Anonyome Labs’ CTO Dr Paul Ashley recently appeared on one of the most-streamed cybersecurity podcasts in the world, The Bid Picture with Bidemi Ologunde, to discuss some of the hottest topics in privacy and cybersecurity today.
The wide-ranging interview covered:
- Digital identities, and how Anonyome Labs has packaged them for consumers as “Sudos” in MySudo, the world’s only all-in-one privacy app, and for businesses through our decentralized identity solutions.
- Surveillance capitalism and the concept that if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product, especially with companies such as Google and Meta whose main source of revenue is users’ personal data
- The rapid spread of artificial intelligence and its applications for both good and evil, including in surveillance capitalism, data broking and data abuse
- Privacy advice for everyday consumers to protect their personal information
- The greatest privacy development of the decade – decentralized identity – and how its centerpiece – reusable credentials – are transforming the identity management space and handing consumers back control over their personal information
- The urgent and ongoing need for frictionless, simple privacy tech for consumers and business, and how Anonyome Labs will continue to deliver both, building on its 10-year history pioneering in the space.
Key moments in the fascinating discussion include when Dr Ashley explained to Bidemi Ologunde:
- Sudo digital identities were inspired from proxies in cybersecurity: “We thought, how could we apply a proxy to a normal user? A Sudo is a proxy for online and offline life used for all different situations. Use your Sudo persona instead of your personal data and plastic credit cards,” Dr Ashley said.
- Lots of businesses, such as plumbers and law enforcement, use MySudo to separate their professional from their personal communications: “The end-to-end encrypted functionality of MySudo is [particularly] useful for law enforcement,” Dr Ashley explained.
- Some of the reasons MySudo is the world’s only all-in-one privacy app are that we don’t collect or store our users’ personally identifiable information, and the app offers disposable and customizable payment cards, phone numbers, email, and browsers all in the one app.
- Parents looking to manage the risks of social media for their children should take at least these four steps, because every step is increasing their level of privacy:
- Step 1: Use a VPN, such as MySudo VPN.
- Step 2: Use a safe browser (MySudo has private browsers with site reputation and ad and tracker blockers built in)
- Step 3: Use one of the more private search engines, such as DuckDuckGo or the new honest search engine FreeSpoke.
- Step 4: Get MySudo for compartmentalization, and set up all your kids’ gaming accounts with Sudo information (never their own or your personal information).
- Step 5: Use a password manager to manage and store all your different passwords (use a different password on every account).
- The deeper problem with AI is that it can scan vast quantities of data and link them, identifying the user: “AI has risk of being used for surveillance capitalism but … there’s a lot of scope going forward to use AI tech constructively, such as for privacy products,” Dr Ashley said. Watch this space!
- People have a lot of awareness of the need for privacy but not a lot of understanding of the technology available. “Anonyome Labs will continue to create simple products that are frictionless. One of our goals is to make the tech simple for normal users,” Dr Ashley said. One example is the MySudo browser extension which makes it easier to use Sudos on desktop.
- Another aspect of the future of privacy and cybersecurity is decentralized identity or self-sovereign identity and verifiable credentials. “This important technology is giving users control of their personal data and letting the user be in the middle of any data exchange,” Dr Ashley. While DI is a big enough topic for its own episode of The Bid Picture, Dr Ashley did touch on the notion of consumers carrying reusable or verifiable credentials in an identity wallet and selectively disclosing only relevant personal information on request from services. “This is yet another tool in your privacy basket, and it’s been designed from the ground up for privacy,” Dr Ashley explained.
Anonyome Labs is the leader in proactive identity protection technologies. From verifiable credentials to VPNs and encrypted communications, we leverage our cryptography and blockchain technology expertise to take data privacy and security to the next level. Check out our podcast, Privacy Files, to hear what your peers and experts are saying about the state of member and consumer privacy in real time.
The Bid Picture podcast provides an array of information about cybersecurity. It includes the latest news and facts to keep listeners up-to-date with the most current events and developments in cybersecurity.
