Posted on May 3, 2021
Our April grantees thank you for your support
Each month, CREDO members vote on how we distribute funding to three incredible nonprofits. Those small actions add up – with one click, you can help fund groups working for civil rights, humanitarian aid and transgender equality. In April, CREDO members voted to distribute our monthly donation to Fight For the Future, International Rescue Committee and Transgender Law Center.
These donations are made possible by CREDO customers and the revenue they generate by using our services. The distribution depends entirely on the votes of CREDO members like you. And for that, our April grant recipients thank you.
Fight For the Future
$51,557
“Thank you! CREDO members like you make it possible for Fight to defend our human rights in the digital age. We’re fighting for free expression online, to restore net neutrality, curb Big Tech’s surveillance practices and end government spying.” – Evan Greer, Director, Fight for the Future
To learn more, visit fightforthefuture.org.
International Rescue Committee
$54,915
“The IRC is grateful for CREDO’s partnership and members’ support, which is needed now more than ever. Displaced people and families are struggling to recover from conflict, disaster, and the COVID-19 pandemic, and your support helps us reach the most vulnerable.” – Lauren Gray, Senior Director of Global Corporate Partnerships, IRC
To learn more, visit rescue.org.
Transgender Law Center
$43,528
“From all of us at TLC, thank you CREDO members for your support. Your support means we continue to create a path to freedom for everyone, centering trans Black, Indigenous and people of color, who hold the knowledge, power, and joy to create a future where we can all not only survive but thrive.” – Kris Hayashi, Executive Director, Transgender Law Center
To learn more, visit transgenderlawcenter.org.
Now check out the three groups we are funding in May, and cast your vote to help distribute our donations.
CREDO members who use our products are the reason why we are able to make these donations each month. Learn more about CREDO Mobile, the carrier with a conscience.
Posted on May 3, 2021
Black Voters Matter fights back against AT&T’s funding of Texas voter suppression
“When voting rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up fight back!” shouted the crowd of Black Voters Matter activists outside AT&T headquarters in Dallas last month.
These activists were outraged that AT&T donated $574,500 to the lawmakers behind a series of harsh voter suppression bills in Texas.
While Texas is one of 47 states with proposed laws that would make it even harder to vote, the state already has some of the most restrictive voting laws in the country, and AT&T’s corporate support of these lawmakers makes it even more egregious.
Not surprisingly, AT&T isn’t apologizing for their donations to suppress the vote, so CREDO grantee Black Voters Matter is holding them accountable and fighting back.
There’s no doubt that these proposed Texas voter suppression bills — what Black Voters Matters is calling Jim Crow 2.0 — are aimed at voters of color, voters with disabilities and other marginalized communities to make it much more difficult to cast a ballot.
According to Judd Legum at Popular Information, whose tenacious reporting continues to reveal the funding of right-wing causes and Republican politicians by corporate America, especially AT&T, two of the most expansive and restrictive voter suppression bills in Texas, SB 7 and HB 6, would make it extremely difficult for Texans to vote absentee or by mail, prohibit mobile, outdoor, and drive-through polling locations, effectively ban mass voting locations like sports arenas, and essentially allow poll watchers to intimidate voters. Under HB 6, volunteers who call voters to discuss returning absentee ballots and are provided a snack could be charged with a crime.
That’s why, after Legum’s reporting revealed AT&T’s donations to these lawmakers, leaders and activists at Black Voters Matter and their allies organized a rally and press conference outside of AT&T’s Dallas headquarters to push back:
Throughout April, Black Voters Matter has been ramping up the pressure on AT&T by mobilizing activists to take action to stop these bills from becoming law. They have launched digital campaigns, deployed paid ads, and led protests calling on the corporation to block HB 6 and SB 7. They have continued to support the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act at the federal level. And Black Voters Matter is urging AT&T to cut financial ties with all lawmakers who attack voting rights (check out their resources page here). The group also produced a 30-second video spot explaining what’s at stake:
Just last week, Black Voters Matter again organized a protest outside of AT&T’s Dallas headquarters, urging the company to take a stand against voter suppression in the state:
We’re here at @ATT in Dallas, Texas to urge them to take a stand against voter suppression. AT&T has donated funds toward voter suppression efforts. It’s not just happening in the state of Georgia, multiple states are trying to suppress the vote! #StandWithVoters ✊🏾 pic.twitter.com/mnXATGTFeT
— Black Voters Matter (@BlackVotersMtr) March 29, 2021
At the rally, Black Voters Matter co-founder and executive director Cliff Albright had some very powerful words for AT&T, calling out the company for running “cute commercials” claiming support for Black Lives Matter and civil rights icons Martin Luther King and John Lewis while funding lawmakers who are taking away the voting rights of Black Texans:
“You’re either going to be on the side of Jim Crow or you’re going to be on the side of the people.” – @cliff_notes, Black Voters Matter Co-Founder and Executive Director pic.twitter.com/NKxddaViJN
— Black Voters Matter (@BlackVotersMtr) March 29, 2021
If you’re as outraged as we are about voter suppression in Texas and AT&T’s funding of lawmakers who back this legislation, here are some steps you can take:
Texas residents can:
- Call House Speaker Dade Phelan and urge him to protect voting rights; or
- Send a letter to your elected officials urging them to reject HB 6 and SB 7.
