“Gather the data first, and ask questions later” seems to be the modus operandi of the big tech companies steering the wearable industry, Andrew and I discuss how this fits into brainwave decoding, wearable biosensors, digital IDs, biometric surveillance, AI, and the growing push to gather massive amounts of personal data.

How much of your health data are you willing to give away for convenience?

More from our guest:

https://andrewkaufmanmd.com/

This is a clip from a full interview with Matt at Cultivate Elevate, watch now!

Privacy phones aren’t just alternatives—they’re better than big tech.

With Above Phone, you’ll unlock features and freedom you didn’t even know existed.

• Works with any cell service (and even over WiFi with an internet phone)

• Download the apps you love (private app stores)

• Have complete control over your app permissions

Learn more!

This is a segment from #TBOT Show Episode 24. Watch here:

Above Share is included in Above Suite. Purchase Above Suite with any new Above Phone or Above Book or purchase it and start using our tools on your current devices!

🪧 Watch the full interview

Above Share is included in Above Suite. Purchase Above Suite with any new Above Phone or Above Book or purchase it and start using our tools on your current devices!

Learn More!

Are they building faster than reality allows?

🪧 Watch the full episode here

🗺️ Get the truth about data centers

Privacy phones aren’t just alternatives—they’re better than big tech.

With Above Phone, you’ll unlock features and freedom you didn’t even know existed.

• Works with any cell service (and even over WiFi with an internet phone)

• Download the apps you love (private app stores)

• Have complete control over your app permissions

Learn more!

📺 Watch the full interview

🌐 Explore the map to take action

Privacy phones aren’t just alternatives—they’re better than big tech.

With Above Phone, you’ll unlock features and freedom you didn’t even know existed.

• Works with any cell service (and even over WiFi with an internet phone)

• Download the apps you love (private app stores)

• Have complete control over your app permissions

Learn more!

Above’s Substack has been quiet, but we’re breathing new life into it ahead of the release of our AI data center report. And we want to invite you, the Take Back Our Tech community, to join!

Above Substack

At Take Back Our Tech we focus on solutions—privacy tools, open‑source projects, decentralized platforms, and practical steps to lessen our reliance on big tech and take action.

Above makes it easy to take action with things like:

Ready-To-Go Devices—No setup needed, private devices like the Above Phone and Above Book

Alternative Internet Services—Email, calendar, chat, and more through Above Suite, and cell service through Above DataSIM

Education—A free call with each device, a collection of free webinars, and privacy guides

What to Expect on the Above Substack

• In-depth articles on the state of private tech

• Clips from our educational webinars

• Hands-on product tutorials & demos

• Open-source tool reviews

• Inspiring tech transformations from our community

If you follow TBOT because you care about protecting your privacy, reclaiming your technology, and building a freer future, you’ll want to follow Above, too.

Follow the Above Substack here:

Above

A conscious technology company. Free people. Friendly technology.

By Take Back Our Tech

🪧 Watch the full interview here

Privacy phones aren’t just alternatives—they’re better than big tech.

With Above Phone, you’ll unlock features and freedom you didn’t even know existed.

• Works with any cell service (and even over WiFi with an internet phone)

• Download the apps you love (private app stores)

• Have complete control over your app permissions

Learn more!

Could internet-based calling and encrypted messaging eventually replace what we think of as phone service today?

🪧 Watch the full interview

The Above Phone Pixel 10 is here!

We’re excited to introduce four powerful new phones to the Above Phone lineup!

Powered by GrapheneOS and fully de-Googled, the Above Phone Pixel 10 is carefully configured to make everyday communication, browsing, and data storage simpler, safer, and more efficient.

Shop Pixel 10 today!

Could embracing these technologies actually shift the balance of power?

🪧 Watch the full episode here

The Above Phone Pixel 10 is here!

We’re excited to introduce four powerful new phones to the Above Phone lineup!

Powered by GrapheneOS and fully de-Googled, the Above Phone Pixel 10 is carefully configured to make everyday communication, browsing, and data storage simpler, safer, and more efficient.

Shop Pixel 10 today!

🪧 Watch the full interview here

🗺️ Get the truth about data centers

The Above Phone Pixel 10 is here!

We’re excited to introduce four powerful new phones to the Above Phone lineup!

Powered by GrapheneOS and fully de-Googled, the Above Phone Pixel 10 is carefully configured to make everyday communication, browsing, and data storage simpler, safer, and more efficient.

Shop Pixel 10 today!

📺 Watch full interview here

💧 Get the truth about data centers

The Above Phone Pixel 10 is here!

We’re excited to introduce four powerful new phones to the Above Phone lineup!

