[APPLAUSE]
Welcome back to the show.
Since the election, Americans have
an ever-growing list of things to be freaked out about.
So I asked Ashley Nicole Black to add one more thing.
BARACK OBAMA (ON TV): We cannot prevent terrorist attacks
or cyber threats without some capability to penetrate
digital communications.
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): Thanks, Obama.
But is that how the surveillance state is being used?
POLITICIAN (ON TV): Government is already
collecting data on millions of innocent Americans
on a daily basis.
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): I guess not.
Because now they have--
POLITICIAN (ON TV): Unprecedented
authority to hack into Americans' computers
and their devices.
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): The government surveils communities
they believe oppose them.
And when Donald Trump becomes president,
they might come after you.
Also, everyone who didn't like his last tweet.
Ugh.
Am I being too paranoid?
TRUMP (ON TV): If you don't mind,
I want to be-- I want to surveil-- I want surveillance.
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): Oh shit.
Here's the ACLU technology expert Chris Soghian
to tell me everything's going to be OK.
President Trump will inherit the most powerful surveillance
machine ever built.
On the bright side, pretty much everything
Trump inherits goes bankrupt.
So.
President Obama thought that these tools would be used
responsibly, but there's really a range of awful people
out there trying to violate your privacy.
Why should I care about internet security
if I'm not doing anything wrong?
The government's view is to find
the needle in the haystack.
They have to collect the whole haystack.
They know when you go to church, if you call a suicide hotline,
if you visit an abortion clinic.
This is like my nightmare, but my mother's dream.
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): Is this a dream?
How is the government surveilling us?
Many of these tools were created for the military.
That includes devices like license plate readers,
facial recognition technology--
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): And stingrays-- devices
that can fly over crowds and soak up data
from everyone's cell phone.
So now you can't plan your protest,
and the government knows who you're fucking.
So what are they doing with all of this information?
They will build a social graph showing who's calling who,
who are friends, who are associates.
So they're building something that looks like this.
Yeah.
It's just a map of black people.
We know that law enforcement resources in our country
are disproportionately leveraged against people
of color and the poor.
There are even reports that DHS accidentally
surveilled a funk parade, thinking it was a protest.
OK, but to be fair, they were threatening to tear
the roof off the motherfucker.
Watch out for that stuff.
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): But who's watching out
for us, the American people?
There's a scene at the end of "Dark Knight."
Familiar.
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): Morgan Freeman
destroys a surveillance machine that Batman built,
because it's too dangerous.
We need the president to be Morgan Freeman.
[GASPING]
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): But he won't.
Because Morgan Freeman has already been
the president, like, 12 times.
We need to learn to protect ourselves-- but how?
Oh, look.
Here's a flyer for a crypto party
that teaches people about internet security.
It's run by a hacker who goes by the handle Matt Mitchell.
This is Matt.
I'm Matt, and I'm going be talking
to you about digital safety--
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): Am I imagining this?
Nah, I could never make up that shirt.
We're going to start with how you can secure your phone.
[HAMMERING]
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): Why is the Geek Squad staring at me?
A tool that you could use to make a secure, encrypted phone
call is called Signal.
If my text messages aren't encrypted,
they can be intercepted at any point,
and anyone can read them?
That's correct.
So that dick pic could be anywhere.
There's a sea of dick pics everywhere.
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): And that's just the tip.
I'm learning so much.
Like my passwords can't all be "iheartcorybooker."
You need to have a unique password for every thing
that asks for a password.
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): I gotta tell black people
to quit it with Boost Mobile.
The Apple iPhone is encrypted by default,
while most Android phones are not encrypted by default.
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): I need to buy duct tape.
To secure yourself, always cover your camera.
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): Where do I get duct tape?
There's malicious software out there
allowing someone who's not yourself to access your camera.
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): Wait a minute.
This is the worst party I've ever been to.
No one's even offered me a drink.
You invite me to a party, scare the shit out of me,
and there's no booze.
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): Maybe I'll hook up with privacy
lawyer Nate Wessler.
Then my Fourth Amendment rights won't be the only thing
getting violated.
This kind of dragnet surveillance
runs into really serious problems
under the Fourth Amendment to our Constitution.
The Framers were worried about British troops
searching every house in the neighborhood
looking for one dissident.
So instead, they're searching our digital neighborhood.
Yeah.
Meanwhile, all of our privacy is sacrificed.
I knew I was right.
Is this even real?
I-- I'm right here.
I'm real.
I promise.
He is real.
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): And Matt agrees-- the threat
to all of us is real.
Brown folks, LGBTQ, gender non-conforming folks--
they've had the boot of oppression on their necks
for a really long time.
And now, white folks are just beginning
to feel, like, the pinky toe of it, and panic is ensuing.
I want to be, like, white people,
this is the one thing you can appropriate.
But then they probably won't do it.
So maybe we should be like, encryption-- it's just for us!
And see how quickly they come running to take it.
That's one idea.
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): What's the one thing white people
love more than Mr. Robot?
[MUSIC - TALIB KWELI, "GET BY"]
[SINGING]
ASHLEY BLACK (VOICEOVER): Don't worry,
Talib Kweli is here, too.
(RAPPING) Now if you're black, watch your back.
'Cause you're never alone.
They take the data that you own, and they don't have to condone.
We go through "Episodes 2," like "Attack of the Clones,"
except even Darth Vader wasn't hacking our phones.
To get by, just to get by, just to get by, just to get by.
Lock your phone with a passcode, or what you downloaded
gets stolen.
Basically, be the black Edward Snowden.
Just to get by, just to get by, just to get by, just to get by.
The NYPD put the "troll" in "patrol."
They online, collecting everything
we post, from Twitter to Vine.
Encrypted apps let them have all your data that's private,
like every dick pic that you text to your side chick.
Your spy shit-- they tryin' to take us 50 years backwards.
Fuck your password.
Get ready for revenge of the black nerds.
Just to get by, just to get by, just to get by.
Will somebody white please appropriate this track
so this shit can get mentioned?
Please, it goes against the Fourth Amendment.
We'll be right back.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]