Privacy & Freedom Lessons from Andrew Tate
You may listen to the podcast version of this essay here.
Andrew Tate is a multimillionaire adventurer (approaching a billion according to himself) who has set up a life of maximal freedom. He blew up on social media in August of 2022 in large part because of a concerted and very impressive effort by his network to replicate and spread his videos across all of social media. And because he is very articulate, controversial, and has lived a life of intrigue. He claims to at one point have been the most searched person on the Internet; I don’t doubt it.
Andrew Tate stands for a lot of things and thus is hated by many. For example he stands for traditional masculinity, and thus believes in traditional femininity. Which of course today makes him a “misogynist.” He also talks about avoiding taxes, the decline of the West, the weakness of the Christian church today. He’s very anti-political correctness. He goes off on very eloquent rants about how depression isn’t real, about the scam of central banking and fiat currencies, about the decline of masculinity and its correlation to the death of society. Suffice it to say, he’s had a target on his back from Day 1. It’s not surprising then that just a couple of weeks ago, in December of 2022, after mocking climate activist Greta Thunberg and also after calling out the seemingly pedophilic advertising of the Spanish fashion company Balenciaga, Tate was arrested at his home in Bucharest, Romania. His mansion was raided, the raid video was published, and those who have translated the Romanian arrest statement have found that, in addition to clearly ridiculous accusations of sex trafficking, there was a suggestion of pressure from the UK and the American governments to make it happen. That’s one way to shut someone up.
Tate is someone I’ve followed very closely. I first heard from him a couple years ago on a podcast from my colleague Joshua Sheats of Radical Personal Finance. On that show Tate talked about driving around the world with multiple licenses in case he had one taken away while speeding, about acquiring multiple passports, about setting up an online empire, and about using wealth to stay ahead of the world’s oppressors. He had some clever tips and irreverent ideas. I was hooked. I’ve since then watched most of the videos that he, his brother, and cousin have put together, and I thought I would extract a few lessons from them in honor of a bold man who is now sitting in jail and who has clearly figured out quite a few things pertaining to freedom and privacy.
1) You will get the attention you deserve
The first lesson to learn from Andrew Tate is to be careful in emulating him. As if you could.
Obviously I’m not going to blame Andrew Tate for the immense attention he has brought to himself that did lead to his takedown. He wanted this attention, he planned for it, and he enjoys it. But it has reached the point where it is threatening to destroy him. He’s talked in the last few months about his fear of assassination, of the danger of meeting new people now, and of traveling with armed guards and in bulletproof vehicles. He now makes many of his videos on his channel TateSpeech on Rumble from a gated suburb of Dubai, which is one of the safest cities on earth and fairly exempt from Western interference. Only here can he seem to find some kind of peace. And I suspect once he gets out of jail in Romania he will move back to Dubai very quickly as he plans out his next move.
All of this is a good reminder that there are two versions of any famous person: one where they disappear into the sunset with their money; another where they become ostentatious and are targeted by taxing agencies, by governments, by police, by fans and haters, by would-be SWATers and doxxers, and by a class of people with power who do not like you and what you represent.
What’s the advice here? If you do gain any conspicuous amount of wealth or fame you should seriously consider disappearing into the ether. Even having luxury goods can make things difficult for you. Andrew Tate says that after buying a 5 million dollar Bugatti car he was encouraged to take kidnapping classes. Remember that it only takes earning around $400,000 to be in the world’s richest 1%. I in my book talk about the importance of being cautiously wealthy if you make it to that point. For example, of getting the least conspicuous car possible: both model and color. Of living modestly and putting your money into things that don’t signal wealth. Anything else is inviting at the very minimum petty theft, especially these days. People might follow you home to see where a person who can afford a Mercedes Benz lives. This is infinitely more true of Tate, who flashes dozens of super cars wherever he goes. The masses are drawn to such displays like moth to a flame. There’s even a video of Tate’s brother Tristan punching a guy who was messing around with their car while it was parked at night. You will get the attention you deserve.
