John,
I know everyone is saying this, but I honestly can’t believe it’s fall. I live in Colorado and the mornings are getting cold, the kids are back in school, and Halloween decorations are out. I hope you and your loved ones are doing well during this time of change.
Everyone at Fight for the Future has been very busy over the last month and we haven’t sent many fundraisers recently. Maybe you haven’t really missed these emails (I get it—I get a bunch too), but we like to think that our fundraising emails also give you good updates on what we’re working on.
So, we wanted to share some recent updates with you, and if you’re excited about this work, ask you to support these fights with a monthly donation to make sure we can log some victories in 2021.
Here’s a rundown of some of our recent efforts:
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Fighting to stop Apple’s spyPhone: Apple announced plans to instal photo and message scanning software on your devices, and we said hell no.1 We worked with a coalition of digital and human rights groups to collect signatures from more than 60,000 people who oppose this plan, and delivered them alongside technology expert Bruce Schneier. Then we organized protests outside Apple stores in cities across the country. Apple has postponed its plan, but we’re going to keep pushing the company to permanently cancel it to protect your right to secure communications.
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Defending decentralized technology: When Congress snuck a provision into the big infrastructure bill that would crush the cryptocurrency ecosystem, expand surveillance, and endanger human rights, we fought back.2 Working with the crypto community, legislators, and people like you (who used our tool to make more than 40,000 calls into legislative offices) we were able to stall the passage of the bill and almost won an amendment that would have cut this bad provision from the bill. At the last minute, politics got in the way and our amendment didn’t pass. But we’re continuing to work with these groups to find ways to protect crypto and other decentralized technologies that have the potential to put people before the exploitative and manipulative business practices of Big Tech.
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Stopping the spread of facial recognition in stores: We’ve been calling out retail companies that are using dangerous facial recognition on shoppers and workers in their stores.3 Our campaign page helped thousands of people contact top retailers in the U.S. and many of these companies have said they have no plans to use facial recognition. But stores like Macy’s have dug in, refusing to put your rights and safety first. We rented a mobile billboard and ran it outside a D.C. Macy’s store to call out the company (during back-to-school shopping when its surveillance tech was targeting millions of kids). We’ll keep pressuring these companies to make sure you aren’t under constant surveillance when you shop.
That’s just a taste of what we’re working on. We’ve also continued to call out Apple’s App Store monopoly that censors political and LBGTQ+ apps around the world; our campus campaign against e-proctoring is back in swing; and we successfully pushed OnlyFans not to de-platform and censor sex workers.4,5,6
All of these efforts continue, and they’re truly only possible with the support of people like you. You can help build the tools that allow thousands of people to contact decision makers, slam bad corporate plans in the press, and raise up the perspectives of critical groups.
If you’ve made it this far, hopefully that means you are with us and agree these are critical fights we need to be a part of. If that’s the case, consider starting a monthly gift to Fight for the Future (in any amount you can), and you’ll help make more work in these and other areas possible.
Together,
Caitlin and the team at Fight
Footnotes:
1. Nospyphone: http://nospyphone.com/
2. Don’t Kill Crypto: https://dontkillcrypto.com/
3. Ban Facial Recognition in Stores: https://www.banfacialrecognition.com/stores/
4. Vice: https://www.vice.com/en/article/4avng9/apple-is-letting-over-150-countries-censor-lgbtq-content-in-the-app-store
5. Fight for the Future: https://www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2021-06-16-ban-eproctoring-fight-for-the-future-launches
6. BBC News: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-58331722
Fight for the Future works to protect your rights in the digital age.
