EFF Launches IFightSurveillance.org and Counter-Surveillance Success Stories

October 20, 2014

Sites Highlight How Opponents of Mass Surveillance Around the World Lead by Example

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today launched IFightSurveillance.org, a new site showcasing digital privacy advocates from around the world who are leading the fight against mass surveillance. The site includes figures from the organization's growing list of Counter-Surveillance Success Stories, a set of guides showing how individuals and organizations have taken on state and corporate spying in their own countries—and won.

Translated into 16 languages, IFightSurveillance.org highlights images and quotes from activists, business leaders, lawyers, and technologists. Examples include:

* Vladan Sobjer, whose organization, SHARE Defense, helps Serbians learn about encryption.
* Ron Deibert, whose group, the Citizen Lab, analyzes malware and digital threats to vulnerable groups from Bahrain to Iran.
* Anne Roth, whose own unjust surveillance by German law enforcement led her to work for better protections for her fellow citizens.

"Too often, the debate over surveillance is seen as a 'domestic' issue, only of concern to citizens of the country doing the spying," EFF International Director Danny O'Brien said. "The truth is that mass surveillance isn't confined to national borders, and neither is the response to it. Technologists, activists, and Internet users are all working to fight back against mass surveillance. Wherever you are, whoever you are, there are people close to you working to stop the spying, and you can join them."

The site provides five concrete steps activists can take, including using encryption software to protect themselves, supporting a decentralized Internet, and signing onto the 13 "Necessary and Proportionate Principles," a global framework to protect human rights in an age of mass surveillance. Visitors are encouraged to use the site's social media tools to share their stories of standing up for privacy and to learn about the more than 400 privacy rights organization that have endorsed the 13 principles.

IFightSurveillance.org's companion site, Counter-Surveillance Success Stories (http://www.eff.org/csss), delves into greater detail about the work of the global coalition, spotlighting battles for privacy in Zimbabwe as well as countries across North America and Europe.

Links:

I Fight Surveillance: https://ifightsurveillance.org

Counter-Surveillance Success Stories: https://www.eff.org/csss


For more information contact:
Danny O'Brien
International Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Phone: 415 436 9333
Email: danny@eff.org
Website: https://www.eff.org/press