Ben Jordan misses the days of technology that didn’t spy on you

Ben Jordan may have initially gained notoriety due to his music flashlight Next, the synths and effects pedals were reviewed on YouTube under Benn and Gear. But about five years ago, Ben decided to take it YouTube channel In a different direction. He didn’t stop covering music equipment overnight, but over time, his channel became more focused on scientific and technological investigations. He even turned the entire project into a non-profit organization.

While there will still be the occasional video focused on music or sound – e.g. Poisoning AI music systems or Storing data in bird song – Recently, Ben has focused largely on the surveillance state. We have discovered glaring security vulnerabilities in… flock camera The systems have shown how easy it is to hack a Circular cameraIt appears to have confirmed the conspiracy theory Unitree’s robotic dogs secretly Send data back to servers in China.

In short, Benn Jordan has gone from being one of the best YouTubers for music equipment to one of the best YouTubers for cybersecurity. He was kind enough to take some time away from validating our worst fears about government and corporate surveillance, to answer our weekly questionnaire.

What was the first app you installed on your new phone or computer? (Pre-installed programs like Gmail don’t count)
On a new Windows PC, Ninity. Which is basically like you give me one wish and I make more wishes. Ninite is a free tool that quickly installs a customizable list of things you might spend the next few hours installing on a new PC.

What is the one thing you wish you could change about your phone?

It was easy to unlock and rootable.

What is your happy place on the Internet?

strudel.cc. It is a free, powerful, and beautifully documented 100% music programming language that runs entirely within the browser. It’s an excellent way to procrastinate and even accidentally learn programming.

What’s your favorite gadget you’ve ever owned?

Original Pebble watch. It did not collect my data or track anything. It told me the time and date, let me know when I got a new message, and lasted a week on a single charge. Which happen to be the only three things I want from a watch.

Which was the most disappointing?

Amazon Echo Show (3G). I only bought one for penetration testing, but it’s a very slow, weird-looking device that’s basically there to spy on you, show you ads, and ask you to pay for features that are already advertised as available.

What creation are you most proud of?
At least on YouTube (which is probably what got me invited to answer random questions edge): In 2022, an imposter pretends to be Rolling StoneAndy Green contacted me on Instagram and told me he wanted to write a piece about my music. Knowing the real Andy Green, I decided to follow the scam as closely as I could and then tell Andy the story.
I thought it was going to be a video of me scamming a scammer, but it ended up being a video about oppression in West Africa, Set the cultureAt one point, I was literally drinking my blood on a WhatsApp call with a Ghanaian witch doctor while sitting at Chili’s with my partner’s family.
The video didn’t get a lot of views, but the whole thing has set the structure for my channel now.

What is your current obsession?

Spectrometry and interferometry. It is particularly about using very subtle changes in invisible light waves to capture and demodulate sounds.

When was the last time you went somewhere without your phone?

I actually try to do this every day!

What do you think is worth spending on?
Tripod. It’s hard to imagine what could justify the huge difference in price between a mid-range tripod on Amazon and something like a Sachtler. This turns out to be very justifiable, and over the course of a decade, it’s probably less expensive than all the mid-range devices you’ll be replacing or upgrading from and incrementally.

What will your resume slogan be?

“If Jon Hamm is for sale Timo.”

What’s the last GIF or meme you used?
Not sure if this is just a meme, but I always use a triangle chart with an option for each corner, but you can only have two at a time.