Out-of-state residents can:
- Sign the petition urging AT&T to stop funding voter suppression;
- Follow Black Voters Matter on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get the latest updates on this campaign and all of their important work; or
Join CREDO Mobile. As a CREDO customer, you help fund the important work of groups like Black Voters Matter who are fighting to protect the right to vote — unlike AT&T, who funds voter suppression efforts. Since 1985, CREDO has donated over $10 million to groups fighting to protect and expand our right to vote, and you can always feel secure that your phone bill is supporting voting rights and the progressive causes you are about.
Posted on April 29, 2021
Learn how to scan a QR code — and receive a special offer
You’ve probably seen QR codes before — those modern-looking barcodes used to redeem a coupon or concert ticket, make a payment, send a text message, save a contact or download an app.
They’ve taken a long time to catch on, but they’re popping up all over the place these days. So how can you use them? It’s very simple, and everything you need is right there in your phone.
In this week’s tip, we’ll teach you how to scan a QR code — then give you the chance to redeem a great offer with a special CREDO QR code!
The “QR” in QR code is short for “quick response,” and these codes were actually invented almost 30 years ago by a subsidiary of Toyota. Unlike traditional barcodes that can only store a small amount of data, QR codes can store up to 4,000 characters of text, making them very useful for modern mobile phone applications, like redirecting to a website or app store, verifying login details or displaying other information on your screen.
Today, QR codes are used in a variety of ways for mobile users to access information or automatically visit a web address just by pointing your phone’s camera at the code and letting your device do the rest.
How to scan a QR code from your Apple device
All newer iOS versions can automatically recognize QR codes straight from your device’s camera app, without needing to download a third-party app.
- Open your Camera app.
- Make sure you’ve selected the rear facing camera.
- Point the camera in the direction of the QR code and ensure it appears in the viewfinder.
- Once your device recognizes the QR code (no need to click the shutter button), a notification should pop up. Click on the notification to open the link.
How to scan a QR code from your Android device
Scanning QR codes is just as easy from an Android device, but because of the various manufacturers and operating system versions, there aren’t one-size-fits-all instructions.
If you have Android version 7 or below, you will likely need a third-party app to scan a QR code. (Head over to the Google Play store to find one.)
If you have version 8 or higher, you probably do not need a third-party app. Instead, you can use Google Lens to scan your QR code (download here). Here’s how to do that:
- Press and hold down the home button to bring up the Assistant.
- The Lens button may automatically appear. Press it. If not, click the dots at the bottom and the Lens button should appear.
- Point your camera at the QR code and ensure the entire code remains in your viewfinder.
- Google Lens should be able to automatically identify the QR code.
- A popup notification should appear. Click the notification to follow the link.
Now, try scanning a QR code yourself
If you’re on your phone right now, visit this blog post from your computer.
Depending on the model of your phone, use the instructions above and point your phone to the QR code below:
Enjoy!
Posted on April 27, 2021
AT&T donated over $800,000 to Republicans behind voter suppression bills
In 47 states across America, right-wing lawmakers, who still believe Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” that the election was stolen, have introduced hundreds of bills to make it harder for Black voters and other voters of color to cast their ballots. It’s absolutely shameful.
So who in the world would fund these extremist lawmakers? Much of corporate America, that’s who.
A stunning new report by Public Citizen found that corporations have donated an incredible $50 million to lawmakers supporting these outrageous voter suppression efforts across the country.
