The 3 Essentials to be off-grid while online

➡ Marjorie Wildcraft interviews her long-time friend Glenn Meter, who specializes in online privacy and security. Glenn, who now works with his son Eric, has been teaching people how to protect their digital rights and avoid media manipulation through his Privacy Academy. He’s launching a boot camp to help people secure their emails, manage passwords, and use credit cards online safely. The boot camp is designed for those who prefer guided learning rather than self-paced courses.
➡ The text discusses the importance of online privacy and security, especially when shopping. It suggests using fake names, email aliases, and unique virtual credit cards for each site to protect personal information. This method prevents hackers from creating a comprehensive profile about you, even if they breach a site’s database. The text also mentions a boot camp that teaches these techniques, with the option to join live or watch a replay, and includes two months of free access to Privacy Academy.
➡ This text discusses a program designed to help people increase their online privacy. The program is especially useful for those who need guidance and structure in protecting their personal information from being sold by companies like Netflix or Walgreens. The program also offers an early bird special and will be held on specific dates, with replays available for those who can’t attend live. The goal is to help individuals become more “invisible” online, drastically reducing the amount of personal information that can be collected and sold.

Hey everyone, this is Marjorie Wildcraft. And I’m really delighted today to have my long term friend Glenn Meter. And I know I’ve talked about him a lot and I’ve often recommended his products and services. And now here I’ve got him, I’ve got him on the video camera. And yeah, Glenn and I met, it was more than a decade ago at a prepper festival and he was doing research on a water filtration device. And I said, I’ll contribute to that, you know, and then we’ve just been good friends ever since. Glenn finds really important things and focuses on them in depth.

So, Glenn. Yeah. Welcome. Yeah, thank you, Marjorie. It’s always an honor. Yeah, we’ve, we’ve, we’ve worked together many, many years and we’ve been friends many years. So it’s an honor to be here. Yeah. I’m also gotta say, I just gotta say, like, Glenn works with his son now, Eric. And initially Eric was just like most children are and like, yeah, you know, dad’s nuts. And you know, and he might have helped Glenn with like the setting up the webinar or something like that, but he wasn’t paying any attention to it. And you know, Glenn’s talking about privacy and digital rights and how you’re, you’re getting manipulated by the media and especially young people, how they’re getting manipulated by the media.

And then, and then I love that story. Like one night Eric actually listened to the webinar and the content, even though he’d been around it forever. And I, I think he like took a couple of days and comes back and he goes, dad, can I work with you? I’m like, oh my God, like, that’s got to be a dream come true, right? Yeah, it really was. I mean, he, he had been. And I think this is one of the things, I mean, we’re kind of getting off topic here. But one of the things that, you know, we always talk about homeschooling.

I actually didn’t homeschool him. He was, he was, if, if I was raising him now, I would absolutely homeschool him. But yeah, he went to public school, but I also homeschooled him. And he was also part of my business and I made him as much a part of my business as I could. And he got just tons of experience that way. And so, yeah, it was awesome when he said that. Well, today what we’re going to talk about is. So most people know you from, I’ve been talking about the Privacy Academy, privacy phones, you know, burner Emails, burner credit cards and the absolute necessity for that.

Like I use it. And I’ve learned all that from you. I mean I, from the Privacy Academy, you know, like people, I have 150 emails and I have, I don’t know, dozens and dozens of credit card numbers and you know, and I’m constantly learning and evolving. I have a, you know, a graphene phone and I’m learning that from you. And I really appreciate, you know, most of us in my community are a little bit older and it’s not that we can’t do it. It’s like I’ve been through like 50 different operating systems in my life and I’m tired.

Like I just, just want it to be easy. But you were saying, I was like, Glenn, what, what, what’s going on? Like what are you doing lately? And, and you were saying that you had done a poll of your community and the thing that people most wanted was a boot camp. So do you want to talk a little bit about what you got coming up and what that’s about and all that? Yeah, so we’ve been doing Privacy Academy for five or six years now. And you know, what we do is we teach people how to be private and secure online and we focus on non techie people.

