 Now I'm very happy to have you all here for the next talk on Yeah, a really important topic and we all called last year for more creative campaigns on all our issues that we talk about here at Congress and so the pink collective thought about a really creative campaign that also got a lot of attention in the last year and Because they call for all the intelligence officers to really exit their careers and to find some other Yeah, more valuable Service to our society. I'm very honored to introduce Gloria Spindle to you who Is a former Google Nest employee You might remember that Great campaign and will now present the intel exit to you. Thank you. Your applause And hello to all the live streaming people out there as well bloop bloop. We can see you. I Hear there a lot maybe more than what's in this room. Oh the lights are dimming. Okay, so I Don't know if anyone else is as interested in the in the parts of the Snowden documents as I am Which are the kind of little cultural titbits that you find that give you a sense of what it's like to be within the Secret Service. I'm really kind of fascinated by this particular gentleman the sigint philosopher who was a columnist for the NSA on their internal newsletter and he's really quite creative and he writes a lot of Kind of pieces about ethical quandaries of working in the Secret Services And most of them end with just like you should just keep your head down And you should just keep doing what you're supposed to be doing because that's the best way to go ahead and protect your country So this this quote is really the the kind of crux of what Intel X the Intel exit initiative is founded on We recognize that people who are working in the Secret Services And I'm sure some of you in the audience tonight are working in the Secret Services pretty certain there's some disgruntled Maybe unhappy, maybe ethically confused people working in spy agencies Maybe you're just a contractor and you feel like oh, I'm not so involved, but I Still feel like I have blood on my hands and those are the people that Intel exit is talking to That was like half a clap. I mean come on people So those are the people that Intel exit is really talking to and We wanted to reach out to those people because there hasn't been a campaign yet That is actually recognized that they are humans working thousands and thousands of people going every day to their surveillance jobs operating drones and Even the people who are just answering emails or you know pushing paper running the photocopy machine If they even have those who knows what they have in there Those people there are people who obviously have ethical issues about working in in these in these systems and Feel responsible for mass surveillance drone warfare and the slow maybe fast degradation of democracy as we know it so Introducing Intel exit tell exit does it's an it's an initiative a civil initiative Grounded in the idea that we need to find a way to support people who want to leave their jobs at the Secret Services And we need to normalize the idea of quitting It's a it's a it's a very just and and sometimes honorable thing to do just to follow your ethics and Give up your job if you don't feel like you're contributing to society in a good way So So that's my Intel exit pitch Some of you might know I'm from Peng as it was introduced earlier and we Are known for our hoaxes and our media hacks and our culture jamming So Intel exit has been a really really interesting campaign for us and I'll explain it as I go Because of course you see it's a bit of performance and it's a bit of humor, but it's also very serious at the same time So just to introduce Peng to you for those who don't know Here we were this was at Republica impersonating Google managers and And presenting some really creepy data collecting products a personal drone for daily life An app that monitors your well-being your emotional well-being and matches you with other people who also need a hug and Creepy thing about that is most of those dystopian visions have now actually come to light and are existing in the real world today Actually people do use drones to follow their children to school. That's a real thing So and here we are impersonating the the leading party of Germany and here we are on live television cracking an egg over the head of a presenter of a very dodgy television program and This was our program to Self provide self-help for trolls sexist trolls on Twitter all of you and that was our self-help coach We had a bot army which was analog which what we had in language analysis happening on Twitter And then we had an army of 160 bots which were going out and enrolling trolls on Twitter into our self-help program and sending them nice inspirational videos every day to help cure them So as you can see we have a we Utilize a range of tactics and techniques in what we call campaigning some people call it art some people call it Theater some people call it a joke some call it entertainment But we see it as campaigning on what we're constantly trying to do is to shift the narrative We look at shift the narrative around various social justice issues We look at issues which we think that really need a kind of different spin happening in the media And then we take them and we find a way to reframe them and then we push them out and hope that we get a lot of attention so we started looking at the issue of surveillance and the secret services and Well quickly one runs into the obstacle of how do you talk about this? like we have these we have these cliches of you know the eye and you know Edward Snowden's face and We have these visuals that kind of don't really