At 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 post
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 the 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, and 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 visitors 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 apolitical.
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.