But one of the things that we’ve also learned, not only are we teaching, but we’re learning how to teach. I mean that’s one of the things that we really try to do is just how do we always get better at this? And one of the things that we realize is that our, our course is a self paced thing. So it’s a self guided thing. So, so if you join Privacy Academy, you know, go through it at your own speed and really just, just, just optimize, optimize for whatever works for you that doesn’t work for everybody. You know, some people don’t want it to be self paced.

They want to be, okay, we’re going to do this today and we’re going to get through it and you’re going to do it, you’re going to do it with us. And you know, we will actually sit down as a group and we will walk you through the steps and just don’t do this, don’t just watch this and then do it later. Do it with us. And so there are definitely some people that need that and, and respond better to this because we have had a number of people, there’s a lot of people that go through our course and they do fine.

Right. But then there’s a number of Other people that say, oh, I’ve always. I’m a member, but I’ve always been meaning to do it. I’ve never gotten around to it, you know, and, and life is. Life for everyone is busy. So we just. I think this is the best, this is the best way for many people. What we’re doing now with the bootcamp, I think is it’s going to be good for a lot of people. This is good for people who really want to do this but don’t. Like, I am the kind of person who will log in and do this stuff on my own, but I do know that that does take a certain, you know, for personality and doing things in a group and with a specific.

So tell us a little bit about the logistics of how long and what exact is covered in the boot camps and what will, what will people be able to do by the time that it’s over? Yeah, so we will do. It’s a three day boot camp. And so what that means is. Let me pull this up here. So it’s August 19th, August 26th and September 2nd. So it’s not three days in a row. It’s three days a week apart from each other. It’ll be three hours each day and we will have a very specific thing that we want to do on each day.

And, and basically what we’re doing is we’re taking. So, so in our course Privacy Academy, we have the fundamentals. The fundamentals are really the things that you need to get started with. We’re taking the, the hardest points of those that people just have the hardest time with. And we just wanted to say, okay, now let’s get over the hump with these right now. And so those three things are the first day we’re going to be focusing on a little bit on passwords, but. But not much on passwords the first day, but we will do a little bit on passwords the first day.

But mainly it will be how do you lock down your email the right way? How do you get your email working the right way that you should be using email? You know, it’s not just enough to, okay, go From Gmail to ProtonMail, there’s other things that you need to do. So you don’t want to just start ProtonMail and use ProtonMail the way you’ve been using Gmail, because that is not going to be nearly as private as if you do it the right way. So we’ll take you through doing it the right way. Then the second week we’re going to talk about passwords and really get into depth on passwords and how to, how to manage your passwords.

And we’re going to do it right there, right there with you. And then the third day, which is on September 2nd, we’re going to be talking about private and secure credit cards, how to use credit cards online in a private and secure way. And that’s, that’s sometimes a challenge for people, too, to get set up with the service that we recommend, all that stuff. So we’re gonna just walk everybody through all of those processes. And then what’s cool about it is all three of those things work together and they, it changes how you work online. And so you will go through this and you’ll just, you know, you’ll really know how to work, how to do stuff online, how to shop online in a secure way at that point.

And so I, I have found this so, so useful. Like when I, when I’m buying something, I will use not my main email, as I use an email address that’s pretty much dedicated to that vendor or that newsletter, and I use a credit card that is just a credit card number that’s just for that vendor that I can terminate or change at any time, which is super useful with subscriptions, y’. All. REM. The 2020 lockdown thing. And I was like, subscribed to all of them, the Wall Street Journal and, and, and, and, you know, USA Today and all of them, because I was wanting to keep up with all the news.