Powered by GrapheneOS and fully de-Googled, the Above Phone Pixel 10 is carefully configured to make everyday communication, browsing, and data storage simpler, safer, and more efficient.

Shop Pixel 10 today!

🪧 Watch the full interview here

🗺️ Get the truth about data centers

Above Share is included in Above Suite. Purchase Above Suite with any new Above Phone or Above Book or purchase it and start using our tools on your current devices!

Learn More!

On the Union of the Unwanted, we reflected on how crises can sometimes force us to pay closer attention to the systems we depend on and our relationship with the environment.

🪧 Watch the full episode here

🗺️ Get the truth about data centers

Above Share is included in Above Suite. Purchase Above Suite with any new Above Phone or Above Book or purchase it and start using our tools on your current devices!

Learn More!

Even after all this time, it feels like parts of the old world have been hidden from us—or forgotten completely. There are old technologies that may have had profound effects on our health, energy systems that worked with nature instead of against it, and architecture that looked like it belonged to a civilization far more advanced than the one we are told existed.

Why did we lose this knowledge? And if we understood these histories more clearly, could we become freer people today?

Share

I had the opportunity to speak with Matt from Cultivate Elevate, who has devoted years of his life to uncovering these mysteries. Through old books, forgotten images, personal experiments, and a deep curiosity about the world we inherited, Matt has been exploring the relationship between old-world technology, natural health, energy, architecture, and human sovereignty.

One of the first things we discussed was how WiFi affected him personally. Matt shared that using his phone on WiFi seemed to cause a lot of issues for him, and when he got rid of it and hardwired his home, he noticed a significant difference. Even though modern technology can connect us in powerful ways, this conversation is a reminder that sometimes we also need to disconnect. Go outside. Ground. Read a book. Pay attention to what your body is telling you.

Matt’s search for better health led him down countless rabbit holes, including questions about 5G towers and the way modern infrastructure may be impacting people. Whether you agree with every conclusion or not, there is something important in the larger message. We have a personal responsibility to make better choices for ourselves, to ask better questions, and to stop passively accepting a world that may be poisoning us physically, mentally, and spiritually.

We also talk about air travel, including TSA scanners and the choice to opt out. Matt raises concerns about the health effects of these machines and points to reporting from EPIC about cancer concerns among TSA agents connected to airport scanner technology. It’s a reminder that even in systems designed to make us feel like we have no choice, we often still do. We can ask questions. We can opt out. We can refuse to blindly accept every system placed in front of us.

From there, we get into the old world, the World Fairs, and the incredible architecture that appeared during events that we’re told were only meant to last a short time. When you look at the scale, detail, and beauty of these structures, it raises an obvious question: were these temporary exhibitions really built the way we were told?

What makes Matt’s work interesting is that he is not just collecting theories. He is testing ideas for himself. From growing plants with electroculture to experimenting with ways people can better protect themselves in a world filled with artificial frequencies, his work is rooted in curiosity, personal experience, and the belief that we should not be afraid to investigate the world around us.

Fear has been used throughout history to shut down curiosity. When people are afraid to ask questions, it becomes easier to just go along with what they have been told. They stop looking. They stop testing. They stop learning. And that may be one of the biggest reasons so much knowledge has been buried.

As Matt says in the interview, “You should question the narrative that you’ve been sold or taught.”

Over time, Matt has built a large following by sharing his findings, and like many people asking uncomfortable questions, he has faced censorship. But no fear, you can still follow him and continue exploring his work.

Share

Find Matt here:

Cultivate Elevate: https://cultivateelevate.com/

Odysee: https://odysee.com/@CultivateElevate:e2

Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/CultivateElevate

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CultivateElevateShorts

X: https://x.com/CultivateElevat

What do you think? Were these technologies truly forgotten, or were they intentionally buried? Let us know in the comments.

Privacy phones aren’t just alternatives—they’re better than big tech.

With Above Phone, you’ll unlock features and freedom you didn’t even know existed.

• Works with any cell service (and even over WiFi with an internet phone)

• Download the apps you love (private app stores)

• Have complete control over your app permissions

Learn more!

The UK government is planning to ban social media for kids under 16 in a new fact sheet, they lay out the most important changes. The ban will cover platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, and X. It won’t cover messaging apps and will take effect by the start of 2027.

But the problem is that this ban affects far more than children. As a result, all users of these platforms will have to verify their age.

Will people need to have their faces scanned? The fact sheet very cleverly avoids answering that question directly.

They hint that they’ll gather age signals through other means like knowing how long accounts have been open, user credit card info, or linking it to other age verification schemes.

All of this information could be adapted to support a Digital ID scheme. And if not, it could be as simple as a facial recognition check for everyone else.

