Ever since the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT in November 2022, artificial intelligence (AI) has dominated the news. AI is bringing a level of realism and human-like behavior to technology that just two years ago would have been considered unthinkable. But AI is also introducing new data privacy concerns. In this episode of Privacy Files, we examine the rising phenomenon of romantic AI chatbots and what these applications are doing with your personal data. Colin from Anonyome Lab's Security & Compliance team joined Rich to discuss the findings of the Mozilla Foundation's review of 11 romantic ..read more

On this show, we have talked quite a bit about the red hot cybersecurity industry. Companies can't fill open positions fast enough. Globally, cybersecurity spending exceeds $200 billion. But there's a small problem. You might call it a cybersecurity paradox. Despite companies spending more than ever on cybersecurity, companies are also losing data more than ever. In this episode of Privacy Files, we talk to Richard Hollis, a 35-year veteran of the cybersecurity industry. Richard works at Risk Crew, a London-based cyber risk management consulting firm that strengthens companies' cybersecurity d ..read more

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is bringing great promise to the world in the form of increased productivity and a better quality of life. However, as with any new technology, there are people who look to leverage it for nefarious purposes. Deepfakes are seemingly everywhere now. And while some are being used for humor or general entertainment, many deepfakes are being used to inflict harm. In this episode of Privacy Files, we welcome Anonyome Labs CFO Naomi Rule to the studio to discuss the challenges facing corporate accounting and finance teams in the face of AI advances, rea ..read more

Web3, or Web 3.0, is a new vision for the World Wide Web where the user is in control. While Web3 has been called many things, there's no doubt that its architecture enables for the democratization of the web. The key concepts of Web3 include decentralization, blockchain technologies and token-based economies. While the pervasiveness of fraud in cryptocurrency has tarnished the image of Web3, decentralization continues to be the greatest promise emanating from the emerging technologies of this new paradigm. In this episode of Privacy Files, we talk to Daniel Harris, the Founder and CEO of Kend ..read more

With large data breaches making headline news nearly every week, cybersecurity is a hot topic. Recently, AT&T discovered the personal information of more than 70 million current and former customers being sold on the Dark Web. Compounding this is the fact that it takes on average nearly seven months for a corporate security and compliance team to even identity that a data breach occurred in the first place. With the average cost of a data breach in the United States hitting $10 million per incident, companies are spending more than ever to defend against cyber attacks. However, despite thi ..read more

According to a recent study at the University of Texas at Austin, from January 2020 to February 2024 people lost more than $75 billion around the world to the scam of pig butchering. Named after the practice of farmers fattening hogs before slaughter, victims are lured into fake crypto investments. Once victims send enough funds, the scammers disappear. Hence, the pig is slaughtered. Victims routinely lose hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. And each story often begins as an online romance. In this episode of Privacy Files we speak to Troy, a private investigator who specializes ..read more

In 2023, Americans lost more than $10 billion to fraud. This is the largest annual loss in US history. In terms of dollars lost, investment scams emptied consumers' bank accounts more than any other scam at $4.6 billion. But a close second was imposter scams at $2.7 billion. In this episode of Privacy Files, we look at the tragic story of former New York Times journalist Charlotte Cowles. On Halloween of 2023, Charlotte became the victim of a very elaborate imposter scam that cost her $50,000 USD. This is one of those stories that highlights how anyone can be targeted for fraud and just how su ..read more

The demand for cybersecurity professionals is strong. Job vacancies in the industry grew from one million in 2013 to 3.5 million in 2021. And because of this shortfall in talent, companies are struggling to keep up with the latest in modern threat awareness, including phishing, social engineering, Business Email Compromise (BEC), and financial fraud. Many corporate security and compliance teams feel that their company's apps, data, devices, infrastructure, and people are vulnerable. While the number of job vacancies remained steady at 3.5 million in 2023, one thing is very evident. Companies a ..read more

In 2015, Dr. Robert Epstein, a psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, made world news. Dr. Epstein was one of the authors of groundbreaking study that found that Google's search ranking algorithm could influence how people vote. Even more shocking, according to Dr. Epstein, "We estimate, based on win margins in national elections around the world, that Google could determine the outcome of upwards of 25 percent of all national elections." And just exactly how could Google do this? By simply changing the order of positive and negative stories appearing in ..read more

In 2023, it is estimated that $3.1 trillion in illicit funds moved through the global financial system. Financial crimes can take many forms. Money laundering accounted for trillions of dollars supporting a wide range of crimes, including $346.7 billion in human trafficking, $782.9 billion in drug trafficking activity, and $11.5 billion in terrorist financing. In 2023, fraud scams and bank fraud schemes reached $485.6 billion in total losses. In this episode of Privacy Files, we welcome back Tom Chavez, a private investigator and CEO at Dark Horse Intelligence in California. Tom is a veteran i ..read more