Podcast Summary: Watchman Privacy (Episode 212): The Hated One – Privacy or Profit
Date: January 19, 2026
Host: Gabriel Custodiet
Guest: The Hated One (privacy educator, YouTuber)

Overview

This episode features a deep-dive conversation between privacy advocate Gabriel Custodiet and the anonymous YouTube creator known as The Hated One. Together, they explore the tensions between privacy and profit in the tech world, ethical dilemmas faced by privacy influencers, critical assessments of popular privacy tools and companies, challenges of digital anonymity, and broader questions about the political and societal structures necessary to protect privacy in a heavily surveilled age.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Hated One’s Origins and Mission

• Meaning of "The Hated One"
  • Name has layered meanings: an edge against power structures; a unique handle among crowded social media; interpreted by some as "hated by elites or corporations" ([02:07]).
• Motivation and Inspirations
  • Driven to create accessible, explanatory content about complex, society-shaping issues.
  • Deep influence from Julian Assange and especially Edward Snowden: "I was really moved by the bravery and courage that these people had to stand up to power and really face everything that I had." ([03:16-03:49]).
  • The goal is to empower people with pragmatic, actionable privacy strategies and help them feel "not alone" ([03:55]).
• On Operating Anonymously
  • Considers himself pseudonymous, not fully anonymous: "There are entities that know me." ([06:07]).
  • Anonymity is a protective layer rather than a core principle; open to future public identity if organizational scale or impact requires ([06:28]).
• Integrity over Profit
  • Struggles with the ethics of monetizing privacy education—rejects sponsorships and most affiliations, even at significant personal financial cost ([07:10]).
  • "I don't want to compromise my mission where people could say, 'well, you're saying this but you're being paid, so you have incentives to say this.'" ([07:41]).

On Privacy Ecosystems and the Proton Critique

• Proton’s Expansion: Risks of an All-in-One Model
  • While Proton (email, VPN, password manager, etc.) offers high-quality individual products, combining too many privacy services under one company increases vulnerability ([11:25]).
  • Key Insight: Compartmentalization across providers strengthens privacy (e.g., using a different VPN service from your email provider safeguards you against joint data disclosures on law enforcement request) ([12:13]).
  • "Proton is giving people an illusion that this is not a problem ... The more data a company has, the more users it has, the more eyes it's going to get from the regulators." ([13:25]).
  • Risks to availability: "If you lose your password manager, if you lose your second factor authentication ... you lose your entire digital presence." ([15:10])
• AI and Privacy
  • Skeptical of AI in privacy products—vulnerable to malicious prompts, inherent and unmitigable attack surfaces ([17:32]).
  • Favors minimization strategies: only use what you need, diversify across companies and Jurisdictions.
• Alternative Models
  • Highlights TUTA for purposely not building an all-in-one ecosystem for privacy ethics ([16:46]).
  • Recommends using only one or two services from a single provider to limit data exposure ([19:13]).

On Affiliate Programs and Ethics

• Refusing Financial Incentives
  • Outlines pressure from privacy and tech companies to accept affiliate deals—often refuses to avoid compromise ([20:21]).
  • Recounts polite but firm rejection of Qwant, resistance to Proton’s repeated offers for affiliate links ([21:03–24:00]):
    • "There is no possible way that I could reasonably make this video and still claim that my recommendations are unbiased." ([21:30])
  • Openly polled his audience on whether he should accept Proton’s affiliate offer; most valued his independence and preferred he declined ([24:38]).
  • Disclosed his only past affiliate deal (NordVPN), severed the relationship and removed all traces after their data breach scandal ([23:41]).
• On the Integrity of the Privacy Creator Space
  • Argues affiliate programs nudge creators to favor linked products in ways that bias content, often subtly ([25:14]).
  • Names popular YouTubers who, in his opinion, disproportionately promote Proton due to affiliate income (allthethingssecured, Techlore) ([25:52]).
  • "You're proving my point, guys, right? There is clearly bias." ([26:36])
  • Strongly believes that privacy educators must not take sponsors or affiliates to maintain credibility ([27:42]).

Evaluating Privacy Tools and Companies

• Underrated Projects
  • Cwtch and Briar: Small-scale, research-driven communication platforms designed to be metadata-resilient. ([29:46])
    • "They are trying to build a consent-based, metadata resilient platform … No IP addresses, no fingerprints, none of that data." ([31:01])
    • Advocates for metadata protection as the next stage of privacy beyond encryption; the world "kills people based on metadata." ([30:21])
    • Praises mesh-networking concepts – e.g., communication over Bluetooth or WiFi without Internet, enhancing resistance to shutdowns ([34:25]).
• On Signal and Matrix
  • Signal still exposes significant metadata despite encryption; delivery receipts and protocol design limit anonymity ([33:28]).
  • Matrix as a promising, decentralized protocol, but Signal under Moxie Marlinspike opposed moving in that direction ([34:21]).
• Overrated Tools
  • Most consumer VPNs: "They're all garbage … Except for Mullvad, IVPN is also fine, but does not have AI analysis resistance built in" ([37:14]).
  • Also challenges myths about Linux: not inherently private, depends heavily on user practices and distro ([38:13]).

