Longing for Tech That Didn’t Spy on You

Benn Jordan first caught attention as the musician Flashbulb, then built a following reviewing synthesizers and effects pedals on YouTube under Benn and Gear. About five years ago, however, he decided to steer his channel in a new direction. He didn’t quit music gear overnight, but over time his content shifted toward science and technology investigations. He eventually turned the entire operation into a nonprofit.

In short, Jordan has gone from being one of the best music gear YouTubers to one of the best cybersecurity YouTubers. He took time away from confirming all our worst fears about government and corporate surveillance to answer our weekly questionnaire.

What is the first app you install on a new phone or computer? (Do not count pre-installed software like Gmail)

On a new Windows PC, Ninite. That’s basically like you giving me one wish and me wishing for more wishes. Ninite is a free tool that quickly installs a customizable list of things you’d spend the next few hours installing manually.

What is one thing you wish you could change about your phone?

That it was easily unlockable and rootable.

What is your happy place online?

Strudel.cc. It’s a completely free, powerful, and wonderfully documented musical programming language that runs entirely in-browser. It’s an excellent way to procrastinate and even accidentally learn to code.

What is your favorite gadget you’ve ever owned?

The original Pebble Watch. It didn’t harvest my data or track anything. It told me the time and date, told me when I had a new message, and lasted a week on a single charge. Those happen to be the only three things I desire from a watch.

Which was the most disappointing?

The Amazon Echo Show (3rd gen). I only bought one for pentesting, but it’s an incredibly laggy and awkward-looking device that basically exists to spy on you, show you ads, and ask you to pay for features it was advertised to already have.

What creation are you most proud of?

At least on YouTube (which probably got me invited to answer random questions for The Verge): In 2022, a scammer pretending to be Rolling Stone’s Andy Greene reached out to me on Instagram, saying he wanted to write about my music. Knowing the real Andy Greene, I decided to follow the scam as deep as I could and then tell Andy the story.

I thought it would be a video where I’d scam a scammer, but it ended up being about West African oppression, Sakawa culture, and at one point I was literally drinking my own blood on a WhatsApp call with a Ghanaian witch doctor while sitting at Chili’s with my partner’s family.

The video didn’t get many views, but the whole thing kind of defined what my channel is now.

What is your current obsession?

Spectrometry and interferometry. Particularly relating to using extremely subtle changes in invisible light waves to pick up and demodulate sounds.

When was the last time you went somewhere without your phone?

I actually try to do this every day.

What do you think is worth splurging on?

A tripod. It’s hard to imagine what could justify the huge price difference between a midrange tripod on Amazon and something like a Sachtler. It turns out it’s extremely justifiable, and over a decade probably more affordable than all the midrange ones you’ll keep replacing or incrementally upgrading.

What would the tagline for your biopic be?

“If Jon Hamm were for sale on Temu.”

What’s the last GIF or meme you used?

Not sure if this is a meme, but I always use the triangle diagram with an option for each corner, but you can only have two simultaneously.