pleasure in saying it, but I don't think the deep state lost the last election. I think what we are watching is a theater of political magic tricks. Now, before half of you turn me off, let me just quickly state my case. So my first real kind of oh seriously, bummer moment was since Trump got elected was actually at the inauguration, when he didn't place his hands on the two Bibles that were next to him. So we can all just assume that was an oversight and maybe give him the benefit of the doubt, but to my knowledge he has never publicly mentioned anything about that. So I think it's fair to at least entertain the possibility that that was intentional. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but it is at least a data point, okay. So anyway, with that data point, here's the short version of why I figured having Glenn on the show was important, and I'm curious if, like me, he sees what's happening in Doge as theater, or does he really think freedom is being restored? So, based on what I see, I hate to see it, but I think Doge is a magic trick. I think after COVID, we are just ravenous for justice and those in power are throwing us some red meat of token wins to make us think things are changing in a significantly good way. So here's why I say that Because if Doge was fulfilling its mission to bring transparency and expose fraud and corruption and waste, I think they would be doing things very differently.

Speaker 1:

If you wanted to bring transparency to the federal government, the first place you'd start would be to audit the New York Fed, where the federal government has its bank accounts. You'd actually ask to see where all the money is going. Or you'd audit the Department of Defense, which has not passed an audit in several years. You'd also audit HUD, or the housing and urban development. So mortgages are the biggest expense people typically take, and thus HUD is the place for the biggest opportunity for the largest amount of fraud Think multiple mortgages listed on the same house. That department would be an easy place to hide large amounts of money. And lastly, if Trump was serious about transparency, he would reverse FASB 56. If you don't know, that, that's the Federal Accounting Standards and Advisory Board and, in particular, rule no 56. That rule was put in place during his first term in office and it allows the federal government to keep secret books. That rule has not been reversed and I'd love to see when someone asked Trump or Musk about all four of the things I just mentioned. So if, by chance, you're in the press and you can publicly get that question to them, please do so.

Speaker 1:

On the one hand, we have what isn't being audited, but it gets worse than that. What is being audited are all the records of we, the people, social Security, medicaid and Medicare, the Treasury and the IRS our data. What's worse is that it appears that Planeteer is getting access to all our data. So you may remember from episode 32, and I told you to keep an eye on Planeteer. It is a massive data mining company and you could think of it as the head of the snake of the surveillance state. Planeteer's original contract was with the CIA and now it is used by all 17 US intelligence agencies.

Speaker 1:

And strangely, just to rub a little salt in the wound, last week the Supreme Court blocked an order requiring Doge to answer FOIA requests a freedom of information request and the Supremes gave us no insight into the logic of that ruling. So maybe they will reverse that or maybe not. But how long will Doge not be subject to FOIA requests and what will happen in the interim while they're not subject to it? So here's the uncomfortable possibility for us to entertain, ie. Here's what may be going on in the magician's other hand. Maybe we should at least entertain the possibility that the civil service is being hollowed out and our data is being privatized into corporations that can't be FOIAed and don't have a legal obligation to be transparent. Now, admittedly, that is an uncomfortable thought, but based on the evidence, we can't say that's not happening.

Speaker 1:

It looks more likely that it is, and I think it's time that we, the people, make a ruckus about that. Wherever you can see, if you can get these fair questions into the public conversation, the more of us that are talking about it and asking these questions, the more we can see what's happening and the more work we can do to protect our liberties. That is why I'm taking the time to point this out. As I just said, as you'll hear me say during the interview, this episode is kind of part public service announcement and part call to action. So I'm not going to allow myself to get too long winded here, because there's a lot more I could say, but let me just say this we all know that the US government has a massively unsustainable debt and Doge.

Speaker 1:

When they started, promised $2 trillion of spending cuts and then it got reduced to $1 trillion and then $150-something billion, and now, in the so-called big, beautiful bill, the bottom line is that the federal spending is only increasing, and they raised the debt ceiling again. So so much for lowering the debt. There's one other predictable way governments erase debt, and I'll let you extrapolate what that is. But maybe tariffs will help with that, or maybe that is theater too. What we can definitively say is that Doge is not living up to its promise and, based on what I just told you, it may be another banker-induced magic trick. So, friends, I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news, but if we are being slow-walked into more emergencies and more surveillance, better we learn this and face it now, while we can do something about it and for what it's worth. I think we're as likely to see a real audit of the New York Fed and the Department of Defense and HUD and a reversal of FASB 56 as we are to get the Epstein files.

Speaker 1:

So, as your friend, I would just encourage you to not hold your breath or to act as though Superman is in office and we've all been saved. Are you listening, jeff Childers? So let me put it to you this way Do we think it's wise to have blind trust in big tech, or do you think that everybody in big tech had a change of heart and now all they care about is building out a giant infrastructure to protect our freedom? Do you think they would never try to digitize everything about us for any other reason than to protect us? Do we really have that much faith in them and if so, what is that trust based on? Those are honest questions.