And I’m going to tell you, it was a nightmare. Those people make it impossible to unsubscribe, and they kept draining. Now I have a credit card and I’m, you know, if I can’t figure out how to unsubscribe from you, I just cut off the money and I have it individual. And then the other thing is, is everything’s getting hacked all the time. And you just never know when that store that you bought those shoes from is going to get hacked. And then your information is out there. But if you’ve really just limited it to a particular email and a particular credit card number and structured things in that way, it’s great.

I really, really like that I have a very distributed, you know, almost invisible on the net because there’s not much there. And I’ve learned all that from you, and that’s pretty much what people will get by doing the boot camp. Is that correct? Yeah. So, so let me go through what, what you’re talking about there. Let me, let’s just kind of explain what you’re talking about there. So what you will get out of this is when you go shopping online, say I go to. And I always use the example Netflix, because Netflix is the easiest one for people to think about, right? So when I go to Netflix and I buy and I subscribe to their service, right? So what do they ask me for? My, my name.

So I encourage you to use a fake name. And I used to. I’ll just go on the side here. I used to get ridiculous with this. I used to use like Darth Vader and stuff like that. But I’ve kind of chilled that back a little bit. You got to use like, realistic names. Oh, you’re inspiring me. I’m going to go for it now because if you, if you know, like Netflix, they would not know any different because it’s. Everything’s automated. But if you buy something from somebody that actually goes through a person, they’re going to flag that and say they’re just messing with us and they’re going to cancel that order and everything.

So I’ve had a few orders canceled because I was being ridiculous. But so, so anyway, let’s go back to Netflix. And I hope I didn’t go too much on a tangent there. So you go to Netflix, they ask you for your name, fake name. And it’s not just like, okay, I have a standard fake name. Every, every website that you buy from use a different fake name. Roger Smith, you know, just, just come up with something, right? Then they ask you for your email address. What you want to do is you want to use an email alias.

And an email alias is a service that will generate a unique email address just for whatever site you’re on in the moment. And you can create an unlimited number of email addresses. And people say, how do I keep track of them? You don’t have to, you don’t have to worry about what email addresses you create because they forward to your real email address. So it will still come to you like it’s just your email, but it’s. You’re not giving your email out. And this is important because your email address is an identifier of who you are.

And so these hackers that, that breach these databases, you hear about these breaches all the time. And what they. Why are they breaching these databases? So let’s say Target gets their database breached, right? They’re not after the target’s information, they’re after your information. And so what they’re doing is they’re looking at the customer database. And so what they’re Looking for is, okay, I want Glenn Meaders information, or I want everybody’s information, but I’m going to break it down by person. And so. So I’m going to take. So the hacker has the database from Target. Then they have the database that they stole from Apple, and they’re going to look for my data and my data from there and my data from here, and they’re going to combine it into a profile on me.

And then they have all of these hundreds, thousands of databases that they breach, and they pull this stuff together and they create a really good profile on you, and that shows a really good picture of you. It shows you how good you are with privacy and security and all of that stuff. But here’s the thing. When they breach Nate Netflix, they don’t have any information on me because my name is fake. My email alias is unique just for Netflix. This credit card that we’re going to show you how to use, you generate a unique credit card for every site that you purchase from.

And it’s just a virtual card. It create. It takes like 30 seconds to create a new card for a website. And that. That is just like the email address. It’s. It can’t be used to identify me. And I can use that virtual card number without my real name. I can use a fake name. I can use a fake zip code, all of that stuff. So there. So they don’t have any information about me, and they can’t connect the dots about me. And so I’ll just give you one more thing here. And that is when I use this credit card, this virtual credit card that locks to the first website that I ever use it on.

So if I. So I create a virtual card for Netflix, I say, okay, I only want this card to be able to charge $20 a month for whatever I want it to do. So let’s say. Let’s say it’s $20 a month. So that’s the most that can be charged, that card. But not only that, if I charge it to Netflix, that’s the only site it can ever be used on. So when you think about it, Netflix’s database gets breached. I don’t care at all. They don’t have anything about me. They don’t know who I am. Netflix doesn’t know who I am.

