Rob Leathern speaks to privacy attorney and host of The Monopoly Report Podcast, Alan Chapell, about residential proxies, privacy and podcasting. Hear how free smart TV apps might be sharing your home IP address with strangers, and see just how broken online consent forms really are.

Alan explains why current data broker laws miss these proxy networks entirely and how coming age verification rules could rewrite the open web.

In This Episode:

• Free smart TV apps quietly bundle code that rents your home internet connection to strangers, creating vulnerabilities that look suspiciously like security exploits.
• Online consent breaks down with bandwidth sharing, when endless disclaimers mean nothing as consumers may have no easy way to turn the access off.
• State data broker laws miss the mark by hunting legacy data vendors while ignoring massive proxy networks, credit card companies, and telecom giants.
• AI companies pushing to scrape the entire web without limits could accidentally hand ad verification firms the ultimate legal shield against platform lawsuits.
• Strict age check laws could spark an arms race with clever teenagers that could end with governments requiring real ID just to browse the web.

Chapter Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

5:32 Residential Proxies: The "Ethically Sourced IP" Question and the LG TV Case

9:48 Legitimate Uses vs. Harmful Behaviors of Residential Proxy Networks

12:50 Data Broker Laws, Enforcement Gaps, and KYC

14:40 Consent Problems: Revocation, Age Verification, and the LG TV Example

16:56 Adware Parallels: History, Opt-Outs, and Financial Incentives

23:31 Age Verification: A Looming Internet-Wide Challenge

25:39 Scraping, Antitrust, and AI Companies

29:40 Podcast Strategy, Guest Selection, and Speaking Recklessly

41:53 Regulators, Historical Knowledge Gaps, and Industry Dynamics

Resources & Links:

Rob Leathern (https://www.linkedin.com/in/leathern/)

Alan Chapell (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-chapell-90711b/)

The Monopoly Report (https://monopoly-report.com/)

The Chapell Regulatory Insider (https://chapellreport.substack.com/)

Jeff Allen is the Co-founder and Chief Research Officer of the Integrity Institute, started in 2021. A physicist and astronomer by training, moved into data science in 2013, and has since worked all three sides of the platform-publisher relationship: for publishers chasing platform traffic, for the platforms themselves, and for political organizations navigating both.

At Facebook he worked on systemic problems in the Facebook and Instagram public content ecosystems.

Along with Spencer Gurley, Jeff Allen and the Institute recently published the July 2026 report which Ofcom commissioned — Fraudulent Advertising and Account Integrity: Expert Insights on Best Practice, which fed directly into Ofcom's draft Fraudulent Advertising Codes (published 10 July, consultation closes 2 October).

In This Episode:

• Short-term ad revenue pits platform profits against user safety, making external regulation necessary to preserve long-term industry trust.
• Regulators need technical guidance from experts independent of Big Tech funding to build safety policies that can survive court challenges.
• Bad actors are using generative AI to quickly spin up realistic, multi-step scam sites that slip right past standard automated filters.
• Effective oversight requires a two-step system: platform self-reporting backed by independent audits from verified researchers.
• Scammers actively reverse engineer enforcement limits, making off-site damage and delayed user reporting persistent challenges.

Chapter Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Jeff Allen and the Integrity Institute

1:46 The Integrity Institute's Mission and Approach

3:29 The Scale of Online Scams and Fraudulent Advertising

4:54 Regulatory Landscape and Ofcom's Role

6:15 Development of the Ofcom Report

10:33 Congressional Understanding and Regulatory Progress

12:04 Media Coverage Challenges in Advertising

15:02 Incentive Alignment and Regulatory Approach

18:52 Data Access Challenges and Solutions

21:40 Internal vs External Research Challenges

24:07 The Sales Challenge in Data Science

28:50 Specific Transparency Metrics and Market Impact

32:46 Guidelines Disclosure and Adversarial Dynamics

35:15 The "Three Slide Rule" and Off-Platform Harm

40:17 Evolution of Fraudulent Content Creation

43:23 Researcher Access and Data Requests

45:25 Educational Needs and Trust and Safety Curriculum

Resources & Links:

Integrity Institute (https://www.integrityinstitute.org/)

Integrity Institute Report (https://www.integrityinstitute.org/research/response-to-ofcoms-request-for-research-on-fraudulent-advertising-and-account-integrity)

Rob's Notes (https://robleathern.substack.com/p/robs-notes-47-on-ofcoms-fraudulent)

Jeff Allen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-allen-scientist/)

Ofcom (https://www.ofcom.org.uk/)

Rob Leathern (https://www.linkedin.com/in/leathern/)

Ben Edelman has spent two decades catching online fraud that hides in plain sight — combining software engineering, law, and economics to prove misconduct empirically rather than take companies at their word. In this conversation we get into the Phia shopping-plugin scandal, how it relates to Honey and Paypal that he covered after Megalag broke the issue on YouTube, the mechanics of affiliate fraud, and his recent investigation into AppLovin's apparent app install deals with mobile carriers.

In This Episode:

• How Ben got into fraud investigation, and what keeps him motivated
• Phia's "cookie stuffing": how a browser extension can claim affiliate credit for sales it didn't drive
• Whether Phia's "December bug" oopsy explanation holds up, and Phia's earlier 2025 privacy “mistake”
• The Honey/Paypal parallels, typosquatting and the broader toolkit of affiliate-fraud techniques
• MegaLag vs. the mainstream media: how independent investigators break stories now
• AppLovin's nonconsensual install investigation he wants state AGs to look at
• What meaningful accountability looks like, and his advice to founders building in this space

Links & Resources:

• Ben Edelman's AppLovin investigation: https://www.benedelman.org/applovin-nonconsensual-installs/
• Ben Edelman's site (full archive of his research): https://www.benedelman.org
• Ben's list of "Investors supporting spyware": https://www.benedelman.org/spyware/investors/
• Edge Shopping Stand-Down Violations: https://www.benedelman.org/edge-shopping-standdown/
• Phia forced clicks and stand-down violations: https://www.benedelman.org/phia-forced-clicks/
• Honey stand-down violations and concealment: https://www.benedelman.org/honey-detecting-testers/
• Adware investors page:https://www.benedelman.org/spyware/investors/
• "Spontaneous Deregulation: How to Compete with Platforms that Ignore the Rules" (HBR article about intentional rule-breaking as a business strategy): https://www.benedelman.org/publications/hbr-spontaneous-deregulation-apr2016.pdf
• Rob Leathern (https://www.linkedin.com/in/leathern/)

Chapter Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction and Background on Online Fraud Investigation

1:36 The Origins: Gator Adware and Early Ad Fraud (2001)

3:10 The Dark Chapter of VC-Funded Adware

4:54 Transition to Independent Investigation Work

6:07 FIA Investigation: Two Types of Violations

7:31 Understanding Forced Clicks Through Analogies

9:50 Debunking FIA's "Recent Bug" Defense

12:50 FIA's Previous Screenshot Controversy

14:18 The Current "Dumb Tech Cycle" and Screenshot Overuse

16:20 Recurring Patterns: From Gator to Modern Shopping Plugins

21:11 Startup vs. Public Company Misconduct Patterns

24:40 PayPal's Due Diligence and Ongoing Modifications

27:24 Media Resources and Technical Expertise

30:17 Typo squatting and Google's Role

31:36 The Ad Tech Attention Gap

33:34 AppLovin Investigation: Install Helpers and Carrier Partnerships

34:21 Wall Street Journal's Surprising Rejection

40:28 Carrier Billing and Historical Context

44:42 Advice for Founders: The Temptation and Risk of Cheating