WE ARE ALWAYS LISTENING

People claimed they didn’t care about the NSA’s domestic spying. Then we spied on them as (unofficial) NSA subcontractors. All of a sudden, they cared.

Selected Press
WIRED / Fast Company / New York Times / Gothamist / Mashable / Vice (Germany) / Spiegel (Germany) / Good Magazine / International Business Times

 

The Strategy & How It Started

When topics are complicated (like many things the ACLU tries to get the public to care about) it’s easy to feel disconnected from them.

The key is making it personal for people.

I went to cafes and restaurants around NYC, taping old micro cassette recorders, stamped with “Property of NSA” under tables.

 
 

The Launch

We sent this note, along with a recorder and video to a journalist at Wired. The next day, it was their front page.

The Story

Word of the project exploded across Twitter, and drove a steady stream of visitors to WeAreAlwaysListening.com (offline now)

The Site

Visitors to the site were greeted with this announcement, which included a link to the recordings section.

The Recordings

Each audio post was titled “We’re listening as...” Like this one where “we’re listening as you discuss your most intimate moments.”

The Action

For those bothered by this type of surveillance, we offered an "angry" link. This took them to an ACLU page where they could urge their government reps to end this type of data collection during an upcoming vote on the Patriot Act

Epilogue: it worked! The law was changed.

Read More About It


WIRED / Fast Company / New York Times / Gothamist / Mashable / Vice (Germany) / Spiegel (Germany) / Good Magazine / International Business Times