How We're Empowering Privacy Activists

0:00At Privacy Guides, we have always encouraged people to spread awareness, to help educate others and normalize privacy. Still, in most cases, privacy has largely been a matter of individual action. We might ask our families not to pose pictures of us online, for example, but most of the work is done by switching ourselves to private services, encrypted apps, and managing our own data. Until now, around the world, privacy is under attack like never before, with nearly every Western country introducing laws like mandatory age verification or encryption backdoors. These proposals would weaken security, invade privacy and outlaw personal safety measures. If these laws pass, many of the companies and projects that we rely on to help us safeguard our data would be forced to either weaken their protections or stop operating entirely. And if that happens, the vast majority of mainstream users will probably simply abandon privacy preserving tools altogether rather than migrating to the ones who remain. Either out of fear of breaking law or because the tools that don't shut down will require technical expertise they don't have. This would mean that many privacy tools will become less effective or completely useless because of the network effect.

1:00And even single user tools might become harder to use, less effective, or downright illegal. At Privacy Guides, we believe privacy is a human right. And that means everyone is entitled to privacy regardless of their level of tech expertise. In that spirit, it's important that we fight to keep privacy legal and accessible around the world. It's with this in mind that we're calling on all privacy advocates to join the fight for privacy rights. And we are so proud to introduce a new initiative to help support that fight. This is a new section of the website that will help privacy advocates, both individuals and organizations who want to push back against the increasing number of threats against privacy. Our first resource, the privacy activist toolbox, is already live. This isn't just a checklist. This is information on how to organize effectively with other privacy activists. Stuff like how to find out what laws are being proposed in your area, how to pick which tools to use to organize, and how to find other groups to work with and build bridges with them. We will be adding many more resources in the coming months. Privacy guides has only four full-time staff members and a handful of volunteers. There's only so much we can do, but we have over 100,000

2:01visitors to our site and forum every month. Together, we can go further and accomplish more. Privacy guides is not changing. Our core mission remains to educate our audience on what privacy tools exist and which ones we believe are best for protecting your data. We are committed to remaining nonpartisan and inclusive, but nonpartisan doesn't mean a political. Whether you consider yourself political or not, these laws are coming for you and they will affect you and it will take all of us and more to stop them. If you'd like to support our mission to support privacy advocacy, we've added a new design to our merch store on shirts, patches, and stickers so that you can spread the word at the same time. We also still accept donations and offer memberships that give perks back in return. To all of the privacy advocates out there right now fighting for a better future and the advocates to come, we thank you and hope these tools will help you. Together, we can win this.