But they. If they steal my credit card, I don’t care. They can’t use it anywhere. So. So anyway, that’s kind of a. And. And then I do the same thing with every different website. And it sounds complicated, but it’s not. The only complicated part is setting it up, setting up those services, which is what we’re going to take you through in the boot camp. Using it is a piece of cake. It will be easier to do what to shop online the way that we’re telling you than the way you’re doing it now. And it will be much more secure, much more private.

And so, yeah, so that’s really kind of an over. A quick overview of really what you’re going to get out of this. Yeah, I, that you brilliantly described. So the logistics again is this like three Saturday mornings, like three hours Saturday morning for three weeks. And you’ll get those three components. It’s a Wednesday. A Wednesday. Okay, Wednesday morning. But here’s the thing is if you, if you can’t make it live, you can just watch the replay. We’ll put the replay up. And so you can, there’s, there’s actually two packages you can buy. So there’s the, the, the, the basic package where you join us live, but you also get the replay for 30 days.

And then there’s the, the upgraded package, which is just a little bit more, if you want to have lifetime access to it, to the recording. But you know, even the basic one, you’re going to have access to the recordings for 30 days. And the goal is do it, do it while we’re, while we’re doing it with you. And so, and there’ll be Q and A and, and, and you know, I’m like, okay, I’m typing, I’m on this website and I just did this and can you help me with that? And that kind of help and feedback during the, during the boot camp? Yeah, and so, so people will be able to.

We’ll take questions. So, so we’ll start with the first, the first Wednesday and then until the next Wednesday, ask all the questions you can and we’ll, we’ll answer those questions and then we’ll go to the next Wednesday because we really want you to have step one done before you go to step two. That’s, that’s really key to this. And then step two before you do step three, and then, then you’re, then you’re ready to go. Yeah. And, and I’ll. Can I also tell people a bonus that they’re going to get with this? So when you sign up, you’re going to get two months free access to Privacy Academy too.

And so you’ll have access to all of our courses, the live trainings, the community, all of that stuff for two months. So that That’ll, that’ll help help kick people, help, you know, get people kick started over the, over the hump. You know, those three things are just, they’re just such a, a core part. And you’re right, I, I use them, that’s it all the time like that. And it’s just such a core part of how I interact online, especially in commerce. Yeah, we know. AIs are getting so sophisticated. They build this whole profile on you and then they know how to, you know, target your, your likes and your dislikes and they know everything about you if you, if you’re using those things.

So this, I think it’s a really fantastic program. So this is for people who really need some hand holding, some structure and some guidance. If you’re somebody who’s a little bit technical savvy and you’re already doing some of this stuff, you know, you might want to pick it up just to review the material or something like that. But this is really targeted for people who just wanna just want some help getting this all going. It’s so important and it’s so good. I, I feel so great about my privacy and I, I like, I love that, that, that analogy you use is you, you don’t have to be the fastest person, you just have to be faster than.

Yeah. And, and so your security doesn’t have to be the ultimate perfect bulletproof, it just needs to be better than the average. And this is really, really, it’s a really solid shield to put in place. Yeah. So, so, you know, when you think about the hackers and how they breach all of these different databases and then they pull everyone’s data together and they create this profile on you. And this is basic. This is also what big tech does. This is also what big Brother, you know, government does, but hackers and scammers do this too. And the whole thing is that the whole is worth more than the parts.

So the more they get, the more they get about you, the more pieces they can put together, the more puzzle pieces they can get. And what we’re doing with this, how we describe how to do this shopping online, is, is really drastically minimizing the amount of information they can get about you. Because, because like I said, if they breach Netflix, I don’t care, because they don’t have, there’s no way for them to connect that data with me. And not only that, but Netflix can’t connect that data with me. So Netflix, I haven’t looked at their privacy policy, but I, I would not be surprised at all if they.