Speaker 1:

Okay, to add some more context, one thing Glenn and I touched on in this interview is following the money being spent to build out a digital infrastructure in this country. So let me ask the question this way If a social credit system isn't being built, please point me to some evidence that that's not what's happening. And, by the way, since I recorded this interview, trump declared an emergency for the development of nuclear power. And please tell me I'm not the only one skeptical of governments declaring emergency. That is usually the pretense for the suspension of our liberties, so keep that in mind as you listen to this interview.

Speaker 1:

All right, that said, I'd be thrilled to host a podcast and have everyone tell me I was wrong, and you can all throw tomatoes at me and call me names, and I will gladly take it. I hope I'm wrong about this, but in the meantime, you have been warned that some of the legit wins we are getting exposing corruptions may be a magic trick designed to keep us focused on what bankers call questions of no importance. They're in game to own everything and lock us into a digital prison, seems to be moving forward with different packaging. So keep your eyes on the tech world and please start taking back control of your data and your devices. That is why what Glenn has to teach you is so important. Peacefully resisting this while we can is how we win. If we don't hold the line against digital tyranny here in the US, it could be a long and dark night for humanity, and I don't think I'm overstating that. So be sure to check out my next episode for some honest, practical insights into how I'm doing my best to practice what I'm preaching to you here today.

Speaker 1:

Okay, one last thing I'll say before I play the interview, and often when people ask my opinions on these topics and then I tell them what I think, the typical response I get is not huh, what evidence do you have for that, or even what can we do about it? The question I get the most is often where is your hope, which is an interesting switch from the logical, evidence-based realm into the emotional one, and I don't think that switch is a bad thing. I think it's a very important question, because without hope our will is broken, but with hope we have the reserves to face hard things. So, for what it's worth, my answer to the question about where is your hope is that our hope is not in who governs us or what laws we pass or what technologies we invent. Our hope is in the power of God to work in the hearts of people.

Speaker 1:

Our hope is in the reality that the desire for freedom and autonomy and dignity cannot be rooted out of the human heart. We will always crave those things and on a long enough timeline. The ingenuity of that unshakable drive in us will always cause us to come together to do the work to overthrow those who wish to enslave us. We will always win One because there are way more of us than them, and two because those in power just can't get their head around the simple fact that we want to be free. They're too blind in their ambition and they think they just didn't do a good enough job with communism or collectivism the last time and that it'll work this time. It will fail every time, like it always has.

Speaker 1:

And if you've not seen the documentary A Force More Powerful, check it out and you'll see six historical examples of exactly what I'm talking about. So the sooner we face uncomfortable things, the sooner, with God's help, we can fix what needs to be fixed. So if you're curious to hear more about why I don't live with fear and what keeps me grounded and hopeful, you can check out episode number 40. It's a short one, but it's a good one. Okay, I'll keep doing my best to bring you episodes that stretch your thinking and help you live a free and vibrantly healthy life, and I promise to stay hopeful as I do it. So if you appreciate the show and you want to show me some love and support, you can find the details for how to do that in the show notes. And if you're interested in learning more from Glenn, he has agreed to do a special webinar for my audience. I'll let you know he offers a sweet discount on the Privacy Academy for people who attend the webinar. You can find a link to the webinar or the webinar replay in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

Okay, without further ado. Here is my interview with my fellow freedom fighter, privacy advocate and a guy who eats complicated for breakfast, mr Glenn Meter. All right, hello everyone. Welcome to today's show. My guest is Mr Glenn Meter, and you could describe him as a freedom fighter and privacy expert. He has spent the last decade educating people about the surveillance state and teaching them how to reclaim privacy. So Glenn is also the founder of the Privacy Academy, which is an online program that teaches average non-techie people like myself how to take back control of their data and become private and secure online. So, glenn, welcome to the show. Thanks for taking the time to join me today.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thank you very much. It's an honor to be here.

Speaker 1:

Right on. Well, okay, so before we get to some of the solutions you created, let's just first tell people your story and then we'll kind of walk through that, because it helps frame the problem that you've really dedicated your professional life now to addressing.

Speaker 2:

Sure, yeah, so I was telling you before we got on here with that. My early background was my family business. My father has a business making water distillers, so Pure Water mypurewatercom is their website, and that's what I did for a long time and that's what I did for 20 years or so, and one of the things that I learned.

Speaker 2:

That's one of the ways that I learned to kind of see the world differently, because you know, they, they say that you're, you're drinking water safe and and everyone says every city says you're drinking are drinking water safe, but what they don't say is that you're, they're using the legal definition of the word safe and it's like this is a total scam. You know, there's all of these cities that have these dangerous contaminants in the water are saying that the water is safe and it's right legally, but they're using the legal definition of the word safe, not the English language definition of the word safe. So that was my first introduction to you know, you can't really trust what they're saying. You can't trust the government. They have their own agenda, all of this stuff. So that was kind of my first experience there. That was years, that was decades ago actually. So and then I, you know, over the years I've been always been fascinated with privacy and security and online privacy and security, and I used to listen to Arbel.

