A Rally Against Mass Surveillance in Washington, DC
rally.stopwatching.us
rally.stopwatching.us
FWIW, it seems pretty unlikely that you could make it to the rally without leaving a trail. If you drive, you'll probably get scanned by a license plate reader. If you bring your phone, you'll be tracked, if you use a credit card, that'll be recorded, and in DC you'll probably walk in front of a security camera that is or will be connected to a facial recognition system.
I completely understand your hesitation, and I can't say that I haven't thought twice before saying certain things since the Snowden revelations. A lot of people have declined to sign up for the Restore the Fourth NYC email list because they don't want to "end up on a list."
The way I see it, we have two choices; we can accept a world in which we are afraid to take political actions (like RSVP'ing to a rally or putting an email address down on a clipboard), or we can scream from the rooftops that we're not going to allow that world to come about. If enough of us take the second route, we'll win; if too many take the first route, it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
/endrant
I admit that I skipped the phone number part... just in case.
Super tinfoil hat mode me wouldn't put it past the NSA to put up a site JUST LIKE THIS and start categorizing the opposition.
With government surveillance you have no choice, not even by moving overseas.
Googling, all I can find are references to a database of consumer complaints that people have proactively made to the agency about Credit Card companies being abusive.
That work seems like good digital government at it's best to me -- helping aggregate and track down fraudulent and abusive companies before they hurt more people through voluntarily submitted complaints from consumers.
That db is here: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaintdatabase/
They even have a REST API and visualizations.
and Daily Caller piece: http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/26/consumer-financial-protect...
To be fair the CFPB claims the data is anonymized, even though there are account level rows in the datasets they are pulling in from the credit card companies they regulate.
What's the best way we can contribute if we can't be there in person for the rally?
In terms of contributing/participating, there are a couple main ways:
1. Next week we're going to launch an Indiegogo campaign to raise money for buses to help people get to the rally, as well as things like permits and sound equipment.
2. We'll need help promoting the event, coordinating transportation for people, and calling people who've RSVP'd to make sure they've found a way to get to DC and a place to stay. If you RSVP on the website, you'll get more information on when/how to help with these efforts.
3. We're going to be organizing an online component to the rally for those who can't make it. Watching parties with high-quality livestreaming is a given (assuming we raise enough money), but we're very interested in exploring what the future of online-offline political action looks like. Any ideas? What would you like to see/do?
...wait a minute!
Something like -- for each local area having a meetup, a public interaction with that region's congressional delegation before and during the meeting. for ex.) @$congressman We are meeting at X date at Y p.m. to discuss Z, we would appreciate your joining us.
Then during the meeting, documentation of the meetings members, photo/video perhaps, and drafting of a letter to be sent to non-attending congressional delegates, making clear that this is a collective opinion that has come from this public deliberation.
And I'm sure there are many other avenues to explore that are not of the Schoolhouse Rock, "I'm just a bill on Capitol Hill" route.
Would you be interested in helping to support or organize an event like a livestream viewing party in your area?