mean anything anymore And and everyone really struggles to actually understand what the issue means and and how do we talk about the secret services when? They're completely inaccessible to us so this is a photo for example of The regulations for taking photographs at Fort Mead You see you're not really allowed to take photographs of the buildings so if you start with that as a kind of metaphor for the inaccessibility of The secret services to our general culture We can't even we don't even have visuals for them We've got like one photo of the NSA that floats around the internet and just gets repurposed and repurposed We we can't access these people. We can't access their structures. We can't access the information. Yes, we have leaks now But like how do we actually how do we open it up more and that's that was the question we kept asking ourselves These are the yeah, you've got this issue of intangibility and then you've also got the issue that everything is so secret I mean even if like a Christmas card is sent internally and in the NSA it's classified as top secret Then you've got technology which is so complicated and the general public can't understand it and it's like all these Acronyms and these like weird flow charts and bad design and it's just really complicated and then of course there's fear and And fear is really crippling. I mean for activists ourselves for civil society Well, it's like really difficult. We don't want it. We don't want to broach this issue We don't want to step into it because it's scary because once you step into it That means that you're a target, of course And also funnily enough then fear is also the the way the narrative is often shaped This is what we use to try and raise awareness about surveillance. We make people afraid. We you know We talk about this invincible dark danger of surveillance Creeping in on us. No one knows if they're being watched or not and And this is this we think is is a narrative that really needs to be shifted So we wanted to find a way to talk to bring hope to bring a positive image To this to this narrative and and also to bring bring it down to humans like not to talk about technology Not to talk about these dark and complex systems But to talk about the people and talk to the people who are upholding these structures So this is what we came up with Right now Thousands of people work in the shadows of the intelligence community They don't ask questions. They follow orders keep their heads down. Do their work But what happens when you see something you can't forget? System you are part of is chipping away at democracy every hour every day You feel stuck Some people have already made the decision to leave Others are thinking about it every day Intellects it helps people break free from the intelligence community and build a new life You expose yourself within the system. You're ultimately could end up being forced out of the system. I Remember confronting in my immediate supervisor the number three person about what are we doing? We're in violation of the Constitution Many Secret Service employees are Disillusioned why are we taking equipment? That is traditionally for foreign facing outward facing and we're now Instrumenting our networks within the United States of America if you are surveilling the population. You're all on the same side Right, you want all the data and you want to talk to people have the most data so the NSA is a Nexus of surveillance for the world. It's whatever you could get away with that was part of the game And it was ever whatever would serve in the interest of national security When one is forced to act against one's moral values, you can experience extreme levels of what we call cognitive dissonance I was radioactive because I'm questioning What are we doing? Where do you then go? Where does your life then? Where do you recreate your life? What intellects it does is help individuals transition from the world on the inside to the world on the outside The more you can move from the inside to the outside the better you'll integrate into the real world What is really great about intellects it is that it helps people to confront their fears So take it for me if you're looking to get out try intellects it Be smart exit intelligence now Bruce Schneier there. I just say Bruce Schneier is like amazing pitch at the end like who knew he had those talents like Someone take him to acting school like it's amazing Okay, so then we made the video, but of course we knew we know that the people that we're talking to The spies are some of the most introverted people in the world and probably some of them the people most stuck in a filter bubble in The world so we knew we had to had to kind of take our outreach further and we had to go to where they are so, you know, we thought big and we pretended we just forgot about the fact that we didn't really have a budget and We just hired a van because that's what you do so we just hired this van and we drove around Fort Mead and the NSA buildings tried as much as we could to get as close as possible to them as we could So this is this is outside Lockheed Martin on National Business Parkway, which is the the main area of all the NSA contractors tractors And they're really best friends with the NSA and now they've started making drones as well They've been supplying technology to the military and the CIA and NSA are forever so that's us parked outside there giving them a like strong moral punch with the with the slogan and then we went to One of the most popular cafes where NSA officers and contractors like to go for lunch this cafe Joe And we parked out there during lunchtime as