Posted on December 12, 2024
Your mobile apps are watching you: Change these settings to stop them
The apps on your phone know a lot about you. They know where you are every moment of the day and night. They know what websites you visit and what you look at when you’re there. They know all your basic info—age, gender, email, phone number, birthplace, address—and far more beyond that.
This is the price we pay for “free” (or cheap) apps. We get to use them and, in return, we let them collect our personal information by agreeing to a list of permissions that most of us never read.
And what do the apps do with all this information? They build profiles of us that are accurate to the smallest detail. Are you a woman in your late 30s who votes blue, has houseplants and likes salsa dancing? Facebook knows this. Google knows it too. So do the massive data brokers that compile profiles of individuals and sell those profiles to advertisers so the advertisers can send targeted ads to people.
It’s called surveillance capitalism and, realistically, there is no way to opt out of it. But there are steps you can take to at least limit the amount of personal information that your apps collect.
Check what data apps want
You can see what personal data an app will be gathering before you download it. Open the Play Store and tap the app you want to download. Then scroll all the way down to Data safety to see a list of the data types collected.
Read the permissions
When you download and install an app, your phone will ask you if you want to grant the app permission to access various features of your phone, like your camera and your messages. You should deny any permissions that don’t make sense. For example, why does that weather app want to access your photos?
If you’re concerned about the permissions granted to the apps already on your phone, you can review them and revoke any that seem suspicious. Here’s how.
Android
Open Settings. Tap Apps. Tap the app you want to review. (If you can’t find it, tap See all apps.) Tap Permissions. Now you can choose to Allow or Not allow various permissions for the app.
iOS
Go to Settings > Privacy & Security. Tap a category of information, such as Calendars, Reminders or Motion & Fitness. A list will appear showing the apps that have access to this information. You can turn access on or off for any app on the list.
Disable ad ID tracking
Your mobile device has an ad identifier that enables third parties like advertisers and data brokers to track your activity. You can disable it, which will make it harder for them to track you. This will reduce (but not completely stop) the collection of your personal information by mobile apps.
Android
These steps should work for most Android versions. Open Settings. Tap Security and privacy > Ads. Tap Delete advertising ID.
iOS
Go to Settings. Tap Privacy & Security > Apple advertising. Toggle off Personalized ads.
Switch to CREDO Mobile
We’re the one mobile service that cares about privacy as much as you do. That’s why we support the ACLU, whose Privacy and Technology division defends your right to privacy and protects you against surveillance technologies. And Fight for the Future, which advocates technology as a force for liberation, not oppression.
Join CREDO Mobile and you’ll get all you want from your phone company: the nation’s largest, most reliable network, competitive plans, great deals on new phones and friendly customer service.
And you’ll get much more. You’ll get an easy, effective way to make change in the world.
Switching is easy. You can bring your current phone and your current number. Just go to CREDOMobile.com.
Posted on December 8, 2024
Donations spotlight: Support the Innocence Project in its work to free wrongfully convicted people
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This December, the Innocence Project is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will be vital to the nonprofit as it campaigns to free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions and create fair, compassionate and equitable systems of justice for everyone.
Read this important blog post from the Innocence Project, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send much-needed grant money to the group to assist its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding December grantees.
Election cycles cause many of us to reflect on the meaning and promise of democracy. Issues like voting rights, election integrity and the freedom of the press are high in the public consciousness. Reform of the legal system should be too.
The Innocence Project (IP) advocates for more fair, equitable and compassionate systems of justice that are accessible to everyone. In doing this work, we uphold fundamental democratic values. Since our founding in 1992, we’ve used DNA and other scientific advancements to help free or exonerate more than 250 people who, collectively, spent almost 4,000 years behind bars. Our efforts have also led to the passage of more than 250 transformative state laws and federal reforms.
Last year, IP won seven exonerations in New York, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia. Collectively, these seven clients spent 182 years in jail after being wrongfully convicted. In several cases, we partnered with elected prosecutors from across the political spectrum to secure our clients’ freedom. With our Innocence Network colleagues, we passed more than 15 critical reforms in state legislatures to prevent wrongful convictions and ensure the system operates more fairly and effectively.
In 2025, we’ll expand our efforts to pass new laws to reveal, prevent and rectify wrongful convictions. Our initiatives include improving access to post-conviction courts, strengthening police and prosecutorial accountability to prevent wrongful convictions, compensating wrongfully convicted people, as well as a range of other efforts, such as reforming practices that enable eyewitness misidentifications, unreliable informant testimony, coerced guilty pleas and false confessions.
