Author name: Zach Varnell

Zach Varnell is a cybersecurity expert and advocate for privacy and individual liberty. He is a founding member of Banish Big Brother, a nonprofit dedicated to combating invasive surveillance. He also runs Asteros, a security firm that helps software teams and compliance-driven organizations understand and reduce their real-world risk. His insights have been featured in publications like Infosecurity Magazine, Threatpost, ZDNET, and the Washington Examiner.

Autonomous Police Cars & Your Amazon Driver Now Spying on You

A nonprofit is pitching driverless patrol cars to a North Carolina police department, Amazon wants 20,000 delivery drivers wearing AI smart glasses that photograph your property (and sometimes your front door) every few seconds, and a company no one’s heard of just found a way to bolt facial recognition onto Flock’s camera network without Flock’s

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Annoying Legislators for Freedom with Alex Marthews (Restore the Fourth)

Alex Marthews, National Chair of Restore the Fourth, joins Zach and Elizabeth for a deep dive into the legal architecture behind mass surveillance, from FISA’s origins after the Church Committee and COINTELPRO revelations to today’s AI-accelerated version of the same programs. Alex walks through how Section 702 surveillance works, the history of warrantless wiretapping programs

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Flock’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Summer w/ Jon Padfield

Jon Padfield, host of the Business Reform YouTube channel, joins Zach and Elizabeth for a deep dive into what license plate reader networks actually capture and where the technology is headed next. They start with signal traces (the electronic fingerprints your devices give off as you drive) and how COVID-era lockdowns normalized the kind of

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Flock in Crisis PR Mode: Copaganda & Fake Transparency w/ Ethan Watters

In this episode of Banish Big Brother, Zach and Elizabeth are joined by “educator and agitator” Ethan Watters from Flockout SAV. They discuss the Savannah mayor’s refusal to hold open public comment periods and the shocking revelation that 28% of the Savannah Police Department’s budget is heavily allocated to surveillance. They break down Flock Safety’s

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The For-Profit Surveillance Machine: School Zone Cameras & Data Centers w/ James Dutton

James Dutton, the attorney who took Georgia’s automated school zone speed cameras all the way to the state Supreme Court (twice), joins Zach and Elizabeth for a deep dive into how for-profit surveillance actually works on the ground. James breaks down how out-of-state corporations like Vera Mobility structure these ticket programs, why the burden of

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The War on Flock Cameras

Zach and Elizabeth dig into the wave of Americans cutting down, vandalizing, and outright destroying flock cameras across the country, from an Air Force engineer facing charges to a man who replaced a downed cameras with American flags. They break down why jury nullification could matter for anyone charged in these cases, and cover a

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