Stocking-Stuffer Surveillance? 🎁

*|MC:SUBJECT|*

Dear Friend,

Let’s face it: surveillance sells. Over the past 12 years, the NYPD has spent billions on secret surveillance contracts. But law enforcement isn’t the only consumer of surveillance products. From Apple Air Tags to Facebook Ray-Bans, holiday shoppers are also purchasing, often unwittingly, gifts that violate our rights. With the holidays upon us, don’t be fooled by these invasive gadgets, even if they come wrapped in a bow.

Multiply Your S.T.O.P. Gift 5x!

Amazon Ring: The infamous home surveillance device adorning front porches in your neighborhood imagines threats where they don’t exist, automates racially biased neighbor-on-neighbor spying, and acts as an informant for law enforcement. What’s more – these devices can target and harm essential workers in your neighborhood, including the very same drivers delivering it to your doorstep.

DNA Testing Kits: Ancestry and 23AndMe may not be new gifts in 2022, but they’ve never been more popular, with over 100 million people worldwide swabbing their cheeks in exchange for their family history. When you hand over your DNA, you make your most personal biometric identifier available to police – or the highest bidder. Genetic surveillance technology can create crude graphics of your likeness, and even wrongfully identify you as a suspect for a crime committed by a distant, unknown relative.

Amazon Astro: Bezos must realize that in-home surveillance is incredibly unsettling, if this is Amazon’s (misguided) attempt to make it endearing. Able to map out the inside of your home, monitor your activities, record conversations, and distinguish speakers and visitors, this AI-powered robot canine is data-brokers’ and law enforcement’s best friend.

This holiday season, your loved ones deserve gifts that’ll surprise them, not surveil them. Instead, gift a contribution to the fight against invasive, discriminatory tech. Support our anti-surveillance work and receive a gift of your own when you become a monthly donor, or purchase one of S.T.O.P.’s stylish wearables. And to learn more about the dangers of in-home surveillance, join S.T.O.P. for our inaugural Tech & Society Salon tomorrow at 6PM!

Multiply Your Impact 5x Today!

With thanks,
Sam Van Doran
Development Director

Forward

Newslettercommunications staffDecember 6, 2022