Speaker 2:

Then I watched what happened with the Patriot Act and they really put some crazy stuff in the Patriot Act. They're spying on us illegally. And then we saw what happened with Edward Snowden and you know, it's amazing. Here's a whistleblower who lets the cat out of the bag that they are totally spying on us. They're able to turn the camera on on your computer and watch you and listen to you without the little light going off, by the way, and they're able to do all of this stuff. And they do it. And who got in trouble? Edward Snowden got in trouble and he got chased to Russia and no one else got in trouble. They're still doing it. They've doubled down, they've tripled down, they're still doing it. And it's very, very concerning and, by the way, just kind of a tangent there. What people don't know about that, with the whole Edward Snowden thing and the NSA, is all of those hacking tools that the NSA developed. The NSA was hacked and all those hacking tools were stolen by China and a lot of other hacking groups, so they have. You know that's what happens when you spy on your people. You know it's not good.

Speaker 2:

And then so I really got into privacy and security. I was studying it for many years and then COVID hit and what I could see with my perspective on privacy, coordinated event and all of these companies are working together to put this surveillance state in and we could see, kind of we, we were kind of able to see all of this stuff unfolding and we're kind of able to put some pieces together. You know, they're putting a digital id together, that which is a vaccine passport, um, they're they're doing cvdc's. All of these things are coming together in a social credit system and the goal is and tyranny, and absolute tyranny and really enslavement of the human race. And I don't want to sound too negative right off the bat, but that's not necessarily where we're going, but that's where they want to take us. And so that's when I got really inspired to share to the world about.

Speaker 2:

We have to do this, we have to get private and secure. It's very important for us to do this. And so that's when I really started Privacy Academy and we started training people how to get private and secure. And I will say that it is possible to get private and secure. And you know, I think there's a lot of. One of the mechanisms they use is to try to make you feel hopeless that it doesn't work. But you can take steps to get private and secure. We can do this thing where we can get, we can preserve our liberties, and I still think that's possible. But they have their own plans, and their own plans are very, very sinister, and this is globally coordinated, and they're putting all these pieces in place. We got to get our act together on this. So, anyway, that's my, that's my rant. I don't know if I went too long on it or not.

Speaker 1:

No, it's fine. It's just you telling your story and what you see happening. So it's funny. Your, your work, overlaps with mine in so many ways, in that both of us are looking at a jaw-dropping level of complexity and distractions or gimmicks and trying to find out what's really happening here and in your lane. You take this overwhelming complicated world of tech and you help your privacy academy, I'm happy to say, a member of, and it is brilliant. You walk people through.

Speaker 1:

You can't eat the whole elephant one bite there's no such thing as a cookie cutter way to do this but you have the first principles behind. Here's where you go first, here's what you do next. And you even say if you try to do all this at once, you're going to overwhelm yourself. So don't, let's just let's just take it one bite at a time. And that's really what I do in the world of health is just help people see past the shiny objects and get back to first principles. And so, yeah, that's a brilliant service that you offer. But what you highlighted there was just why do we even need that in the first place? So what I like to do on this show is define terms often, so define for people who may not have their fully formed idea of what is a social credit system, or what do you mean by surveillance state?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, so it's basically it's a digital control system. So you know, if you look through tyrants throughout history, they would love to have the level of control that our people have now. And I use the example of the founding fathers. Imagine if, back in 1776, britain had the level of surveillance that our government has on us now. If they were able to see where every person was every second of the day, who they met with, if they can listen in on what they're talking about, even in their homes. If they can listen in on what they're talking about even in their homes, if they could see what you're writing, maybe even before you publish it, if they can see where your money is, what you spend it on all of that stuff, what would have happened? We know what would have happened. Founding fathers would have been rounded up and executed. They would have been just a footnote in history if we ever heard of them at all.

Speaker 2:

And that's really the level of control that they have now they have, you know, I think we're all aware to some degree of this surveillance. You know we talk around our phones and then you know we're talking about. You know I'd love to go see Stonehenge someday, or whatever. And then boom, all of a sudden comes up this special trip to Stonehenge in England and and doing a cruise around Ireland or whatever, I don't know, but that kind of thing, we've all seen that. But it is so much more than that. They're putting the control mechanisms in to really control us, and this starts with the digital ID. So digital ID is very important and you can see Kristi Noem really pushing the real ID now.

Speaker 2:

And this is something that they've been trying to do since, you know, early 2000s, but now they're really getting serious about it, and so you can kind of put those thoughts aside that Trump is going to change things for the better in this regard. This is, I mean, they're going full bore into this, and so it starts with the digital ID. Now, when you have the digital ID, so you have the real.

