There Are No Girls on the Internet - Sorry, Politico. Kamala Harris is right about Bluetooth

Episode Date: December 7, 2021

A Politico piece called Vice President Kamala Harris' preference for wired headphones over Bluetooth “paranoia.” But why let a little things like facts get in the way of an unfair media attack? Well Actually, Kamala Is Right. Bluetooth Is a Risk: https://www.thedailybeast.com/well-actually-vice-president-kamala-harris-is-right-bluetooth-is-a-risk Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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There are times when the mind becomes a difficult place to live. This is David Eagleman with the Inner Cosmos podcast. and for Mental Health Awareness Month, we'll talk with singer-songwriter Jewel about anxiety. I started living in my car, and then my car got stolen. I was having panic attacks. I was agoraphobic. This is a month of deeply personal and honest conversations

about what happens when the brain goes off course. Listen to Intercosmos on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There are no girls on the internet as a production of IHeart Radio and Unbossed Creative. I'm Bridget Todd, And this is there are no girls on the internet. I talk a lot about disinformation and media manipulation on this show.

Sometimes it's social media bots being driven by foreign bad actors. But what do you do when the media manipulation isn't coming from overseas bad actors, but instead from a mainstream widely read media outlet. I've been monitoring the increasing attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris since she became vice president. Now, I already knew that she was going to face racist, sexist attacks because she's a black woman in a visible position, and that's just kind of what happens. And it might be kind of hard to see

if you're not primed to see massag noir, the combination of racism and sexism that we face as black women. But just look at some of the recent media narratives out there about Vice President Harris. They're all really racially coded and gendered. Recent stories paint you out to be a pushing, domineering black woman, or uppity,

which is basically just a racist framing for black women who don't know their place or are acting above their station. A recent story about Harris' senior aide stepping down was framed as disarray in Harris' office. Or take this recent Fox News headline. Kamala Harris reportedly spends over $500 on cookware in a Parisian shop amid U.S. economic uncertainty. How is Harris spending her own money on fancy pans even a news story? And we're not just seeing this from hyper-partisan outlets like Fox News. Last night, Politico published one of the most ridiculous pieces I have ever seen.

and that is really saying something. The piece, called Kamala Harris is a Bluetooth-phobic, is about how Vice President Harris uses wired headphones instead of the wireless Bluetooth kind. And the article's framing like basically calls her a crazy person because of it. Former aides say the vice president has long been careful about security and technology, with some describing it as prudent and others suggesting it's a bit paranoid. The piece also goes on to say that when people visited Harris' office

back when she was California's Attorney General, she would instruct AIDS not to let them wait in her office alone, as if that's not a totally normal thing for people to do. The piece goes on to say that her office did not respond when Politico asked if there was a fun origin story to Harris's Bluetooth weariness, or for any background on the particular security risks, Harris believes Bluetooth technology represents.

But you know what the journalist who wrote this story could have done to get background on the security risks of Bluetooth headphones? Literally just fucking Google it. Because Bluetooth headphones are actually an extremely well-documented security risk. And this is not some obscure thing that only techies know. It's a pretty commonly known thing, literally, first page of Google. Bluetooth's known security risk are also part of the government's official security protocols. For instance, did you know that White House computers have Bluetooth disabled as a default setting for precisely this reason?

Last year, the government's national security agency, defensive cyber security branch, recommended users disabled Bluetooth altogether to avoid having their conversations compromised. And according to The Daily Beast, who just published a fantastic breakdown of the different security risks involving Bluetooth, members of the current slate of State Department nominees, ranging from would-be assistant secretaries

to potential ambassadors have also been warned by the NSA about Bluetooth's potential failability from a security perspective. In briefings done by security engineering officers with the U.S. Foreign Service, nominees are told that an open Bluetooth connection can be a, quote, cracked window, allowing bad actors access to their devices and data. It can also allow attackers to physically track you and create logs of your physical movements, habits, and behavior in ways that can help predict your future movements.