The following list highlights a few of our priorities for the coming year.
Eyewitness misidentification
Eyewitnesses are often expected to identify perpetrators of crimes based on memory, which is incredibly malleable. Common law-enforcement practices, including the administration of lineups and photo arrays, can also contribute to misidentification. Eyewitness misidentification played a role in 63% of our exonerated clients’ wrongful convictions.
To improve the reliability of eyewitness identification, we advocate for reforms in state legislatures and courts that include the following provisions:
- Double-blind or blinded administration: A “double-blind” lineup is one in which neither the administrator nor the eyewitness knows the identity of the suspect at a given time. This prevents the administrator from providing inadvertent or intentional cues to influence the eyewitness to pick the suspect.
- Instructions: Lineup administrators can instruct eyewitnesses to deter them from feeling compelled to identify a suspect. One recommended instruction includes the directive that the suspect may or may not be present in the lineup.
- Composing the lineup: Non-suspect photographs and/or live lineup members (fillers) should be selected based on their resemblance to the description provided by the eyewitness—as opposed to their resemblance to the police suspect. In addition, the suspect should not noticeably stand out from the other fillers.
Use of police deception in juvenile interrogations
Young people are especially vulnerable to making false confessions because the parts of the brain responsible for future planning, judgment and decision-making are not fully developed until we reach our mid-20s. Of the 268 exonerees who were wrongly convicted as children, 34% falsely confessed, whereas just 10% of exonerees who were wrongly convicted after the age of 18 falsely confessed, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. Coercive and deceptive interrogation methods, coupled with the recognized vulnerabilities and susceptibilities of children as a group, have led to an unacceptably high rate of false confessions among juvenile suspects.
IP works to pass legislation and administrative reforms that ban the use of police deception in the interrogation of juveniles, allow false-confession experts to testify in court and convince judges to hold pretrial reliability hearings before a confession is admitted. We also advocate for state legislatures to pass laws that make a child’s statements inadmissible in court if police used deception during the interrogation. By supporting these efforts, we aim to ensure fairer outcomes for adolescents and reduce the risk of wrongful convictions among one of the most vulnerable groups in the criminal legal system.
Coerced pleas—or the trial penalty
Coercive plea deals often pressure innocent people to plead guilty to crimes they didn’t commit. More than 95% of felony convictions in the U.S. are obtained through this method and an estimated 11% of exonerations are innocent individuals who were pressured to plead guilty.
Often prosecutors use the threat of the “trial penalty”: a sentence that will be more severe if an individual refuses a plea deal and insists on a trial instead. Even innocent people may be coerced into accepting a plea deal. The goal is to discourage innocent people from exercising their constitutional right to a trial and encourage them to admit to a crime they did not commit, while waiving fundamental rights critical to a fair criminal legal process.
As a member of the End the Trial Penalty Coalition, IP is working to enact policies that reduce the disparity between plea-deal sentences and potential trial sentences and restore fundamental rights, including the right to a jury trial.
Police and prosecutorial accountability
Police and prosecutorial misconduct has contributed to many exoneration cases since 1989. We advocate for policy reforms to address the issue, focusing on implementing state-level oversight measures that encourage transparency and accountability without impeding the work of conscientious law enforcement professionals.
Police misconduct has disproportionately contributed to the wrongful conviction of people of color, many of whom live in communities that are more heavily policed. In some cases, police officers have abused their authority and violated people’s constitutional rights by using coercive interrogation techniques, lying on the stand, failing to turn over exculpatory evidence, working with unreliable informants, displaying outright prejudice and more. Prosecutorial misconduct occurs when a prosecutor seriously violates the law or a code of ethics while prosecuting a case. This includes making improper arguments at trial, purposely withholding evidence of innocence or other favorable evidence in what is known as a Brady violation.
For these reasons, addressing police and prosecutorial accountability is essential to preventing wrongful convictions. IP advances reform efforts, including strengthening discovery rules, ending qualified immunity, and creating public databases and rigorous certification and decertification systems to prevent official misconduct.
At the forefront of criminal justice reform
For 32 years, we’ve worked to free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions and create fair, compassionate and equitable systems of justice for everyone. Our work has been and will always be guided by science and grounded in anti-racism. As we look to the future, we’ll continue to collaborate with a broad range of actors at the community, local, state and federal levels, as well as in the public and private sectors, to drive the transformational reforms we seek.