Share

Although the Office of Communications (OFCOM) has not decided the exact ways you’re meant to verify your age, we already know what’s coming—the facial scan and digital ID kicker. The fact that Digital ID or e-passport has biometrics built in makes it the easiest way to verify.

The rules also have a section addressing VPNs and their plans to do additional research to ensure that the bans cannot be circumvented.

On the bright side, the UK government is investing £3 billion into building 250 youth centres, sports facilities, arts venues, museums, and libraries—all things that may be better for children. Let’s hope these things actually get built.

Canada’s Lawful Access Law

Canada’s Bill C‑22 is one of the most draconian laws we’ve seen, expanding police powers through warrantless access of information and attempting to require backdoors on different services. Under the bill, Canadian police could ask phone and internet service providers if they serve a specific phone, email, or account without needing a warrant.

With just “reasonable suspicion”—the lowest bar of evidence—police can force anyone who “provides services to the public” to provide information on others. This isn’t just tech companies; it’s your grocery store, your doctor, your lawyer, and more.

They’d be forced to hand over any info they have on you simply based on suspicion. Say goodbye to medical and legal privacy.

The second part of the bill is even more staggering. It would require “core providers” to build and maintain the ability to hand over data or intercept communications when lawfully ordered by a ministerial order.

Tech companies, like encrypted messengers and VPN apps, would have to build that capability, and they’d have to retain data they would normally delete—for six months. The company would also have to hide that it’s been given a ministerial order.

Which providers are actually impacted? They still haven’t figured that out; different types of companies can be added to the definition after the bill passes.

These core electronic service providers will be subject to these demands, and the definition of an electronic service is so vague it could extend to your OS. It appears that the intended providers are large telecoms and platforms like Google, but the order can be imposed on any electronic service provider.

Of course many of the measures will be impossible to comply with, especially for companies that make end‑to‑end privacy their whole business.

We’re getting to late‑stage surveillance in Canada—where it’s better that you give almost no real information to any electronic or in‑person provider.

Share

This is a segment from #TBOT Show Episode 24. Watch the full episode here:

The Above Phone Pixel 10 is here!

We’re excited to introduce four powerful new phones to the Above Phone lineup!

Powered by GrapheneOS and fully de-Googled, the Above Phone Pixel 10 is carefully configured to make everyday communication, browsing, and data storage simpler, safer, and more efficient.

Shop Pixel 10 today!

As we continue moving our community toward more privacy-respecting tools, we’ve launched both a TBOT Community Group where members can connect, ask questions, and share ideas, and a TBOT Channel for announcements.

In this video, I explain why we’re making the move, what makes SimpleX different, and how to get started.

If you’re ready to take another step toward reclaiming your digital independence, we’d love to have you join us.

💬 Join the SimpleX TBOT Community Group

📢 Join the SimpleX TBOT Channel

Share

This is a segment from #TBOT Show Episode 24. Watch the full episode here:

The Above Phone Pixel 10 is here!

We’re excited to introduce four powerful new phones to the Above Phone lineup!

Powered by GrapheneOS and fully de-Googled, the Above Phone Pixel 10 is carefully configured to make everyday communication, browsing, and data storage simpler, safer, and more efficient.

Shop Pixel 10 today!

In 2025, CEO Pavel Durov famously quipped that he would rather die than give access to third parties. It turns out he never needed to share the content of the messages, because the unique device identifiers were being sent over the internet completely naked and unencrypted without HTTPS, according to a new security paper.

This is a massive and fundamental privacy flaw that helps any attacker monitoring the internet—say, an internet service provider or an intelligence agency—to get signals that would help it track down who is talking to whom, when, and where from. Using a VPN can help, but it only shifts the point of exposure.

Share

The part that makes me the most angry is the fix is incredibly easy and simple—just use HTTPS, which 99% of websites do already. But Telegram has never fixed it or made it possible for users to fix it themselves by enabling HTTPS.

A new paper by esteemed cryptographer Nadim Kobessi lays out the potential of de‑anonymization when using Telegram and its custom encryption protocol MTProto.

Kobessi is one of the cryptography OGs and has pointed out the flaws of popular privacy tech like ProtonMail and encrypted webmail in general. If you want to learn more about that, check out my article on #TBOT.

I’ve used Telegram since 2020. It was a haven during the mass censorship of the COVID era, and it stood out as a social media platform where people could congregate and share information without being censored or spied on.

Even though there has been speculation that Telegram has been sharing data with third parties since 2024—on account of Durov being arrested by French police in 2024—to this day they still promise they haven’t shared a single byte of private messages.

However, they do now hand over phone numbers and IP addresses to law enforcement. So if Telegram is telling the truth about never sharing messages, how does law enforcement get tipped off in the first place? It all comes down to a few things.