well Because you can't talk about the secret services in one country without talking about the other ones because they're all in bed with each other We of course had to go to the UK as well. So here we are outside the doughnut and This is a straw. Well, okay to be honest That's trying to hand out flyer brochures to the people like that was our plan You know, we're gonna hand them out to the employees on their way to work And they were just like they had like been briefed. Oh, I don't know. They were just like Ignoring us and also maybe didn't brief that guy very well on what to dress as an Intel exit ambassador And then we hit all the This is outside the dagger complex in Germany one of the lesser-known spots for the NSA would kind of central hub for the signals intelligence Gathering in Europe. It's been written about in the spiegel very secret very difficult to get there as well and Yeah, there we are again on from the other side and that is the antenna from the dagger complex and Then we also went to these Barden, which is the traditional home of the US military in Germany and the clay kazena building this is where Supposedly forthcoming is going to be one of the NSA's biggest buildings and operations in Europe also all very secret No one knows what's going on And then we went to the US Embassy In Berlin and this for non-german speakers. It just says enough with paranoia That's why we had the like data a stick pineapple on there We're helping you to get out of the secret services and Then we went to the German secret services as well. This is their new office block the bundes nachrichtendienst We also went to the old offices just in case And we went to we did a lot in a week we went to the Verfassung Schutz, which is the domestic intelligence in Germany and this is located in Cologne and To remind them about so the Verfassung Schutz actually stands for Translated in English is protectors of the Constitution and in order to remind them about the Constitution We stuck the Constitution on there on their wall there and then They are ripping it up. This was like a dream that we had for a very long time and finally we realized it Yeah To sources Intel exit website was blocked on the On the internal network after that drop Um, yeah, so that was that was our week and that was Intel exit And yeah, I I just want to share a few learnings with you because it was a very interesting campaign for us And one of a kind really So I think the first thing on a very kind of just basic level is that it is possible to talk about this issue Without creating fear and without making everyone You know really worried about Their information and their data and they're just general feeling of well-being there is a way to kind of shift the narrative and look Look more at the outside and stop holding the defensive Got it. Okay, then second thing is that They're just as good at faking as we are this was the response from the GCH Q to a journalist Question for an article about Intel exit Which is amazing because they basically just said that the you know They don't do anything unlawful and they actively encourage staff to discuss any concerns that they have Inside which we all know is not true and they also they really pride themselves on the structures They have in place to support this So I think this was the biggest surprise for us like we're always dealing in this kind of projecting of either utopias or dystopias out into the world and Sometimes when you have a vision and you project something out actually it kind of turns into reality and that's what happened You know we played this line of yes It's sort of a fake but at the same time we really mean what we what we're putting out here Yes, we actually think there should be an Intel exit foundation Created and there should be loads of money flowing in for people who want to get out and there should be a civil way to exit But you know What can we do we're just like a small art collective in Berlin, you know, we can make a big wave But we're quite limited on our resources But actually we we got responses we got we got people coming to us And and that was like that was a real surprise and we realized we have a lot of responsibility too and So this is the other learning is that there's no clear line between insanity and reality So you kind of constantly when you get people contacting you There's this like of course you get people who think that they are pursued by the CIA or think that they used to work at the secret service and then there's you know people who talk to aliens and these kinds of things and and then and then you get people with really legitimate stories and There's a kind of constant balance and we've really had to learn how to assess these and luckily we've had amazing support from investigative journalists particularly from whistleblower platforms who have experience with this and can help us But that's just part of the game Okay, so I think that's our other learning is that what we realized at the end of this week is that there really is a need for this that there's a need to respond and to respond to Well to respond to the kind of the discourse that's out there and create a new one And then there's also really a need to provide This this kind of support and actually to reach out to people who are trapped in these structures and who want to get out So we've been working really hard and trying to build up Network a network of support with people who are have legal skills who have psych who have psychological training and Who can also help if people want to get out and leak or blow the whistle can help with that So we're kind of at the moment where when