Which company tops the list? AT&T, which donated nearly $811,000 to the state lawmakers behind these voter suppression bills. These donations are in addition to the $2 million AT&T donated to Congressional Republicans who said they would object to certifying President Biden’s victory.
While AT&T tries to publicly distance itself from overturning elections and funding voter suppression, these donations add to the company’s long history of donating millions to bankroll the right-wing agenda.
Ever since the Jan. 6 riots on the U.S. Capitol by insurrectionist Trump supporters, AT&T has tried to walk back its donations to the right-wing politicians who continue to promote election lies — and the company has failed miserably.
As we previously noted, AT&T promised, after widespread condemnation, that it would suspend contributions to members of Congress who voted to object to the certification of the Electoral College. Yet, only a few weeks went by before they cut a $5,000 check to the leadership PAC of one of those insurrectionist Republican members of Congress.
Now, as lawmakers in state houses across the country propose harsh voting restrictions — like requiring voter IDs and limiting drop boxes, early voting, mail-in voting and voting on Sundays (a traditional day for voting in many Black communities), or even making it a crime to hand out water to people waiting in line to vote — AT&T is once again leading the pack in donations to right-wing politicians trying to suppress our votes.
Some of these donations include at least $99,700 since 2018 to a group of Georgia Republican lawmakers who are sponsors of House Bill 315 and Senate Bill 241, two voter suppression bills that would make voting much harder for many Georgians.
And at least $45,000 donated to Ron DeSantis and eight state senators backing Senate Bill 90, a harsh voter suppression bill that would ban ballot drop boxes, limit who could return a legal ballot to a polling place, and place restrictions on mail-in voting.
And the $574,500 to Texas lawmakers behind some of the nation’s harshest voter suppression bills.
These donations by AT&T aren’t surprising, either. AT&T has a long and dark history of funding Republican lawmakers and right-wing causes, including $2 million to Trump’s inauguration, $2.7 million to anti-LGBTQ politicians, or $1.1 million to Republicans in the 2020 election (Check out an even larger list here).
At CREDO, our customers never have to worry that we will donate to Republican politicians or back voter suppression efforts. In fact, strengthening democracy and expanding the right to vote is a core value at CREDO.
That’s why we’ve donated more than $10 million in total to groups like Fair Fight Action, Black Voters Matter, Vote.org and the Brennan Center for Justice. In 2020, our members helped us go above and beyond to launch “CREDO Votes 2020,” a special project to educate voters, get out the vote and donate an extra $250,000 to voting rights non-profit organizations. We donate nearly $2 million to progressive nonprofits every year, and more than $91 million since 1985.
If you or a friend are AT&T customers and would like your phone bill to fund the causes you care about — not Republicans who are trying to suppress the vote — visit CREDOMobile.com and learn how you can make the switch today.
Posted on April 21, 2021
CREDO protects your data. But what about your friends on T-Mobile and AT&T?
Not all cell phone companies have their customers’ best interests in mind, especially when it comes to selling your sensitive data to the highest bidder.
We were reminded about that recently when we learned T-Mobile is planning to automatically start sharing customer data with advertisers later this month, unless customers explicitly opt-out. That means the websites you visit, the apps you use, and your online activity could be used to target you with ads.
The good news for CREDO customers: We don’t share your cell phone usage data with advertisers. In fact, data privacy is at the core of our business, and CREDO customers can rest assured that we take your privacy very seriously.
But if you or a loved one are on another mobile network, here are some ways you can opt-out of these invasive and intrusive data sharing policies and help protect yourself from third-party advertisers.
Customer privacy is at the core of CREDO’s business
First thing’s first: If you’re a CREDO customer, your data is not for sale. Period. We take your data privacy seriously, unlike other mobile carriers. Here’s how we’re different:
- CREDO became the first mobile phone company in 2014 to issue a transparency report, and we’ve continued to issue transparency reports every quarter. You can read our latest transparency report here.
- CREDO was the only mobile phone company to earn a five-star rating from the Electronic Frontier Foundation for our policies protecting your data from government requests.
- We do not participate in these kinds of data sharing agreements with third-party advertisers nor do we sell your information. Here is our full privacy policy.
- CREDO has donated nearly $15 million to nonprofit organizations fighting to protect your civil liberties, digital rights, and civil rights — groups like EFF, Media Justice, Free Press, the ACLU, and Fight for the Future (who you can vote for this month).