In his own words Tate has hundreds of millions in wealth. Like anyone with such resources, he could have purchased a private island, or traveled endlessly on a boat or from hotel to hotel, or found some country off of people’s radar and built an elaborate underground complex, sworn the architect to secrecy, and brought in strategic waves of workers so none of them would have a sense of the whole. That’s not the path Tate took—he wants to be a widely-viewed figure in world thinking—but it is the path that you might take if you ever find yourself in a high position.
Still, Andrew Tate is not stupid and he takes the necessary precautions of a famous person. He has private security wherever he goes. A great idea if you can afford it. He’s aware of EXIF data—the geolocation data that is attached by default to photos and which can thus be backtracked to find you. I’m sure he and his team use handy websites like VerExif.com to erase this tracking data. When he’s meeting with friends or women Tate often will take their phones so that no one can post where they are at the moment to social media. And his series TateConfidential that documents his life is purposeful to post episodes weeks or even months after they have left those areas. Of course he can defend himself; he is a capable fighter, shooter, and is highly perspicacious of his surroundings. This is all around good advice to follow.
2) Pursue money first
Andrew Tate’s message is most commonly about making money. He says that “trying to say money doesn't matter is a coping mechanism. It's a coping mechanism so that poor people don't shoot themselves in the head." Fair enough. Money makes life work much smoother, it brings enjoyment, and makes freedom and privacy much easier.
With money you have options. And Andrew Tate as a freedom seeker is all about options. For one, money means you don’t have to have a job. And if you don’t have a job, you don’t have to live in a single place and become a tax slave to a particular country.
Tate is correct that your primary goal in life, even before privacy, should be looking for money opportunities that can free you up from time slavery. And Tate gives plenty of advice about this. He actually gives good advice about entrepreneurship and he has a community called Hustler’s University which is a Discord server where young men help each other gain money through e-commerce and other such opportunities. A summary of Tate’s entrepreneurial advice is to “Decide a field, become credible in that field, attract attention to yourself, and sell people something online.” It’s a winnable template for sure, and one that any of you can model. Selling things online obviously frees you from needing to be in any particular place and allows you to establish a freedom and privacy lifestyle.
When you do have money, you’ll find that you’re not playing by the same rules anymore. At the most basic level, you don’t have to be at a particular place at a particular time to clock in and hand over chunks of personal information for the privilege. The company that gives you a 9-5 job is probably going to want to know your address, your national ID number, and might demand you to start up social media accounts like LinkedIn. Your photo will be plastered on their website. You’ll be part of various government databases. By contrast, let’s say you decide to sell Andrew Tate sunglasses online via a Shopify website. From your laptop in Buenos Aires you can have them ordered from Alibaba, sent to a warehouse in Seattle, and have someone else package and ship them out to your online customers. You’ll have to have a few accounts to arrange this, but it’s not going to be nearly as invasive as being a day job employee.
At a higher level of wealth things get more interesting. Your private plane doesn’t require you to be strip searched, wear a mask, and you are less likely to be grilled by immigration upon arriving. When you’re rich you can have lawyers and third parties who do things in your name. You can hire vehicles and boats and disappear on a whim. You can pay people to cover your tracks, hire private investigators to test your defenses, and live in secure compounds separated from the masses and which are owned by shell corporations that don’t trace back to you. You hire other people to run your business and collect the profits in the name of a trust. You get special privileges all around and you can can move from place to place continuously. Such are the privacy advantages of being wealthy. As regards the owners of the world, make sure you are one of them.
3) Live on multiple grids
This is a main tenant of Tate’s creed. He claims to have 7 passports, more than a dozen driver’s licenses, thirty residency permits, banks in 40 countries. He’s traveled to 70 countries. It’s difficult to pinpoint to whom he belongs, and this is by design.