Speaker 2:

ID, that that that attaches itself to you. It will attach the biometrics to you, all of that stuff. Now what you'll notice is, all the States now are pushing these child safety bills, or child online safety bills, and so these are these bills that are. You know, we're going to lock. We're going to protect your kids from online porn and it sounds like a great cause, right? Who would be against that? You're not going to be against that. Or we're going to protect your kids from online social media and all of this stuff. So what we're going to do is we're going to just make age requirements for these sites, and so we're going to age-gate parts of the Internet. But here's the thing how do they know the age of the kids unless they know the age of everybody? And how do they know that that's you unless they tie that everything that you do online, everywhere you go to you? And so what these child safety bills actually are is a mechanism for an online digital ID that follows you around online and totally destroys any thought of privacy, any thought of anonymity. They're working with the big tech companies, so Apple, google, microsoft, they all have this ability embedded into the devices now where they're going to be able to attach it to you, and then, once they put these systems in place, and then they have the CBDCs, the central bank digital currencies, and most people don't understand what the central bank digital currencies are. Central bank digital currencies are programmable money. It's not about it being digital, it's about being programmable, and so what that means is we can look right now in England.

Speaker 2:

What they're doing is they're rounding up people I mean like 30 people a day. They're arresting and putting in jail for tweets that they do. Right, so they're. They're just watching what you're doing with tweets and they're throwing you in jail. One lady just held up a phone and was just streaming a riot that was happening. She got thrown in jail for nine months. Other some other guy got put in jail for two years for putting bumper stickers out around saying you know, we got to stop this immigration problem and it's going crazy.

Speaker 2:

Now what they're going to do with the CBDC and why they want it to be programmable, is, instead of just throwing you in jail, you do a tweet on Twitter that they don't like. Boom, you've got a $500 fine. Instantaneously it goes to your pocketbook. And then you do another one $300 fine. You do something over here, $300, fine, and so they can train you like a dog. I mean, that's really what the beauty of the CBDC thing is, and we saw this with the Canadian trucker convoy where they got their bank accounts frozen but all of this comes together in a social credit system, and the social credit system is a set of rewards and punishments. You know, you do this and your score goes higher. You go do this and your score goes higher. You go do this and your score goes lower, and then that will affect everything in your life. And so, coming back I mean this is a long way to come around to your question the car you asked for the carbon credit score, right? Is that what you asked me?

Speaker 1:

Well, no, just just defining the terms of social credit system, because they're once. I want people to see the the broad strokes of what this is. Essentially. What you're laying out is it's a permission-based economy. If we are good little citizens, our permissions are granted. If we're not so good, they're going to take permissions away from us, based on whoever they are, and decide what we, the people, are supposed to or not supposed to do, think, behave. If your car doesn't, you know, if you drive too far, you get to your point. The wrong amount of carbon score, they can just make your car not work. Your credit card won't work at that gas station. Like. It really is a next-level, shocking amount of control that those in power seem to be reaching for aggressively right now. Did I sum that up reasonably well?

Speaker 2:

No, it's perfect. And you aggressively right now. Did I sum that up reasonably well? No, it's perfect. And you know, why are they pushing electric cars so much? Why are they pushing electric cars so much when we don't have the electric grid to handle the electric cars? They're doing it because electric cars are controllable, right. And they're doing the electric, the smart homes and the electric, all of that stuff, because they want control over it. They can't control a gas powered car that has no computers on it, right. They want it all to fit into this, into this package. And so if you look on Google, if you go to Google flights right now and look up any flight, you'll see a price. And then, right next to you, you'll see a carbon credit score and it's just as big as the price.

Speaker 2:

They're not doing that to help the environment. They're doing that because they have the infrastructure in place for the carbon credit score. So they want to give us each a carbon credit score. And so, for the greater good, we have to all use less carbon. And if we use too much carbon, then you're exactly right. Your electric car is not going to charge all the way or you're going to be restricted on how far you can drive it, or you might not be able to buy red meat this month, because you know carbon, you know they've tied cows into the whole global warming thing and so they've got this whole thing mapped out about how they want to do this. But it all depends on surveillance. Everything about it depends on surveillance, and so that's what I try to talk about.

Speaker 1:

One of the points I heard you make before was that if they don't have our data, they don't have the ability to control us. Our option now is to take away their access to our private data and make it really hard for them to be able to surveil us, and that really is the end goal of what this conversation is about is helping people see the big enough sense of the picture, because really, if you don't know what China looks like these days, they've already got this going. This is not an imagined thing. China is the I guess, the standard bearer, if you will, for what this looks like. You can now pay for your groceries or your water or whatever with your hand or your face. They have all of that worked out and essentially, they are slaves to a government.

