Topic: Stalking

A viral TikTok trend highlights the common practice among younger generations of sharing their real-time GPS locations with friends. The hosts view this as a disturbing invasion of privacy and a "stalker's delight," noting that what began as a European social product has become a standard feature on modern smartphones.

Podcaster Zohreh Sadeghi and her husband were killed in their Redmond, Washington home by Ramin Hodakaram Rezaei, a 38-year-old truck driver from Texas who then took his own life. Rezaei reportedly became obsessed with Sadeghi after listening to her Farsi-language podcast regarding tech industry jobs and befriending her on a chat app. Despite Sadeghi filing for a protection order a week prior due to a pattern of harassment involving hundreds of messages and unwanted gifts, the legal system failed to prevent the fatal encounter.

Elon Musk briefly suspended Twitter accounts dedicated to tracking his private jet, citing safety concerns and an alleged stalking incident involving his son. Despite previous claims that he would allow the accounts to remain in the spirit of free speech, Musk threatened legal action against the operators. The accounts were reportedly reinstated shortly after the initial ban.

A producer's note about LinkedIn being a "piece of shit" leads to a revelation about a "honey trap" experiment. One host created a profile for a beautiful fake woman on LinkedIn to see how many professional men would attempt to "hit on" her. The experiment revealed that many men use the professional networking site for inappropriate stalking, including people known to the hosts.

A Canadian financial institution employee describes internal plans to use bank app data and social media to "stalk" customers when they enter physical branches. Concerns are raised about these apps retaining access to bank accounts even after they are deleted, potentially exposing data to the IRS.

Facebook is investigating a security engineer who allegedly used privileged access to stalk women on Tinder. Because Tinder utilizes the Facebook API, employees with high-level access can potentially match user data across platforms. This incident is compared to reports of NSA employees using surveillance tools to spy on romantic interests.

The definition of stalking in a presidential proclamation is criticized for potentially infringing on free speech by including unwanted text messages and emails. This leads to a discussion on social media behavior, specifically the practice of "hammering" or blocking users on Twitter. One host admits to blocking people frequently for snide remarks, often forgetting the original reason for the block.

January is designated as National Stalking Awareness Month to highlight crimes affecting one in six American women. In Austin, Texas, activists have initiated a hunger strike outside City Hall to protest the continued fluoridation of the municipal water supply. The strike reached its third day as participants demand the city stop adding fluoride to drinking water.

Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak open the program from Amsterdam and Northern Silicon Valley. Dvorak highlights that January is National Stalking Awareness Month by presidential proclamation, which includes cyber stalking.

President Barack Obama signed a proclamation designating January 2011 as National Stalking Awareness Month, citing the prevalence of the crime since the 1994 Violence Against Women Act. The hosts review the formal language of the declaration, which calls on Americans to recognize signs of stalking and support survivors. The segment concludes with a critique of social media platforms like Facebook, suggesting their data collection practices mirror the behavior described in the anti-stalking initiative.