The best way to help protect your data or a friend’s data from advertisers and the government is by joining CREDO Mobile.
But if you’re on another network, here are some steps you can take to try to stop your cell phone company from sharing some of your data with advertisers.
T-Mobile
Recent reporting uncovered an update to the fine print of T-Mobile’s privacy policy: The company would start sharing its customers’ cell phone data with third-party advertisers, including newly-acquired Sprint customers, unless customers explicitly opted-out of this data sharing practice.
This is particularly frustrating for former Sprint customers, who prior to the merger had to opt-in — not opt-out — to the company’s data sharing program. Here’s more information from Mashable about the data T-Mobile is likely to share.
If you’re on T-Mobile, here’s how to opt-out:
- Visit https://www.t-mobile.com/ and log in to your account.
- Click on My account > Profile > Privacy and Notifications > Advertising & Analytics
- Toggle off the two options that say “Use my data for analytics and reporting” & “Use my data to make ads more relevant to me”
AT&T
AT&T is notoriously awful when it comes to protecting customer data.
The company has been called one of the NSA’s “most trusted partners,” when it was revealed that AT&T hosted “wiretap rooms” in eight cities where the NSA skimmed data as it passed through their networking equipment. The Daily Beast also revealed that AT&T had been collecting and selling huge databases of consumer data to law enforcement agencies without a warrant and collecting millions in taxpayer money.
And of course, in addition to certain opt-in data sharing programs, AT&T also “automatically enroll(s) you in their other advertising programs…[and] sells your data to third parties to target you with ads,” according to Recode at Vox.
If you’re on AT&T, here’s how to opt-out:
- Go to AT&T’s “Consent Dashboard” (you may have to log into your account)
- Click on Relevant Advertising
- Toggle “Allow use” to “No.”
If you live in California, you can also explicitly tell AT&T not to sell your personal information by filling out this form.
Posted on April 21, 2021
CREDO members make Earth Day every day
Here at CREDO, Earth Day is every single day. Because of members like you who power our environmental philanthropy, we walk the walk when it comes to fighting for climate justice, protecting clean air and water, and caring for the environment.
More than $19 million donated to climate justice. Since 1985, our members have helped us donate $19,686,075 to climate and environmental nonprofits, like Sunrise Movement, Earthjustice, Friends of the Earth, Rainforest Action Network, Amazon Watch, and dozens more.
Four million trees planted. We print our bills on 100% post-consumer recycled paper. And we plant 100 trees for every ton of paper we use (enough trees to make another ton). To date we’ve planted close to 4 million trees worldwide through our donations to tree-planting organizations.
Phone recycling. We make it free and easy for our members to recycle their phones through our partnership with Eco-Cell. Recycling your old device is not only good for the environment, but it’s also good for the progressive nonprofits CREDO Mobile supports.
CREDO Energy. We offer simple, straightforward access to 100% clean electricity for eligible customers — with the impact of CREDO partnered with Energy Rewards.
Posted on April 15, 2021
How to take better photos with your smartphone
Spring is finally upon us, and we’re coming out of our winter hibernations. With the nicer weather come more opportunities to take great photos outside!
But you say you don’t have a camera? Sure you do — it’s right in your pocket. In fact, last year over 90% of all photos were taken with smartphones, and it’s estimated that over 1.4 trillion photos will be taken in 2021. That’s why we think it’s important to get the most out of that little, yet powerful camera in your phone.
Whether you’re making memories at a socially-distanced date with friends and family, a hike in the woods, or a day in the park, here are some tips to get the most out of your phone’s camera.
Turn on the grid
First thing’s first: To make a good image, you need to create a good composition to ensure the elements in the frame are positioned in a pleasing way.
To help you frame the photo properly, you may have heard of the “Rule of Thirds,” the concept of splitting the frame into a 3×3 grid or nine squares, like a tic-tac-toe grid, and positioning major elements in your photo inside these sections, or where the lines intersect.
Your phone can overlay this grid on your screen to help achieve a more interesting photo. Here’s how to turn on the grid for your Android or Apple device.
Try holding your phone horizontally
If you’re used to taking photos with your phone in an upright position, consider turning it on its side 90 degrees. You may see a big improvement in your images.
That’s because “landscape” photos (wider than they are tall) are how all “old school” cameras shot photographs (unless you positioned them vertically, of course). Horizontal photos provide richer details in the background and can produce more interesting images. They also look better on your horizontal screens, like laptops and TVs.