Speaker 1:

And even I think it's this year I think it was Eric that was telling me that in October the digital euro is set to be rolled out so we've got China to look at, and then seeing what happens this fall in Europe will tell us a lot about how this type of system is going to look or work or how much pushback it will actually get. But do I have that right? Is that what's coming this fall to look or work, or how much pushback it will actually get. But do I have that right?

Speaker 2:

Is that what's coming this fall? Yeah, I mean it's. They're already. I don't know the exact date of the digital euro. They put these dates out there and then they push them back and whatever, but they are.

Speaker 2:

They have been playing around with CBDCs for a number of years, over 180 countries around the world have been testing CBDCs. You know, nigeria, bahamas all of these places have been testing these things, and I think it's mostly about how do we get it adopted. Yeah, and I mean, there's some technical stuff behind the scenes, but I think it's mainly how do we get people to accept these CBDCs, and you know so. They're definitely putting all this stuff in place. Now, one thing real quick about what you just said is, yes, it's about controlling your.

Speaker 2:

You can limit the data that you provide to them, but I want to be clear that it's not just as simple as like a VPN, because there's a lot of influencers and you know radio hosts and everything that advertise VPNs as being like the end-all, be-all that you need to do to remain private. Absolutely not. I mean, vpn is a small piece of the puzzle, but there is so much more that you have to do. It's actually you know. You mentioned the risk of being overwhelmed. Yes, it is, there's a lot to know, but that doesn't mean you have to be overwhelmed. You just have to do it right, you know? Just okay, do this, don't think about anything else, then do this. Don't think about anything else, Just do this and then do this, and then you look back and you say, wow, I've really come a long way. And then you just keep growing and just doing it methodically of learning what you need to learn.

Speaker 1:

People can't tell where you are. But you're right, that's just one step of many to actually have some digital sovereignty or digital privacy back. So, before we get into the weeds of some of what's going on in the US, you and I are both, I guess, optimists by nature, and I promised in the beginning of this whole podcast that this will be a place of hopeful realism. But we're hopeful because there are solutions. But we have to be real about the threats we face or we're going to be sleepwalking into things we do not want, and in this case there may not be a bigger end game going on than what's happening here. But before we get into some of the reasons for potential concern in the US, tell people why you're optimistic. Give us some hope or some perspective on the opportunity in front of us to make sure that we don't let this social credit system get installed here in the US.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I would say that I am cautiously optimistic.

Speaker 2:

I am optimistic.

Speaker 2:

I think let me kind of put this into perspective that what they are trying to do is enslave the human race and that, if they are successful, every generation from now on will not know what liberty is.

Speaker 2:

And so I think I want to put, I want to put this out there, as this is a real thing. We have to, we have to do this, but, that being said, there's a window of time that we have to preserve our liberty and to preserve the liberty of our children moving forward, and I think I hope that we can wake enough people up in time for us to stand up and wake up to this and to, first of all, the first step is to get ourselves private, but then we have to spread the word and also stand up for liberty itself. And as, as a group of individuals, we stand up and and I don't want to say fight, because that is always misconstrued as oh you're, you're advocating violence or anything like that absolutely not, I'm, just I'm we have to stand up for liberty, and so we again, I am optimistic, I know that we can protect our privacy and I think that we can stand up for liberty.

Speaker 1:

Yeah Well, I think your course is a great job of showing the path out of that, and so that's part of why I wanted to have you on, because you just I just see the complexity and you're like, oh, finally, this is approachable. So thanks for what you've built. And so let's just talk a little bit about then some of the things that are potentially a little concerning here. You know, for those of us who live in the US, that I please, if you know the tech world better than I do, so if I'm missing something, I would be delighted to be wrong about some of this stuff. So correct me where you see an option, and I'm not fragile and don't have an ego here to protect. So one thing I want to say preemptively is I do think there's a lot of good things happening right now. There's plenty of corruption coming into the light, there's some common sense returning, there's reason for us to be optimistic that things can and are changing in a positive direction. But I also know the MO, similar to your point about how they have. They're trying to figure out a way to get us to let this happen, and so they don't just come out and say we're trying to get you all in a social credit system where you have no privileges and we are dictators for eternity, for all of humanity, we'd be like, oh no, thanks, I don't want that. So they have to find a way to get us to say you know what? This is okay, and we just, they slow, walk us. And their game right now is how do you get the sheep into the slaughterhouse before they recognize? That's where they're going, and so what I hope we can do here is just lay out some of the reasons or the ways that we might be on that path, so more of us can see it, and then it highlights oh, and there's a way out of this. Perfect, I'm going to take my family there, I'm going to talk to my friends about it. So a couple, I guess, challenge my perspective here, glenn, because I desperately want to be wrong about this.