Why is this important? It’s important because it means Tate has options. He once painted a picture of what it looks like when he is pulled over for speeding (speeding being one of his greatest pastimes). He says: “I'm in Romania. I'm driving a Slovakian-plated car. I've got an American driver's license. I've got an Estonian Passport. And I'm speaking English. You think they're going to take my license?”
The multiple driver licenses is actually very clever. Here’s why. Many countries will allow you to drive in that country with a foreign driver’s license. That’s actually a thing. Imagine this: you’re driving in Spain and you get pulled over. You hand them a Thai driver’s license with scribbles that represent the unique alphabet of the Thai language. The amount of work for that Spanish police officer to write you up just got a lot more difficult. He’s more likely to let you go, and who knows: might not even have much information on you. You’re a foreigner, potentially a high-level one, and a big hassle to deal with. There’s no easy way of him scrounging up a dossier on your past activities. There’s a good chance you’re going to get a lecture and moved along.
To acquire a foreign driver’s license it’s not as invasive of a process as you would think. Tate claims to have shown up to many a DMV or equivalent in another country and supplied an AirBNB address, suggest that he is moving there, and end up with a license. And someone like Tate who might travel to a dozen countries in a single month can collect a good many of these. Very interesting to contemplate.
Tate is big on geoarbitrage—playing one country off of another. Indeed, geoarbitrage or flag theory is one of the great if counterintuitive privacy and freedom techniques we have. My friend Joshua Sheats is fond of saying that “governments don’t respect their citizens, but they do respect other governments.” In other words, if you can claim you are property of another government by supplying a passport for example, then the country you’re in is less likely to try to claim you or force something out of you. For example, if you’re in Brazil there’s a good chance the UK is not going to be able to expatriate you for tax crimes if you’re a British citizen. If you get a Turkish driver’s license, they’re not going to share that information with the US or the UK. Instead of being off the grid, Tate says, it’s better to be on multiple grids.
The question then becomes: where to go. Tate made Eastern Europe—Romania specifically—his friend for various reasons. He has said that “one of the reasons I love living in Romania is because I am at the very top echelon of society. If I want to, I can speak with the Prime Minister.” Corruption can benefit wealthy people in the Third World; in rich Western countries it’s called lobbying and it’s only available to the politically connected and soulless elite. At least in more explicitly corrupt countries you can take advantage if you have money. In some ways that is more honest, or at least more upfront. And if you start with a top-tier passport going to these countries, you’ll have a leg up on the natives and competition.
In addition to setting up a compound in Bucharest and making sure to donate well to the important institutions nearby, Tate has recently set up shop in Dubai. Dubai is a remarkable place, for sure. It fairly off the grid being in the middle of the desert. It’s taxation if quite favorable—zero income tax in many cases—and the banking and business opportunities are fantastic. It’s very safe. It doesn’t have social unrest or other problems. Tate recently converted to “Islam” and I have no doubt that this fact gives him additional protection. Imagine Dubai expatriating a “Muslim” man who has brought tons of attention to the city to some Western government. It’s hard to imagine that happening.
4) Network
Network is huge for gaining wealth, but is also useful for gaining privacy. On the one hand you have the quotation, often attributed to Benjamin Franklin, that “Two people can keep a secret: if one of them is dead.” On the other hand you the line from H. G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, where he says that in order for him to excel in life it will not be enough for him to have the power of invisibility: he will need also a “confederate” to help him with his plans. Sometimes in order to be invisible you need someone out there doing things for you.
For many of us lone wolf privacy seekers, the idea of privacy through committee is difficult to grasp. But there is a huge advantage to it. Andrew Tate is fantastic at describing how a trusted network can work. He apparently has many bank accounts in the name of someone other than him, making those accounts obviously quite difficult to connect to his person.
