Samantha Bee Gets Talib Kweli To Rap About Protecting Your Phone With A Passcode

from the computer-security-finally-becoming-cool dept

Fri, Dec 16th 2016 7:39pm — Mike Masnick

Lately it's been John Oliver whose short segments have been related to Techdirt-focus areas, but now it's another Daily Show alum, Samantha Bee, whose show, Full Frontal, just had an excellent segment by Ashley Nicole Black that's a Mr. Robot parody explaining why everyone should learn about protecting their digital info, including putting a passcode on their phone, using different passwords and more. The ~7-minute clip includes brief cameos by Senators Ron Wyden and Pat Leahy talking about overly aggressive US surveillance -- and an extended bit with technologist Chris Soghoian, who just left the ACLU to go help Congress better understand technology (this is good!). And then, at the end, they get Talib Kweli to do an... updated version of his hit song "Get By" to make it relevant to protecting your personal data from government surveillance, and concluding that the surveillance "goes against the 4th Amendment." And, did we mention the whole thing is pretty funny?

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Filed Under: ashley nicole black, encryption, mr. robot, passcodes, samantha bee, surveillance, talib kweli

10 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2016 @ 9:19pm

More from the "snitches get stitches" crowd, that want the majority of us to shut up and protect the small numbers of people with something to hide.
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JoeDetroit (profile), 17 Dec 2016 @ 3:17am

Great stuff
Samantha Bee is hilarious. As much I like Trevor Noah, she's shown she has the chops needed to host the Daily Show. I'm sure there is some regret at Comedy Central about it. It could very well be that she never wanted it.

What is good about these liberal comedy shows is they keep to real facts rather than fake news. Unlike some conservative comedy shows like Alex Jones (he is trying to be funny, right?) who seem to consistently use complete fabrications.

My wife & I are actually going to see John Oliver live at the Fox in Detroit us a couple weeks.
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- Anon Coward, 17 Dec 2016 @ 5:30am
  
  Re: Great stuff
  Sam Seder who is both a former comedian and film maker now has a daily (m-f) podcast https://majority.fm/report/ that is even on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/samseder And he has a very on-topic quote that he says: Conservatives can't be funny. And he goes on to explain it... because they don't understand the irony most of the time.
  
  Side Point: Great podcast that discusses what hill billies would call super liberal, but the rest of us would call 'important matters' such as education, policing, water policy, social security, Making fun of Alex Jones... etc.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 17 Dec 2016 @ 6:11am
    
    Re: Re: Great stuff
    " because they don't understand the irony most of the time."
    
    Can confirm.
    I have noticed this trait in people but never associated it with political ideologies. I suppose it makes sense when you live in a world devoid of gray, everything is right or wrong and there is no interpretation. This leaves little room for free thinking, creativity and understanding irony.
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    - orbitalinsertion (profile), 17 Dec 2016 @ 10:56am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Great stuff
      It's the difference between those who are innately socially "conservative", as we call it, and various forms of political or fiscal conservatism that may be arrived at from some consideration. They do tend to hew together, and are sometimes lumped together externally, or simply conflated through the different uses of the word not being defined. It happens with other labels, and the other labels with which they are associated (as if there are not conservative Democrats (lols) which both Democrats and Republicans would have you believe). At root, it is generally the un-empathetic and authoritarian type humans who don't get things like irony, and tend to be more or less congruent with "conservative" in at least some other senses.
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      - Anonymous Coward, 17 Dec 2016 @ 2:47pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Great stuff
        Sounds like you have given this some thought, and I think you're spot on.
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David, 18 Dec 2016 @ 8:47am

Sounds familiar
The video almost sounds like Martin Neimoller:

First they survielled the terrorists, and I did not speak out...
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John Cressman, 19 Dec 2016 @ 5:25am

Passcode NOT fingerprint
And remember boys and girls, you can be compelled to open your phone with a fingerprint, but NOT a passcode.

So make sure you don't have a fingerprint unlock on your phone.

Make them work for it!
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- Ninja (profile), 19 Dec 2016 @ 12:44pm
  
  Re: Passcode NOT fingerprint
  Fingerprints are not passwords anyway. They can pair up with passwords to provide identity confirmation but not act as the sole keys.
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Ninja (profile), 19 Dec 2016 @ 12:43pm

https://www.troyhunt.com/the-cobra-effect-that-is-disabling/

It helps if companies out there do their job too.
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