Speaker 1:

But what I think is happening right now is we are living through warp speed 2.0. And in some ways, we are being sold this dystopian digital control grid with MAGA packaging, and so that's a bitter pill to swallow, and I may have just offended half the people listening to this, but I want to be a place of realism, and that's not something I say without data, so I'm sure you know about these things, but in week one of Trump's presidency we announced this Stargate initiative, where we're going to spend $500 billion on tech and AI and build new nuclear facilities and all this power that we currently don't have to power AI. And then Trump's recent trip to the Middle East. He gets Saudi Arabia to pledge $600 billion, mostly for tech and AI, and somehow I can't look at that and think you know what? That's what we need. We're tech deficient and we just need more money to throw at tech as if it's going to come save us. Nevermind, we could spend that on helping farmers or building bridges or setting up trade schools or cleaning up all the toxicity or bringing manufacturing back it's.

Speaker 1:

It seems like everything is pointing to we need more money for AI, and even the CEO of Google recently went before Congress saying we need, like orders of magnitude, more power, like I think he said something like 30 times the amount of power we currently have and it's an emergency. We've got to fund all of this needed infrastructure and it never occurs to them that maybe we don't need that at all, but it seems like the tech bros are all lining up. They used to be concerned with wind and solar and that was everything. And now it's like nope, it's all nuclear. Buffett and Gates and Bezos are all talking about this. So tell me I'm crazy, glenn that that's not something to be concerned about. Or do you see that as a flashing red light of where they're putting their money, where their real interests lie?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean it's hard to know exactly what their intention is with the AI, but they are absolutely investing a ton of money in the AI. I think a lot of it is warfare related, but a lot of it, a huge amount, will be for this control grid that I'm talking about. They want to be able to control people and control us, and this is like what I was saying with the tyrants They've always wanted this kind of control. They've never had it. We, the people, are the ones that are supposed to have the control. But if that reverses and the government has the control, that's a very dangerous formula. We have to reverse that. We have to get the government back. You know, controlled.

Speaker 1:

Yeah Well, and so let me give you a second data point that is concerned. This is in real time, so this will timestamp this episode somewhat. But this big beautiful bill that Congress is fighting over passing right now, there's a section in it that literally attempts to create legal immunity for AI and stop states from being able to regulate it for the next 10 years. So I just wanted to read that for the listener, in case you do not know this. You might want to go make a ruckus with your elected officials, because here's the actual language.

Speaker 1:

It says no state, or political subdivision thereof, may enforce any law or regulation relating to artificial intelligence models during the 10 year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this act. That is section 43201, if you want to go look it up. But that's what we're considering in Congress right now, and it's not just a battle for privacy, it's a battle for sovereignty and for freedom, and for us to say we do not want this the idea that they could take that away, or that they could pass legislation that says AI has legal immunity the same way vaccines do, or what Bayer is trying to do now with get legal immunity for damages from glyphosate. It's shocking, but that seems to be their playbook of just make sure we're indemnified. It's, it's shocking, but that's that seems to be their playbook of just make sure we're indemnified.

Speaker 2:

And so give me some perspective or pushback on that idea that that's potentially what's happening here. Yeah, so I also. I actually think that there's there's an opportunity not just to protect our liberty, but to actually take back more liberty than we had before, and I think that's a very important thing that we have to contemplate. I don't want to just keep the level. I want to go beyond where we are and we can do that. One of the things that has prevented us from, or that has been the source of, corruption is the federal government. Well, the supreme law of the land is the Constitution, right, and the Constitution gives the federal government very limited powers. Everything else is granted to the states and to the people, and so what you're just talking about there is that's an illegal law. Show me something in the Constitution that says that the federal government has the authority to say that, and what we need to do is the states need to step up and say no, you don't have the authority to do that. You know, this is the law of the land.

Speaker 2:

The Constitution is the law of the land. You don't have the authority to do that and we need to do that on everything. Federal government doesn't have the authority to create a Department of Education or the CDC or the FDA or any of that. None of that is outlined in the Constitution and we wait for, you know, some political savior like Donald Trump to come and say no, we, as the people, you know the state, can just say federal government doesn't have the authority to have a Department of Education, you're out. You can't come in here, you can't affect what we're doing, you don't have the effect. You don't have the authority to do the CDC. You're out.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

FDA, you're out, you can't do that. And if you can show where you have the authority, show me in the Constitution where you have the authority to do that then okay, well, we can talk, but until then you're out because you don't have the authority to do that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, and it's similar to your sentiment. This like peaceful noncompliance, just peaceful opting out. We're not necessarily fighting or battling or going to war, we're just saying no. And but we don't know Many people don't know what you just said that this actually is illegal, they can't do this. And it will take individuals saying no in mass and it will take states saying you, you actually, now that I've read the Constitution, you can't do this. And so this disgusting power grab where you're trying to tell us none of us can pass a law to curtail anything related to AI, you can pound sand federal government because that's not our Constitution. But yeah, hopefully that's a, I guess, as part public service announcement and part call to action here to help the listener see what's going on.