Technology, Power, and Ideals

• The Limits of Privacy Tech
  • No technology, however strong, can fully escape the sway of politics and laws—services can be shut down or operators arrested (e.g., Samurai Wallet, Tornado Cash) ([39:14]).
• Political-Economic Questions: Building a Privacy-Respecting World
  • Explores anarchist political philosophy: in an ideal world, "power, the dominion over people would have to be dismantled permanently" ([41:40]).
  • Argues for a radically decentralized collective defense of freedom—no state monopoly on violence ([41:51–47:01]).
  • The rule: "No man should have dominion over another man."
  • Realistically, recognizes that individuals and collectives would have to band together to stamp out tyranny as it arises ([48:43]).

Privacy Cryptocurrencies

• Skepticism Toward Bitcoin
  • Respect for the whitepaper and initial ambitions, but feels Bitcoin has failed to deliver privacy; every transaction is public ([50:20]).
  • Layer-2 solutions compromise core values of decentralization and privacy; reliance on external services makes privacy brittle ([52:58]) .
  • Financial privacy with Bitcoin is "often worse than you get from a bank." ([50:58])
  • Disdain for rampant price speculation culture: "I care about an anonymous payment method ... not digital gold." ([54:55])
• Favorable View of Monero
  • Monero is meaningfully private by default at the protocol level—still not widely adopted, but respects its core privacy stance ([55:43]).
  • Zcash gets minor approval but is dismissed because privacy is not the default ([56:16]).
  • "Bitcoin is a shitcoin at this point ... the only cryptocurrency project that I care about is Monero or any other project that cares about privacy and does everything that they can to introduce privacy into the protocol itself." ([56:16])

Advanced Tracking and Surveillance: The Luigi Mangione Case

• Manhunt Lessons
  • "It's not really that sophisticated as people would think. Mostly it's reliant on a lot of luck." ([57:21])
  • Despite AI advances, camera footage is often too poor for effective automated facial recognition.
  • Much of police work still hinges on human tips and classic investigative work, not mass surveillance efficacy ([58:30]).
  • Critiqued the suspect’s lack of basic OPSEC rather than the system’s tracking precision ([59:54]).
  • Example: "Edward Snowden was able to escape. The NSA didn't know who Edward Snowden was until he ... gave up his name to the press." ([61:30])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The problem with the for-profit incentive is that somebody is going to inherit that company…they are building the ecosystem of various products, many of which are actually conflicting with a proper privacy strategy.”
  — The Hated One ([12:52])

• “No technology, however beautiful, can make up for a lack of trust.”
  — The Hated One, paraphrased from discussions throughout episode.

• “Whenever you dismantle that monopoly [of state violence], people say, ‘That’s going to be anarchy, there’s going to be chaos, there’s going to be violence in the streets.’ That’s not necessarily going to be the case.”
  — The Hated One ([43:41])

• “Bitcoin is a shitcoin at this point. The only cryptocurrency project that I care about is Monero.”
  — The Hated One ([56:16])

• "You’re proving my point, guys, right? … There is clearly bias."
  — The Hated One, criticizing popular creators accepting affiliate deals ([26:36])

• "Even though YouTube revenue is dog shit ... no sponsors means it's going to be very difficult to get sustainability."
  — The Hated One ([09:24])

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:53 – Origin and meaning of "The Hated One"
• 03:16 – Mission, inspirations from Snowden/Assange
• 06:07 – Operational anonymity and challenges
• 11:25 – Critique of Proton and privacy ecosystems
• 17:32 – Risks of AI and monocultures in privacy tools
• 20:21 – Ethics of sponsorships/affiliates in privacy education
• 29:46 – Praise for Cwtch, Briar, need for metadata-resistant tech
• 37:14 – Most overrated privacy services (consumer VPNs, Linux myths)
• 41:21 – Political vision: anarchic system, dismantling authority
• 50:20 – Privacy cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin’s shortcomings, favoring Monero
• 57:21 – Manhunt, tracking tactics, misconceptions about surveillance

Final Thoughts

• The Hated One: Wishes for more such conversations, values honest disagreement, underscores the importance of user support for privacy education and independent content ([62:42]).
• Gabriel Custodiet: Echoes appreciation, highlights the need for ethical, unsponsored privacy education, and recommends supporting The Hated One’s work ([61:58-62:57]).

Recommended Actions:

• Consider supporting independent, sponsor-free privacy educators like The Hated One and Watchman Privacy.
• Diversify privacy tools and avoid all-in-one ecosystems.
• Understand that real privacy requires more than technology—it’s a social and political endeavor.

Listen to the full episode for more insights via [Watchman Privacy] and support both creators via Patreon and their respective websites.