For more information on the Innocence Project’s local and state advocacy efforts, visit InnocenceProject.org or contact our team to learn how to support our initiatives in your community.
Posted on December 4, 2024
This December, CREDO Mobile is supporting All Hands and Hearts, Innocence Project and League of Conservation Voters (LCV).
This month, CREDO Mobile is thrilled to be supporting 3 amazing nonprofits. We will allocate the grant at the end of the month based on the number of votes for each organization. You can vote for 1, 2 or all 3 nonprofits at www.credodonations.com.
All Hands and Hearts
All Hands and Hearts provides community-inspired, volunteer-powered disaster relief. They have worked alongside 140 disaster-affected communities, inviting over 68,000 volunteers to clear debris, repair homes, build schools and much more. Recently, they have been working to provide relief for those affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton as well as Hawaii, Mexico and elsewhere. Support from CREDO Mobile helps ensure that they are prepared to respond the moment disaster strikes, as well as ensuring the communities with the greatest needs are still being served, even after public attention and the media have moved on.
Innocence Project
Innocence Project works to free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions, and create fair systems of justice for everyone. Their work is guided by science and grounded in anti-racism. Since 1992, IP has freed or exonerated 251 people and passed 250 policy reforms. CREDO funding will help IP provide legal representation to innocent people across the country, support them as they rebuild their lives after decades of wrongful imprisonment, and advocate for policies that improve access to the courts, strengthen police accountability, and provide compensation to exonerees.
League of Conservation Voters (LCV)
LCV envisions a world in which tackling the climate crisis, confronting environmental injustice, and strengthening our democracy lead to cleaner and healthier communities, good, well-paying jobs, and a just, equitable, and sustainable future for all. Funding from CREDO members funds some of the most effective campaigns in the country. Through those campaigns, we win urgently needed progress that advances climate action, strengthens democracy, and addresses environmental injustice.
Voting is quick, easy and free. Be sure to vote by the end of the month. Tell your friends and family to vote for the groups that they want to support. The more voters the better.
These donations are only possible because of CREDO Mobile customers. Learn more about CREDO Mobile and help make progressive change every time you use your phone. It is easy to switch and you will be glad you did.
Posted on December 2, 2024
Make a difference: Join us for Giving Tuesday
Since its start, in 2012, Giving Tuesday has grown from a hashtag to a global movement. The goal: to transform the world through generosity.
This year, as every year, it will happen on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Millions of people in over 150 countries will take part.
Some will give money. Giving Tuesday 2023 saw over $3 billion donated to charitable organizations. Others will give a smile, a helping hand or an hour of their time. All are welcome, all make a difference.
Here at CREDO Mobile, we’ll be giving, as we do every year. As we do every day. Because giving is what we’re all about. Since 1985, we’ve donated over $95 million to nonprofit groups working for positive change. Groups like the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and Friends of the Earth.
We encourage you to join in this Giving Tuesday. And we encourage you to join us and make every day a giving day.
Learn more at CREDOMobile.com. To learn more about Giving Tuesday, go to GivingTuesday.org.
Posted on December 1, 2024
Donations spotlight: Help All Hands and Hearts deliver relief to disaster-hit communities
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This December, All Hands and Hearts is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will be vital to the nonprofit as it works alongside local residents in communities hit by natural disasters to meet their immediate and long-term needs.
Read this important blog post from All Hands and Hearts, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send much-needed grant money to the group to assist its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding December grantees.
All Hands and Hearts (AHAH) provides community-inspired, volunteer-powered disaster relief. Our work has spanned 28 countries around the globe, supporting recovery efforts with the help of over 68,000 volunteers and impacting the lives of over 1.4 million people to date.
After disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and tsunamis, we arrive in the critical moments post-disaster to support households and communities where they need help the most. We’ve built schools, constructed WASH facilities (water, sanitation and hygiene), and restored and rebuilt homes. We’re a top-rated group on Charity Navigator, working by a unique model that enables us to arrive early and stay late, and collaborate closely with local communities to support their full recovery journey.
Our immediate response focuses on the critical steps necessary to support affected areas in the days following a disaster. We chainsaw felled trees, clear and remove debris, muck and gut homes, and coordinate volunteers with other organizations on the ground, as well as many other essential relief tasks, depending on the disaster and its impacts.
