We are already gathered is an event series that brings together communities with shared surveillance risks. Let's talk about who is collecting our information and strategize through teach-ins and zine-making. Together, we investigate the systems that investigate us. Each event takes place in a public space that is related to the data ecosystem and is documented with a long exposure photograph that anonymizes participants. Exact location will be provided to those who RSVP.Hosts:
beck haberstroh is an artist, writer, digital safety educator, and resident with Mozilla Foundation's Creative Futures x Rhizome: Counterstructural Commons
Imani Thompson is a tech ethicist and founder/host of Cache Me Outside, a Brooklyn-based security culture and digital literacy event series
& more...
We are already gathered, we walked past a Flock camera
Fort Greene
Mon April 27, 6pm
with Daly Barnett from Electronic Frontier Foundation
Are they license-plate readers or are they AI-powered people-tracking cameras? There are more than 16,000 video cameras, including Flock's, used by the NYPD to amass faces, vehicles, and more- and they're linked to a national cloud-connected database. We'll dig into what kinds of data these cameras collect, what it's used for, and what we can do about it.RSVPs are now closed for this event.
We are already gathered, we posted about Palestine
East Village
Sat May 2, 2pm
Meta is censoring activists, DHS is scanning travelers' posts and prosecutors are charging mutual aid organizers with money laundering. While social media can be a valuable tool for sharing information and building coalitions, it is also a surveillant apparatus. We'll get into data collection on pro-Palestine social media activity, what this means and what we can do about it.RSVPs are now closed for this event.
We are already gathered, we changed our names
Chinatown
Tues May 12, 6pm
with Mistress Muse
We change our names because of our gender, ethnicity, relationship status, or other identities. As anti-trans and anti-immigrant policies sweep the country, digital surveillance tools are more powerful than ever. We'll explore who knows that you changed your name, what implications this has and what we can do about it.RSVPs are now closed for this event.
Get in touch: [email protected]
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Resources and Links
[in progress]We are already gathered, we walked past a Flock camera
Collaborate with our research on are.na.
Find out which Flock and other ALPR cameras you regularly walk past
Find out which other NYPD cameras you regularly walk past: Ban the Scan & STOP Spying
Did you know that you can request access to surveillance camera footage? To request access to footage from the city, submit a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request via the NYC OpenRecords portal. To request from a private surveillance camera, ask the operator (they don't have to comply).
The website Eyes on Flock aggregates info from Flock 'transparency' portals and gives a picture of some of how data is being used.
Street Level Surveillance project from Electronic Frontier Foundation