In late 2022 Tate got to test this network. He was canceled across the Internet and said of the speediness of the affair: “You lose your Facebook, then your Instagram, then your Gmail, then your Discord, then your website hosting, then your domain name, then your payment processor, then your bank.” These days people who are scheduled for taking down are taken down fast, and every account you have is at risk. What can be surveyed can be controlled. So having things in alternative names is excellent, and a trusted network allows you to do that.
Tate’s network is called the War Room, which he created to surround himself with like-minded men who are vetted and who are willing to fight with him, lend him money, pump up his image, etc. If you have your own network, not only will it help you to propel yourself upward in terms of wealth, but it will give you opportunities to gain privacy: ironically.
Think for example if you have a group of friends who value privacy. One of them can take a bullet for the team by allowing them to ship their items to his house. Maybe your friend runs a business and allows you to send your Bitcoin mining rigs with a freight-forward company to his building mixed in with one of his orders. Maybe you simply ask a trusted friend to have a bank account in their name which is in reality yours. The sky is the limit with such techniques.
5) Redundancies
Redundancy is tied into some of the other strategies we’ve touched on. When Tate was banned, he had already in place multiple email accounts, banks and processors and the like. From many different countries. He’s had a newsletter which is a fantastic cancel culture buffer—no one can easily take away a copy of emails sitting on your desktop in an Excel spreadsheet. He immediately moved to the YouTube alternative Rumble and developed a large audience there. Most impressively, he has a huge following and network and these people are constantly posting and re-posting videos of him from a growing number of accounts. It’s impossible to search for Andrew Tate and not find anything.
The lesson of redundancy is crucial. Imagine that tomorrow you woke up and Gmail locked your account; that your main bank account was locked. And think of the various other accounts that you have. Especially as privacy people who use “suspicious” VPN services and locked-down browsers, we’re at risk of having this stuff happen on any given day. So think about who you trust with your accounts and consider if you shouldn’t at least have a plan if they were to shut you down.
6) Have a raid plan for your property
A raid occurs when police get a warrant to search your house and do so quite thoroughly. They’re trained to grab electronics, hard drives, phones, and to search for common hiding spots. You may be required to log in to these devices, and what they find becomes their property until the legal process sorts itself out. As you can imagine, the result is a privacy nightmare.
Andrew Tate has experience with raids. In fact, a raid on his webcam compound in the UK is what prompted him to leave the West for good. His experience is one we should all learn from.
After a disgruntled worker reported him to the police for harassment, Tate was arrested and had his house in Britain raided. In part because he did not place nicely with the police, they went the extra mile with him. Here’s what he has to say:
Because they hated me they forensically analyzed all of my phones and computers and raised 12 new charges against me, from things as simple as making a video while driving, to having a yard sale and not paying tax to being part of a Whatsapp group which sent around videos from a war zone: "possession of extremist material."
In the end Tate says this cost him $450,000 in legal fees to sort out, and all of this stemmed from the false accusation of a disgruntled woman who went to the police saying he hit her.
The raid of December 2022 on his Romanian house was prompted by allegations of sex trafficking—a ridiculous accusation given how transparent Tate is about his life and how much scrutiny is on him. This particular raid was publicized and showed piles of cash he had, the layout of parts of his house including a couple of secret areas. Crazy stuff.
It’s a reminder that, as I have written in previous Watchman Privacy newsletters, it’s important to go through your private dwelling and imagine what would happen if someone came and looked around and forced access to your devices. Do you have your cash and gold ideally buried somewhere outside? Do you use expiring messages on your phone? Do you have your physical documents scanned and within a Veracrypt encrypted folder? Do you at least have passwords on your devices that stay in your house? Start taking action now to avoid regret later.
In conclusion, Tate is a pretty strategic thinker—though no one can escape fame. He certainly thinks outside of the box. I recall his talking about having a name change in a country and then getting a passport in that new name. That’s pretty clever stuff. He’s a reminder to all of us that even when we have to play by the rules, we can use the rules to our advantage.
Oh and fame: fame is a sarcophagus.
Yours in peace and privacy,
Gabriel Custodiet