Joseph Cox Interviews Mike Yeagley ⇥ 404media.co

If you have read Byron Tau’s reporting, including his book “Means of Control”, you might be familiar with Mike Yeagley. He was the one who made the U.S. military and intelligence community aware of the surveillance they could conduct through digital advertising placements and the open data market.

Joseph Cox of 404 Media recently interviewed Yeagley about, in particular, Grindr and why the U.S. government intervened to force its Chinese owner to divest. The audio version is fine, but there is a video on YouTube if you want to look at Yeagley’s forehead. It is a truly good interview and worth your time.

However, Yeagley is in an awkward position of self-interest. As mentioned, he says he was — and he is often reported to be — the first person to bring the U.S. government this strategy for using advertising data as a surveillance mechanism. He is also on the board of Unplugged, which relaunched last year with a new phone. It claims to be a hardened and ultra-private device; the box contains a copy of the U.S. Constitution “to remind you of your fundamental rights”. No word on if they have finally snagged Glenn Greenwald to serve as spokesperson.