Oh, yeah, they’re gonna sell that data. They’re gonna sell your data. They’re going to sell what you watch, your browsing history or your watch history, all of that stuff. They’re going to sell it. And I think that’s unethical, too. So what I’m doing with this service is I’m giving them. I’m fulfilling my obligation. I’m paying them for the services they’re giving me, but I’m not giving them my information. I don’t want to give them my information. It’s none of their business. They’re. They’re providing me with a service. I’m. I’m using that service, and that’s all they get from me.

It’s so true. There’s so many of these businesses that’s a whole revenue stream that they just don’t talk about. Is. Is the selling the data? Well, Glenn, huge revenue. That. A huge amount of revenue. Kroger, by before example, I think they’re close. I think they’re close to a billion dollars a year by selling people’s data. The grocery store chain Kroger. Kroger, if you go look at Kroger and look at their privacy policy, it is the most unbelievable thing you have ever seen as far as what they’re collecting and what they’re doing. It’s unbelievable. Walgreens. Walgreens makes a ton of money by selling everything that you purchase.

So every time you go into Walgreens, you put your phone number in there to get, like, 2 cents off. There’s. There’s turning around and selling that, and they’re making. I would not be surprised if Walgreens is making over a billion dollars a year selling our data. Wow. Yeah. Well, there’s another way to fight back is to just not, you know, cut off the revenue from them by. By increasing your privacy. Well, so let’s go over the logistics. When. When does this start? When do people need to sign up? Yeah, so. So we’re doing a early bird special, and you have your.

You’ll, I think, put the link down below or wherever you’re going to put the link, and people will start that and then the. Or you’ll sign up for it before the actual thing starts. So. So the. The dates that I said were August 19th, 26th and the 2nd. Those are the three days of the bootcamp itself. And yeah, so we’re hoping that if you sign up, you know, try to be there. Try to be there live. If you can’t, that’s fine. You can you can just watch the replay and, you know, it’s, it’s, it is hard when you have to choose a date.

Not everyone’s going to meet. Be able. Okay, Wednesdays don’t work for me. But, but. Right. You’re never going to find a date that’s going to work for everybody. But there will be a replay that you can watch and just, just follow along with that. Well, I think it’s great how you’ve distilled it down to these three, because I use those every day, all the time, and that is just a potent combination to really become more invisible online. So absolutely. If you, if you’re the kind of person who needs a little hand holding or a little, a little push, kick in the pants in, in less than a month, you can just radically increase your privacy online, your digital privacy.

So I love Glenn’s work. As I said, I use it every day. All the stuff that I’ve learned from him, and I really recommend you do this. I think the boot camp’s a good idea. There are a lot of people who just aren’t quite doing it, and this is a way to really help you get over that hump and, and get going. So. It’s so important. It’s so important. We’re in this insane, insane war. And I’m not talking about Iran and China and us. I’m talking about humanity against, you know, the global managers and cutting off, cutting off information and data and cutting out.

This is a, is, is a component of that. So, anyway, thanks so much, Glenn, y’. All. I’ll have the link down below. If you’re watching this on YouTube or Brit shoot or Brighteon or any of the dozen channels, this is out. The L link is, if it didn’t transfer over, it will be on my substack channel. That’s for Marjorie Wildcraft, and I’ll have the link there. But yeah, please, please do this. I, I, for me, it’s been a game changer and I really appreciate your work, Glenn. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you, Marjorie. And if you, you know, if you’re, you’ve always wanted to do something, you’ve always wanted to get private, you know, this is the time, let’s do it.

Let’s not just put this off anymore. Let’s do it and really get some of the core. This is really some of the hardest things that you need to do to get across. And they’re not hard, but it’s just, this is, these are the hardest things that you’re going to have to deal with. So this is the time to do it. And. Yeah. So please join us. All right. Thank you.
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