So I've been thinking a lot about this idea of trust. Trust is.
Life. Wow, that's, that's.
Very deep.
I believe it is the most important thing that we use to base our decisions about
our privacy and security. And yet trust is so fickle.
You know what I mean? Think back to like Samsung.
Do you remember the Galaxy Note that was just bursting into flames on people's
bedside tables?
Airlines wouldn't even let you get onto airplanes if you had that phone.
And yet Samsung is still a company that's in existence.
They're still selling millions and millions of phone because they were able to
earn back that trust. On the flip side,
I just do not understand how people can continue to use an app like TikTok
that has shown time and time again that they do not care about user privacy.
And they have even lied about how they use your data and where they send it
back to the us.
And I think for me that is a big difference between how trust is
lost and then how it can be regained. Zoom is another example.
Do you remember back it was a couple years ago when Zoom claimed that
everything that you were doing on their platform was end-to-end encrypted.
It was even on their website.
It said the words end to end encrypted. And then they had to backtrack and say,
oh wait, actually, nevermind. We said end-to-end encryption.
But really what we meant was just encrypted when a company
knowingly deceives its users. And that's Zoom,
that is TikTok. I would even argue that that's last pass.
If you are a last pass user who uses their password manager,
they have knowingly deceived their users by doing something against
what they said they were doing last past,
said they were encrypting all of their user data and yet a lot of the stuff in
the vaults that they were holding for you, it wasn't encrypted.
And so now they're having to backtrack and say, oops, Maya culpa.
I'm sorry we didn't do everything that we said we had to do.
I completely understand when companies have problems,
I mean Samsung,
I can't even imagine how difficult it is to manufacture a phone that
doesn't have any defects and do that millions and millions of times over even
companies that go through data breaches.
I understand that there is a constant cat and mouse game of hackers
trying to get in and then IT departments and security prof professionals
trying to keep that from happening and protecting user data.
And you'd like to think that, oh, it's just as simple as encrypting it. No,
it's not that simple.
And that's one of the reasons why Dropbox acquired Box Crypto,
because integrating end-to-end zero knowledge encryption is not just
a button or a switch that you turn on. It's difficult to do,
and bad actors are always looking for ways to exploit little holes or loop holes
in the code.
So I'm a little more forgiving when a company has a data breach,
but then accepts the responsibility for that data breach and makes changes
going forward because I think everybody's going to have to go through that.
As a matter of fact,
I think that's one of the reasons why Apple has introduced end-to-end encryption
is because they see in the future that at some point their cloud will be
hacked and they want to have kind of an out, they want to let people know that,
Hey, I gave you the opportunity to encrypt your own data. You didn't do it.
And so it got stolen. I think they're, they're seeing that in the future,
and that's my guess as to why they're really pushing for this end-to-end
encryption. But back to what I was saying earlier,
I think that companies that knowingly deceive their users should
they lose trust 100% forever. And I know that's harsh,
but that's why I'm never going to use TikTok.
I'm never going to use Zoom as much as I can.
Sometimes I have to and then I'm never going to use LastPass.
There are plenty of other options out there and you can use those.
You've gotta understand where you are putting your trust.
Even when people say open source versus closed source, when someone says, oh,
this piece of software is open source, therefore you can trust it,
I don't think that's the case.
I think that there's maybe more of a justification for trust,
but unless you're going in there and reading the code yourself or and have read
of a report of somebody that's analyzed that code,
you are really just using jargon to give you,
make yourself feel better about trusting that particular company. And finally,
I get a lot of people that comment and ask, why should I trust you, Josh?
Why should I trust you in the all things secured channel?
And I've said before that you don't have to
take my recommendations.
A lot of what I do is different than a lot of what other YouTube channels do.
I do accept sponsorships and I do have affiliate relationships with companies
and I don't have a problem with that.
I know that there are some YouTube channels and some websites that say, Hey,
we don't take any sponsorship, we don't take any ad money, all that stuff.
And I try to be very upfront about where I take money. But the difference is,
is if you don't trust me, then it doesn't matter whether I take ad money or not.
You don't trust me. But if you do trust me,
then you understand that I work with companies that I believe in and that I
personally use, and then I approach those companies about doing sponsorships.
If you see a company that I've sponsored me,
it's because I use their product and I like them and I've had an interaction
with that company. Whether that's UBI key, whether that's Delete Me,
whether that's you name the company that I'm affiliated with,
it's because I use that product. But again, if you don't trust me,
then it doesn't even matter. You don't have to click on any of the links,
you don't have to follow any of my advice. But I will say this,
hopefully over the past few years,
I've been able to earn your trust by providing these
tutorials and tips that really have made a positive impact in
your privacy and security practices, whether that's on your mobile device,
your computer,
or even just how you store your personal data or use social media.
So as I close this out, I'd like to ask you one question.
What is it that determines for you whether or not you trust a company
with your data, with your privacy and security?
Are you worried about open versus closed source?
Are you worried about the history of that company?
Do you look and actually read their privacy policy?
I'd be interested to know how you quantify.