For one, as should be obvious by now, most of Telegram is public via groups. Anyone can join a group, and there are bots or even real people monitoring them. If illegal activity is going down in public chats, law enforcement can request more information from Telegram. That’s one piece; the second is the MTProto messaging protocol.

MTProto’s auth_key_id

Telegram’s encryption scheme is called MtProto, a custom encryption protocol. It’s been the subject of controversy over the years, but today’s video isn’t about what gets encrypted with MtProto; it’s about what doesn’t get encrypted. Remember, Telegram primarily uses cloud chats, meaning almost nothing is end‑to‑end encrypted, and Telegram’s servers are able to see the content of your messages.

For every normal chat, your device exchanges keys with the server, and the content of your messages is sent encrypted. Once they arrive, the server decrypts your message and re‑encrypts it with the keys of your intended recipient. This means Telegram has complete visibility of normal cloud messages. This is even useful to a degree, because this is how you can search through years of old messages in your personal chats. Users put trust in Telegram to never share these decryption keys with third parties. And from what Telegram reports, only a select few in the organization are even able to access these keys.

But even though the content of your message is encrypted, you would assume your device identifier would be, too. I assumed they would do everything in their power to protect us from outside observers—I was completely wrong.

At the bottom of the image above, you see what gets sent over the internet. You have your encrypted data, but you also have something called the auth_key_id. This auth_key_id is unique to your device, and it’s how Telegram’s servers know which key to decrypt the message with. Notice the auth_key_id in grey at the bottom; it’s outside the encryption envelope, meaning it’s plain for everyone to see as it travels over the internet.

Normally, when you use online services, you use something called HTTPS (Hyper‑Text‑Transport‑Protocol‑Secure) to protect your traffic in transit. It’s rare these days to find a website that isn’t using it— you see “your connection is not secure” when this happens.

This is a really basic thing, but Telegram doesn’t use HTTPS to connect to its messaging servers. This means the auth_key_id is being sent over the internet naked. Anyone monitoring network traffic, from your local café’s guest Wi‑Fi to your internet service provider, is seeing your unique device identifier.

Independently verified by Kobessi’s paper, this auth_key_id never changes—it’s always there. So when you use Telegram in the U.S. and then travel to France, the same auth_key_id is traveling over the internet in plaintext. Telegram has responded to say that the auth_key_id rotates regularly; however, this contradicts the findings in the paper.

Why does that matter? It matters because if an adversary has a general idea of which devices are messaging and when, it can also determine who is talking to whom using timing analysis.

If Alice and Bob are sending messages back and forth at approximately the same time, one after another, that can be inferred by watching their connections to Telegram’s servers—once again, unencrypted.

This is the ‘metadata’ of the messages, which is just as important—if not more—than the content of those messages. And Telegram doesn’t give you the ability to force HTTPS when using its messaging servers across its mobile and desktop applications. So this massive flaw can’t be fixed by users. It’s up to Telegram to enforce and enable HTTPS for its app.

It doesn’t even matter if you use a VPN or Tor because at some point these services will need to connect directly to Telegram’s messaging servers.

We the users must demand answers from Pavel Durov: why is this gaping hole in privacy allowed to exist for its billion users? What’s the explanation?

Telegram is now profitable—bringing in over $1 B in revenue in 2025. It’s making profits by inserting ads in front of users it promises privacy to, and these findings are a huge slap in the face. Until we get some accountability, I’m not recommending Telegram and I’m making moves to switch to better protocols.

My channel @TakeBackOurTech on Telegram recently passed the 10,000‑follower mark, and I’m willing to sacrifice this channel until we get some accountability. I am encouraging all of my followers to switch with me to a new private messaging protocol, SimpleX. SimpleX allows for channels, groups, and direct messaging—all without metadata.

Watch the solutions section of #TBOT 24 to learn how.

Join our SimpleX group
https://smp9.simplex.im/g#IcBYNSscyr19yLioGTfYl048k5-Qs2-25k0GsDCe3Zc

Follow our SimpleX channel
https://smp9.simplex.im/c#42JhYLTvg6_HQ11XeUYLftQMOKUWFDWWkFTCymLk0RQ

Share

Blog | Youtube | X |Tiktok | Odysee | Rumble

This is a segment from #TBOT Show Episode 24. Watch the full episode here:

Privacy phones aren’t just alternatives—they’re better than big tech.

With Above Phone, you’ll unlock features and freedom you didn’t even know existed.

• Works with any cell service (and even over WiFi with an internet phone)

• Download the apps you love (private app stores)

• Have complete control over your app permissions

Learn more!