Former White House CIO Theresa Payton hunts down reality show contestants on TV. She hopes viewers at home are entertained — and outraged.
Theresa Payton hopes her role on CBS reality show «Hunted» will help spark a conversation about online privacy.
If law enforcement officers really wanted to, they could use all kinds of digital tools to track you down.
That’s the takeaway from the CBS reality show «Hunted,» which is airing the finale to its first season Wednesday evening. (Disclosure: CNET is owned by CBS.) It’s a lesson that Theresa Payton, a former White House chief information officer under President George W. Bush and a participant in the show, hopes will spark soul searching and debate among viewers.
«If we don’t have a discussion in the US about why law enforcement can track you, [and] what the laws are, then democracy dies a little,» she said.
On the show, Payton and a group of «hunters» with military and law enforcement backgrounds try to catch contestants who’ve gone off the grid.
In her real life, Payton is president and CEO of cybersecurity and investigations firm Fortalice Solutions, which advises government agencies, private-sector companies and even individuals on preventing cybersecurity breaches and identifying online threats. She’s also had a brush with issues of government transparency in the White House when she worked to restore missing emails from the Bush administration to comply with archiving requirements.