Speaker 2:

No, but. But I also I think there's a point here, and the point is that one of the things that I try to do is I'm very careful not to blackmail people where they get to the point where it's like oh, this is so helpful, these guys are so powerful.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

That we can't do this. It's hopeless for us to do this. I don't believe that. I am optimistic. Otherwise they would just enslave us all right now and not pretend you know, not go through all of these deceptions that they're going through. We have the power. We, the people, have the power and we just need to wake up. We need to stand up. We need to say you know, this is what's right. You don't have the authority to do this. You know the whole World Health Organization thing. There is nothing in our Constitution that gives any—first of all our rights come from God, not from the state. The state doesn't have the authority to infringe upon those rights. The state doesn't have the authority to give others the right to infringe upon those rights. So we just have to keep that in mind and that's the foundation. That's got to be the foundation of where we come at. Everything from Our rights come from God not from the state.

Speaker 2:

The state doesn't have the authority.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, part of what I love to do on the show back to the hopeful part is I committed to talking about big problems when I have plausible, realistic solutions, and so that's really a lot of what you've built. So let's start talking solutions here. So, as you said, the foundation of the surveillance state is our data, and if they can't track you, they can't control you. So talk about what you have built inside the Privacy Academy. What can people expect when they log in for the first time? What is it that you're going to walk them through?

Speaker 2:

No, I appreciate that. So we have different in the Privacy Academy. So when you sign up for the Privacy Academy, the first course is the fundamentals, and so we really want you to go through. These are the most important things to do first and so so just, we haven't broken down into like okay, here, first lesson, do this and, like I said, don't focus on anything else, because this is what most people do is they? They get excited about privacy and then they just dive all in and they're going to go to the web, they're going to go to YouTube, they're going to look at all of this stuff and then they're just going to like oh my God, I can't believe how much stuff there is to do here.

Speaker 2:

And so then they just get overwhelmed and they throw up their hands and I'm not tech enough to do this, but just you. And they throw up their hands and I'm not techy enough to do this, but just you know, okay, do this one, and then do this one. Then, when you're done with that, do this one, and so we take people through that, and so for every lesson we have a corresponding live training session too, so we have. So what we do is we encourage people to, okay, now watch the lesson, try to do it on your own, and then then come to the live training and, if any questions that you have, whatever, ask those in the live training, because the live training is just focused on that one lesson. That's what all the questions are, and so we just really nail it out.

Speaker 2:

And so then we just go through all the different steps and we just walk you through it and by the end of the fundamentals you look back. We typically do a like a kind of a fun course where it's like oh, I kind of give everyone a quiz and we just and I just ask them a bunch of questions and they, they answer them all, all of the questions right, and they're like, wow, I didn't really know, I've really put a lot of stuff in place now, and so they they can see what they, what they learned, and then they're ready to move on to some more advanced stuff. So we kind of walk it through like that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, what I've appreciated about it is there's just these prerecorded courses that everyone we'd need to know this information. But then you have the live trainings and I was delighted to find the guy that the last one I was on. He's a lifer in a privacy security, cybersecurity realm. With so much depth of knowledge, I can ask technical questions and these guys have the patience of a saint to sit and listen to the questions that the rest of us are fumbling through, trying to even form. Like I think what I'm seeing is this and is this the right solution? And, yeah, it's so much more doable when you have somebody to talk to, which has been one of my barriers to exit.

Speaker 1:

I've been working at my own digital disentangle, similar to you said. You've been at it for since 2012 and Snowden did his thing. So I've been working that last couple of years and I'm I'm finally disentangled in a few ways. I finally switched out my phone and my laptop is next and so it's. But it is a process and it's so much more like I wish I had found you two years ago, cause I could have walked through this much more methodically. But a couple of questions I have. Do you have? Is this an option for businesses as well, or are you typically just working with individuals? Can you help a business disentangle?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so we do. We're primarily on the individuals right now. Uh, we are planning on doing, uh, you know, going into the small business area, but we, we want to, you know, focus on the individual first. I think that, yeah, so we've. We've got fundamentals training, we've got advanced training, we've got some different courses fundamentals training, we've got advanced training, we've got some different courses in there. We've got one that talks about money how to interview your bank, for example, all of that stuff to learn about the security measures that they have. And then one thing that I forgot to mention is we have a community.

Speaker 1:

Yes, we have a community. I mean it's awesome.

Speaker 2:

I mean I love we have a community, yes, we have a community of awesome. I mean it's awesome. I mean I love the energy of it and we're actually we've been working for about nine months on creating our own community from scratch. I mean the software and we're getting close to launching that. It's taking a lot longer than we thought but we're getting close to launching it. I'm really excited about that. It's going to be so much.