people come we're we're trying to direct them to the to the right resources because of course, we're not a whistleblowing platform and we're not you know, we're not a Legal organization so we can't provide a lot of the things but we have good networks and we can try and connect people to them So what's coming next We're trying to build up our infrastructure so that people can actually have a very secure way to contact us We're building up this network of support and we want to create a list of Future employers for people who actually do leave the secret services so that they can find places to get jobs Afterwards and we want to continue doing more outreach and more campaigning on this issue And I think that that that is our main goal So that's That's a safe within a safe which is now part of our kind of secure comms infrastructure that is happening in our office thanks to the support of very experience and knowledgeable and expert people who can help us set up the Kind of the best way for people to come to come Yeah to in terms of risk assessment set up the best the best appropriate means of communication to us And then on our outreach plans. We really want to Create a way to talk to people working in the secret services For an everyday person in this audience or on the stage just to call up The NSA or the BND or the GCHQ and get through to someone who's sitting at their office on their phone And have a conversation with them like call center style, you know like How are you doing today? Can we talk about your job? How what? How do you feel about working at the secret services? You know so We we want to create an anonymous routing system for someone to call completely anonymously To a set of numbers which we can't reveal the source of And to reach out to these people So of course we need support and help and these are all the things that you can help us with So If you've got skills we need all kinds of skills we need skills to build up this call center operation of ours So that people can actually anonymously call and we can have something Something that is very exciting and we can premiere at events so that you can actually have kind of call center Call center operations on stage calling up doing it live And then we also need people who will translate our materials We would like to get them into a number of languages We only have in English and German at the moment and we would like to be able to kind of reach out more internationally And if you've if you've got connections Well, that's also always good if you've got people who if you know people who are lawyers who have had experience working with people who are either in trauma or People who have been in the secret service for example Legal skills psychological skills Journalists we need all those kinds of connections in different jurisdictions. We're pretty well set up in Berlin and in Germany But we really need help in the UK and the US as well for now And then if you've got ideas for outreach for new actions, we're also really open to hearing about those We've got the call center idea at the moment calling up the spies, but we want new ideas and If you know people who are working there just have that conversation with them I just start a conversation about you know ethics at the workplace and Now it's the big The big question and I even did that to To say how important it is if you like Peng's work, we're not ashamed anymore We were ashamed for a long time to ask for money, but we're not ashamed anymore We live off idealism alone people and we need help to keep our actions going This year. I think we did six actions or something really large campaigns And we need help to kind of to support our infrastructure to Support our staff to support our projects more than anything so that we can keep on doing what we're doing. So we've We've developed a way for you to become a monthly donator, which I highly recommend great feelings of Positivity and love will travel with you for many years after you have done this and Mother Teresa said You know if you can't feed a hundred penguins, then just feed one so feed one of us Even if it's just like the pinky finger of one of us and sign up for a year to keep seeing great actions coming out from Peng and That's me and then we've got one more thing surprise. So where are you? Hello? Yeah So we have one other awesome way to donate which is that you can buy one of the awesome Intel exit t-shirts Which Paul is going to come here and model for us quickly And there's a run for your life That's the kind of lame one, but these ones are cool Thank you So are we meeting afterwards? Yeah, okay, so I think we're gonna have a we don't have time for questions and answers now But we really want to get feedback from people. I think there's been IRC chat already happening But if people want to come we're going to meet where we meeting In front Of this huge hole Can someone give me a location I only got here today Can you give us a location? Okay, so it's sensible to meet at the tea tent, I suppose tea tent in front of the hall too, there's a big tea tent where you get tea and where you also Meet many other people who are working in this direction of work, right? And I have one question still because I'm like you told we can support on the internet is there also a way to donate anonymously Well, you can donate with Bitcoin or you could just give us cash Everybody's big piles of cash Bring them here Thank you, Gloria, thank you Paul and there's a bag for cash Anonymously here Okay, bring your your blocking for your face if you won't really be anonymous Thank you, Gloria. Everybody who wants to come please go to the tea tent