He Built a Privacy Tool. Now He’s Going to Prison.

About this episode

The episode features an interview with Keonne Rodriguez, who discusses the implications of privacy tools and his impending prison sentence for creating one.

WARNING: This video contains flashing lights and visual effects that may trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised. You might think privacy is optional. Something you can worry about later. But right now there is a major war against privacy being waged. If governments can arrest the people who build privacy tools, then when the day finally comes where you might need them, those tools will not exist anymore. I had the pleasure and heartache of interviewing Keonne Rodriguez, co-founder of Samourai Wallet, an open-source, non-custodial privacy wallet, who goes to prison this week because of the privacy tool he created. The whole case against him was based on the idea that privacy itself is criminal. This is his story. 00:00 A Chilling Conversation 00:35 The War on Privacy 01:35 The Privacy Developer 14:45 The Privacy Wallet 20:08 The Arrest 24:12 The Charges 38:24 The Judge 40:43 The Deal 47:12 The Final Knife Twist 51:28 The War on Privacy Developers 56:04 How We Win the War If you care about a future where privacy is still possible, you need to start paying attention now, because Keonne isn't the only privacy developer being targeted…

People in this episode

Host: Naomi Brockwell

Guest: Keonne Rodriguez

Topics covered

• privacy
• government surveillance
• interview
• technology
• legal issues
• open-source

Keywords

• privacy tools
• Samourai Wallet
• government arrest
• open-source
• privacy developers
• legal challenges

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Samourai Wallet, Odysee

More episodes of Naomi Brockwell on Odysee

• I met activists on the front lines · June 6, 2026 · 10 min
• Is the Government Running a Dragnet on VPN Users? · May 22, 2026 · 11 min
• Use a USB Condom · May 8, 2026 · 10 min
• This Legislation Will Ban Warrantless Spying · April 24, 2026 · 20 min
• Your Data Is For Sale, and the Feds Are Buying · April 10, 2026 · 21 min
• Warrants Are Optional Now? · March 29, 2026 · 23 min