The NSA warned nominees that Bluetooth can be used to track your locations using equipment called sniffers, even if your phone cellular service is turned off. And here's a scary case. Cybersecurity researchers found that Bluetooth allowed bad actors to steal targets contacts, call logs, and messages, and let them send fake messages from their target's phones. Now, to be clear, most regular people really do not need to worry about this kind of thing. I know I personally don't use Bluetooth headphones, not for security reasons, but mostly because I find Bluetooth technology to be kind of shanky and slow to connect.

And honestly, I just don't want to have to worry about losing one of my $200 AirPods on a train. And I also think that the wire can be a really good signal to the world that I am obviously wearing headphones, those little earbuds can get lost behind my hair and then people try to talk to you while you're wearing headphones and it's just very awkward. But even though normal people don't really have to worry about this, it's still something that we should all know. And if you're the vice president of the United States, obviously you need to have this level of awareness about digital security. The Daily Beast talked to a former NSA threat intelligence analyst who said it's a fine protocol for almost everyone, even with the vulnerabilities that Bluetooth

present, because these kinds of attacks require reasonably close access to exploit. it, along with an actor who has both the capability and the intent to do so. This means only a few thousand people out of the billions on Earth need to worry about this problem, and the vice president of the United States is one of them. So did Politico mention any of these widely known and easily verifiable facts about Bluetooth technology in their piece about how crazy and paranoid Harris is for not having conversations over Bluetooth? Uh, no, of course they didn't. And this is what really makes me so angry.

What a missed opportunity to educate and inform the public on the security realities of technology many of us use every day. What is even the point of a piece like this if it's not meant to inform the public? And framing Harris as a paranoid crazy person for following pretty clear digital security guidance isn't just lazy, which it is.

I think it's also actively harmful because it obscures the facts. It actively contributes to the public being less informed about the role of technology. But why would a journalist do something like inform the public when they can settle for cheap attacks on a black woman in politics to frame her as a domineering crazy person.

And here's the thing. There are plenty of real reasons to be critical of Vice President Harris. I'm not saying that everybody should or has to agree with her policies or even like her. But that doesn't mean it's okay for her to be attacked with unfair, shallow smear jobs either. As a black woman, sometimes it feels like we cannot win. Harris has criticized for buying expensive cookware and then criticized for using the cheapo-wired headphones that come with your iPhone, instead of spending hundreds of dollars for the wireless ones. And even when we do the correct thing,

we're still criticized for it. It is exhausting, and what's worse, it doesn't leave room for actual conversations about substance. And I think that's kind of the point. If Harris and Black women are associated with controversies, yes, even made-up BS controversies, it'll create a media ecosystem

where black women and women of color can't fairly compete and are being judged by absurd, unfair standards instead of being judged by our policies, words, records, and actions. And media outlets like Politico need to decide what kind of ecosystem they want to contribute to. Got a story about an interesting thing in tech or just want to say hi? You can reach us at hello at tangoati.com.

You can also find transcripts for today's episode at tangoody. There are no girls on the internet was created by me, Bridget Todd. It's a production of IHeart Radio and Unbossed Creative. Jonathan Strickland is our executive producer. Tari Harrison is our producer and sound engineer. Michael Amato is our contributing producer. I'm your host, Bridget Todd. If you want to help us grow, write and review us on Apple Podcasts.

For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, check out the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an acapella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was funny.

You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come until he's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

There are times when the mind becomes a difficult place to live. This is David Eagleman with the Inner Cosmos podcast. And for Mental Health Awareness Month, we'll talk with singer-songwriter Jewel about anxiety. I started living in my car and then my car got stolen. I was having panic attacks. I was agoraphobic. This is a month of deeply personal and honest conversations about what happens when the brain goes off course.

Listen to Intercosmos on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Most people out here think that taking care of one another is important. And most people would step up for a neighbor going through a tough time. Most people around here help out friends and family when they need it. But the funny thing is, most of us won't look for help when we need it. Talk to someone if you're struggling with mental health because most people out here really care. Find more information at loveyourmindtay.org. That's loveyourmindtoday.org.

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