Of course, vertical orientation is also a great option, but unless you’re taking photos or videos for a social media platform that prefers its media vertically, like Snapchat, TikTok or even Facebook, try mixing things up.
Adjust focus and exposure
Today’s smartphones are very good at setting the focus and exposure (in very simple terms, how your camera reads the light) on a subject in the foreground — but it’s not always perfect or not the subject you want to feature.
To change your phone camera’s focus, open your camera app and tap on the screen where you want the camera to focus.
To change the exposure and/or brightness before you take a photo, tap on the screen. For Apple devices, drag the sun icon up and down. For Android devices, you can likely change the exposure with the +/- icons.
Explore “portrait mode”
The so-called “portrait mode” of your smartphone camera is a feature that can create a more dramatic image by sharply focusing on your foreground subject and automatically blurring the background. This is a fun way to create portrait-style photos without needing to lug around a big DSLR and fancy lens. Note that you will need to be a certain distance away for portrait mode to work, and you should hold your camera relatively still as the phone may take a little longer to process the image.
All newer Apple devices have portrait mode, along with many Android models. Here’s how to use portrait mode for your Apple or Android device, if supported.
Try HDR mode
HDR mode, or High Dynamic Range mode, is a feature in all newer smartphone camera apps that helps bring out greater detail in the darker and lighter areas of your photos, and it generally balances the light and colors a little better. This feature also takes a little longer to process in your app, and there are definitely situations where you wouldn’t want to use this feature, such as for moving subjects or where dramatic contrast is your intention.
Here are some additional tips for using HDR mode, and here’s how you can use the feature on Apple or Android.
Avoid using your built-in zoom function
You may be tempted to use the built-in zoom feature of your camera app, which is usually triggered by pinching two fingers outward (zoom in) or together (zoom out).
We’re here to say: Don’t do it — unless you have a newer phone that includes a camera with “optical zoom.”
For most phones, your camera app will use a digital zooming feature, which is nothing more than cropping the edges of your image, enlarging your photo and the image pixels, while decreasing photo quality. A good option is taking the photo without the zoom feature at all, or even better if you can, moving closer to your subject.
If your smartphone has multiple camera lenses, it’s possible your phone may have a limited fixed optical zoom feature, which will take better zoomed-in photos. Check with your manufacturer if your phone has this option.
Turn off flash & use natural light, if you can
Light is one of the most important factors in photography — and natural light is almost always better than using your smartphone’s flash, which can result in less-than-perfect images.
When shooting images with natural light, pay attention to where the sun is in the sky if you’re outside. Try to ensure the sun is lighting your subject, not the camera on your phone. Indoors, try using window light or more overhead artificial light, and ensure your subject is standing closer to the light, not in the shadows. Many newer smartphones work exceptionally well in low light conditions, so try taking your photos without the flash, then again with the flash, to see which one you like better.
Edit your photos
Lastly, you can turn a good photo into a great photo with a little editing. The built in editing features in your Apple or Android photo apps do a pretty good job helping you crop and adjust exposure, brightness, shadows and highlights, color, saturation and a lot more.
To take your photos to the next level, you might want to check out some photo editing apps for more advanced features and filters. A few good photo editing apps include PicsArt, Adobe Lightroom, Snapseed, Adobe Photoshop Camera and Pixlr.
Posted on April 12, 2021
How CREDO funding to Feeding America is helping to alleviate hunger in America
Since the beginning of the pandemic last year, millions more Americans have struggled to put food on the table. In fact, 42 million people, including 13 million children, may be facing hunger because of the pandemic, with a 55% increase in people seeking help from food banks.
Thankfully, CREDO grantee Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, has been on the frontlines of the hunger epidemic to ensure vulnerable communities and those who require help the most get the assistance they so desperately need. In the last year alone, Feeding America has distributed 6 billion meals and counting.
And thanks to our members, who helped us donate $51,620 last July as well as 200,000 meals to families in need last Thanksgiving season through Feeding America, CREDO is humbled to do our part to help Feeding America provide to those in need.
With these donations, powered by our members who use our products and services every day at no extra cost to them, Feeding America coordinated with the USDA to secure over 1.7 billion pounds of food through the Farmers to Families Food Box (CFAP) program. Although the program had been slated to end in December 2020, the USDA announced an additional round of CFAP distributions with deliveries to that are taking place from late January to late April 2021. These additional pounds will help food banks meet the sustained increased demand for food.