Speaker 1:

It's almost like a check, a chat form where you can get on anytime and ask questions and just don't have to wait for the next weekly call to find out. Great. So the other thing I want to ask you try to make this as practical or that the average person like me could picture going through it. So what would you say is just a reasonable overall cost or expense to kind of make a definitive exit from the surveillance state. So like, obviously there's the phone and the laptop or the computers that we're using, but what kind of peripheral widgets or services like add up that average cost for the average person of what it would look like for them to disentangle their tech?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's a good question. I mean a lot of times. I think it is important to realize that, like you're using Gmail now or using Outlook, whatever, those services are free because they're stealing your data and they're getting your, you're paying for it in other ways.

Speaker 2:

I guess, so I think it's important to get to the mindset of okay, I got to pay for my email, now I got to pay for different services and so. But, that being said, I wouldn't say there's much there. I mean you could go with ProtonMail and then you get ProtonVPN and all of that stuff. So maybe eight bucks a month, something like that.

Speaker 1:

So for.

Speaker 2:

VPN email. You've got a private and secure alternative to Dropbox. So it's not much money when you start getting into. Like you know, eventually you want to get away from big tech computers. You know, like you want to get away from Microsoft, you want to get away from big tech computers. You want to get away from Microsoft. You want to get away from Apple. We never really talked about this, but now what they're doing is they're putting AI on your computer.

Speaker 2:

If you have a Windows computer, let's say and Apple does this too, but Windows has a new AI that lives on your operating system that takes a screenshot of your screen every second, and then there's AI that lives on that operating system, that analyzes that screenshot and understands it I mean, really understands everything that it's looking at and it's looking at and it's learning you. This AI is learning you and it's creepy, it's super creepy and it's beyond creepy. This is a tool that will be used to control you, and so when I say this again, I don't want to freak people out about this.

Speaker 1:

We have to know that. What's that? We have to know that If we do not like that right, there may be the reason you finally save up the money to get a new computer rather than just try to play in that ecosystem and hope that it works out for you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean we talk people through how to go to Linux and there's some really fantastic versions of Linux now. Linux is open source. It doesn't have any funny stuff going on behind the scenes and I'm on Linux right now. It's fantastic. You know, I always used Mac in the past. I love it just as much as a Mac and the user interface is great and all of that stuff. So, anyway, we take you through that. But we don't want you to just dive in and, like I said, we don't want you to try to do this all in one month, because you're going to just get overwhelmed. But if you have a plan by the end of this year to get off of, let's say, windows and Mac and your phone and onto some more privacy-oriented versions, I think that's what you should do.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and so my estimate for myself is kind of in the $1,500, $2,000 range for disentangling everything switching out from surveillance apps and such. Is that a reasonable budget to consider for making that switch?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I think that is reasonable. I think there is. I think you've got to look at it in a way of there's different tools that you have to do, but then there's also different habits that you have to have and there's different things. You have to keep learning about this and right and and really it is a, it is something that is something you have to keep on top of yeah, yeah, it's a fluid environment.

Speaker 1:

It's probably nothing changing faster than the tech world and so, yeah, yeah, it's definitely things to stay up on. Okay, I know you, we have a limited time, so give as I'll. I'll add some more color commentary in my introduction to the show, but while we wrap up, give the listener a place of where do they find you, how do they follow your work, anything else you want them to know to connect with you. And then we're also going to do a webinar where we have more time and you can answer Q&A and such. But go ahead and give them how to contact you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so the webinar. Let's talk about the webinar first. So I think we're doing that on June 10th, I believe.

Speaker 1:

Yep. So if you guys, if you all miss that, we'll have a recording, you can catch it.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, yeah, yeah, and that'll be. That'll be a time when I can go in to more detail and also ask and answer people's questions live, so that'll be fun. It's always fun to do those live, so that'll be fun. It's always fun to do those. And then privacyacademycom and I'm on Twitter. I don't do much on Twitter, but I repost some different things that would probably get me thrown in jail in England.

Speaker 2:

So, anyway, yeah, I mean I love to talk on podcasts. If anyone has a podcast they want me to talk on. And yeah, I just want to get the word out about this. I mean, we're a small business, we're a family business. Me and my son do this with a team of other people, and I just feel that we have a mission and we have a very powerful mission. It's a very important mission. I don't think I don't really know of anyone else that's really doing it like what we're doing, and we just need to move this from a fringe to a mainstream topic, and that's kind of what we're talking about. That's what we're trying to do.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's why I brought you on the show. I, I'm all about health and I'm all about freedom or the Constitution. I go, we have a great one, we just need to follow it. And this is a. I don't want to look back and think, gosh, I wish I had said something or did something. I'm thinking I've got six kids. I'm trying to think about the world they're going to inherit and if I don't do my fatherly duty here to teach them this and never let them get entangled in this in the first place, then I've abdicated an important responsibility. So I'm thrilled that you took the time to come on. I know I'd love to ask you more, but you got to run. So thank you so much, Glenn, for taking the time to join me today. It has been a pleasure.

Speaker 1:

Yeah thank you very much.

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