Episode · The Shawn Ryan Show · 2026-09-17
Books mentioned on #340 Byron Tau - The Government Doesn't Just Spy on You. It Buys You.
Byron Tau is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at ProPublica and the author of "Means of Control." He spent five years tracing how the surveillance apparatus built after 9/11 came home and found Border Patrol monitoring millions of American drivers through hidden cameras and a secret algorithm.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Means of Control
Discussed“You're the author of Means of Control, which focused on servicing the intersection of corporate data gathering and government surveillance.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (4) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Own book Means of Control
“Yeah, I mean, it's something I'm I'm interested in cuz it it grows out of my book.”
Own book Means of Control
“Cuz like you mentioned, I I did talk to Glacier in writing this book and and a few other people who made hardened phones.”
Own book Means of Control
“And I even detail in my book my attempts a few years ago to try to go buy a car without without a data connection.”
Own book Means of Control
“...and I think I found Glacier and I found the people at it as someone who was trying to solve this problem both for the private sector as well as having government clients and and at the time I was I was kind of thinking about the fact that privacy was be becoming something of a luxury good...”