The organization also achieved major policy wins to help address the unprecedented need created by the pandemic and to strengthen critical programs like SNAP now and in the future.
Feeding America would like to share a quote from a recent client that expresses her gratitude for incredible donors like CREDO:
“Without the food bank my family and I wouldn’t be able to make it this month. I have volunteered many times here before, in the client choice pantry, warehouse and cooler. No words can convey my gratitude to the angels that work, volunteer and donate here!” – Denise
If you’d like to learn more about Feeding America’s critical work to connect people with food and end hunger, please visit https://www.feedingamerica.org/.
Posted on April 12, 2021
Fight for the Future: Taking on key battles in the fight for digital rights and freedoms
The mission of Fight for the Future is to ensure that technology is a force for empowerment and free expression rather than corruption and inequality. We’re on the forefront of shaping how your digital rights are being protected or abused, using a range of communication and political strategies to win historic outcomes:
WE’RE MAKING FACIAL RECOGNITION POLITICALLY TOXIC
Law enforcement frequently use facial recognition without warrants — using a technology that regularly misidentifies people of color and women, putting vulnerable people at greater risk of systemic abuse. After driving tens of thousands of comments to Congress, we got a bill to ban government and law enforcement use of facial recognition introduced in Congress, a measure seen as radical before our involvement. This year we’re ramping up support for this legislation. We’re also pushing to ban its use in schools (including e-proctoring technology), public housing, and other public venues. And we’ll continue working with municipalities across the US, helping other cities join places like San Francisco, the first major U.S. city to prohibit its municipal use, and Portland, OR, the first city to prohibit both government and corporate applications.
WE’RE KEEPING FACIAL RECOGNITION FROM SPREADING TO COLLEGES AND MAJOR MUSIC FESTIVALS
With Students for Sensible Drug Policy, we organized a campaign to stop the use of facial recognition technology on college campuses. More than 60 colleges agreed to the ban, including UCLA, which had been planning to implement the software as part of its security system. We also got most of the largest music festivals in the world to agree not to use the technology, including SXSW, Coachella, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo.
WE’RE TAKING ON BIG TECH’S MONOPOLY POWER
Many lawmakers and advocacy groups, both progressive and conservative, seek to revoke or revise Section 230 as a response to rampant online misinformation and disinformation. While hate speech is indeed a problem on the Internet, changing 230 will not fix that and will only help the big companies, who have armies of lawyers to defend their actions in court. It will crush smaller websites and make our antitrust problems even worse, while also stifling self expression. Instead, Fight is building cross-partisan consensus to address the actual root of the problem: Big Tech’s monopoly power and their surveillance capitalist business model that uses algorithmic amplification and micro-targeting to increase profits while spreading misinformation, manipulating public opinion, and silencing dissent.
WE’RE KEEPING UP THE FIGHT FOR NET NEUTRALITY
The importance of a free and open Internet has become even more important during the COVID-19 pandemic, but millions of people are still without reliable, affordable Internet access. That’s why we’re continuing to fight for net neutrality, the principle that everyone should have access to websites and apps, preventing Internet providers like Comcast & Verizon from creating “fast lanes,” censoring content, throttling traffic, and even outright blocking access to their competitor’s products. We’re pushing the new administration to appoint a champion for net neutrality to the FCC and mobilizing millions to demand the agency restore net neutrality. Then, we’ll push Congress to enshrine net neutrality into law.
WE MADE ZOOM PROTECT CALLS FOR EVERYONE, NOT JUST CORPORATIONS
Last year Fight led a coalition of groups that successfully pressured Zoom to offer end-to-end encryption to all 200 million daily users, after the company initially said it would only offer it to paid accounts and corporate clients. It was one of the biggest wins for encryption and privacy rights since the FBI backed down in its spat with Apple.
WE’RE TAKING ON AMAZON’S AUTOCRACY
Fight was the first group to expose how Amazon’s Ring doorbell camera is being used by 1,400+ law enforcement departments to access surveillance data without probable cause. We mobilized more than 50,000 people to demand a full Congressional investigation into these partnerships, made headlines with an open letter sent to Jeff Bezos about the security of Amazon’s election software, and called out the policy of not allowing libraries to purchase or lend e- and audio- books. As an active member of the Athena coalition, we helped build the national Anti-Black Amazon campaign, which called out the company for its firing of Black warehouse workers who speak out about unsafe working conditions and ongoing ties with ICE. We’re also targeting the company’s vast worker surveillance system, which creates a high-injury environment and is used to retaliate against whistleblowers and suppress labor organizing.
You can support Fight for the Future’s impactful work by voting to increase their CREDO grant on www.credodonations.com today.
Posted on April 12, 2021
Reaching refugees, displaced people, and other vulnerable groups in humanitarian settings during the COVID-19 pandemic
It has now been over a year since the COVID-19 outbreak was declared a public health emergency and a global pandemic. In that time, the pandemic has impacted all of us in some way, and while much progress has been made in some parts of the world with vaccines and the re-opening of economies, some of the most vulnerable groups around the world are still suffering from the virus and its long-term consequences.
Refugees and other displaced people who have had to flee their homes because of conflict and disaster face especially severe challenges. For people living in conflict zones in countries like Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Iraq, years of conflict and war have weakened health systems and shut down medical facilities even before the pandemic hit, threatening further loss of life. And in places where refugees have fled to, such as Greece and Bangladesh, they face a heightened risk of COVID-19 due to cramped and crowded conditions in densely populated camps and cities, making safety practices such as social distancing and proper hygiene difficult to maintain.
At the International Rescue Committee (IRC), we’ve developed a comprehensive COVID-19 mitigation and response plan in over 40 countries where the IRC works, including over 20 cities in the United States. Our COVID-19 response is based on three critical components:
- Preparing for, preventing, and responding to the spread of coronavirus within vulnerable communities and meeting our clients’ other immediate health and economic needs
- Ensuring the safety of all frontline workers and emergency responders
- Slowing the spread of COVID-19 while ensuring other life-saving programming can continue, reducing the economic, health, education, and protection impacts of the outbreak
COVID-19 has been a powerful and sobering reminder of the world’s inequalities, especially for communities living in conflict areas. While virus testing has expanded in many countries, there remains a lack of testing in conflict-affected areas and we still don’t know the true extent of the outbreak or if the virus continues to spread undetected. COVID-19 will also have lasting societal impacts, leading to long-term issues from famine, loss of education and a severe lack of economic opportunities for those that need it most.
The impacts of COVID-19 are further exacerbated by existing challenges. Millions of children in humanitarian settings do not have the same tools and resources to adapt to remote learning as children in more advanced countries and the pandemic has further burdened health systems that were already devastated by crisis and conflict, meaning other diseases and illnesses are easier to spread, and access to healthcare is even more difficult.
Despite our best efforts and expertise in handling health related crises, the IRC and other humanitarian organizations can’t do it alone. A truly global pandemic requires a truly global response. Governments, donors, the United Nations, the private sector, other NGOs and global citizens all have a role to play in preventing further spread of the disease and investing in weakened health systems. And because the pandemic is causing so many long-term health and economic consequences, we must rebuild markets and job opportunities for those who were already struggling to rebuild their lives.
Now that the world has made progress in delivering vaccines, we also must ensure that there is equitable vaccine distribution, especially as virus variants and mutations continue to appear in conflict-affected countries. If these weakened health systems continue to see a rise in cases without proper vaccine distributions, we may see hospitals and health centers pushed beyond their breaking point. This is why it’s critical that everyone around the globe, including the most vulnerable, are vaccinated.
Despite the urgent need that still exists, we have plenty of reason for hope. Just recently, on April 7, the IRC celebrated World Health Day, an opportunity to recognize the incredible work of healthcare professionals and essential workers who are on the frontlines providing safe and healthy futures for the millions of people impacted by conflict and crisis around the world. From IRC medical doctors to psychologists and clinical staff, our frontline colleagues have inspired us with their stories and dedication to their work. Learn their stories here.
While frontline workers and health teams are critical in carrying out the response to COVID-19, there’s still even more that needs to be done, and that’s where you and can help. Help us reach families in coronavirus-affected areas in more than 40 countries worldwide by voting for the IRC in this month’s CREDO grant. COVID-19 will not be beaten anywhere until it is beaten everywhere, including among the most vulnerable. You can also join the IRC in pledging your support for an inclusive global response, including equitable access to vaccinations.
To learn more about the IRC and our response to COVID-19 and other humanitarian emergencies around the world, visit rescue.org.