Long-term, we support individuals and families by rebuilding destroyed infrastructure and restoring safe living conditions, processes that would take years without proper support. We strive to create partnerships with local organizations and strong relationships with community members so we can focus on jobs that best serve their recovery. We do everything from preparing and serving meals to sorting and distributing essential supplies to working on-site at grassroots recovery initiatives.
Our goal is to provide support where the community needs us most, letting ourselves be guided by the specific challenges the community presents to us.
All Hands and Hearts and the 2024 hurricanes
This year, communities in the Southeast U.S. have faced unimaginable challenges following the compounded impacts of hurricanes Helene and Milton.
The 2024 hurricane season brought conditions unlike any we’ve encountered in our nearly two decades of disaster-relief work. Since June, the unusually warm waters of the Atlantic have fueled a series of record-breaking storms, creating a relentless cycle of destruction. The effect of these hurricanes has been felt far beyond the landfall zones, with heavy rainfall, flooding and wind damage spreading hundreds or even thousands of miles from the coasts.
We strategically deployed our Disaster Assistance Response Teams in anticipation of these powerful storms, positioning them outside the projected paths to ensure rapid mobilization into the most devastated areas in North Carolina and Florida. This proactive approach enabled us to begin essential recovery work as soon as conditions permitted. In the immediate aftermath of each hurricane, our teams, made up of local and nonlocal volunteers, focused on critical response efforts, including damage assessment, debris removal and coordination with local communities. Our rapid interventions have been key to accelerating the path to recovery during the exceptionally severe 2024 hurricane season.
A story of severe damage: Hurricane Helene
As affected communities navigate the long road to rebuilding, AHAH remains committed to staying on-site and working hand in hand with local partners and community members to restore homes and infrastructure, provide essential supplies and offer much-needed support. This is our mission: to provide a continuous presence and 24/7 dedication to help ensure that no communities are left behind during their most challenging moments.
Posted on November 20, 2024
CREDO Mobile – Holiday Gift Guide
The holidays are a tough time for the environment. Household waste increases 25% between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day(1). A big part of this increased waste is gifts, many that are unwanted, that end up in landfills.
If you are looking for the perfect gift this year, consider an experience instead of a physical gift. Even the most responsibly made sweater has an impact on the environment. Packaging and shipping all have a carbon footprint. Anything plastic will be around for hundreds of years. An experience can be more environmentally friendly and provide memories that last a lifetime. Although that is not as long as that plastic poop emoji you bought for your friend as a gag gift will be around.
There are experiences for every price range – a handwritten personal letter costs just 73 cents to private tours that can be in the thousands of dollars. Some suggestions include:
- Theater tickets – live theater has struggled since the pandemic. This is a great chance to support the arts. You may even find great options at local high schools and colleges for a less expensive option. You may be able to see High School Musical at the local high school.
- Wine/Cheese/Beer/Chocolate tastings/classes – many communities have great options for all types of fun classes for foodies or wannabe foodies. For example, the San Francisco Wine School offers classes (https://sanfranciscowineschool.com/collections/individual-wine-classes), although many other shops and schools may offer them near you.
- Art classes – from painting to pottery to dance, you may be able to find a fun class. Even more fun if you can take a class together.
- A tour – you can find local guides who can provide tours for all kinds of interests (History tours, Food tours, Architectural tours).
- Museum Memberships are a gift that gives all year long. With a membership, your recipient can visit multiple times and see many different shows. Many museum memberships let the member bring a friend, so you may get something out of it as well. Memberships help support museums and these cultural institutions need our support.
- A subscription to a newspaper, magazine or even newsletters – Support quality news in times when quality news is in short supply. For newsletters, we enjoy Judd Legum’s Popular Information: https://popular.info/, but there are hundreds of options out there.
- A donation to a nonprofit that you know they would support. We have a list of organizations we’ve supported in the past at credodonations.com.
- Perhaps the best gift of all is time. Cook a meal together, go for a walk, spend time talking. There is nothing more precious than time spent with loved ones.
If you have other ideas, please let us know in the linked survey. We will compile the results and send them out later in the year. https://credomobile.typeform.com/Gifts2024
If you are looking for a physical gift this year, check out some articles on our blog about how to be a more conscious consumer.
- https://blog.credo.com/2024/11/07/conscious-consuming-for-the-holidays-try-these-alternatives-to-amazon/
- https://blog.credo.com/2023/12/27/5-ways-to-be-a-more-conscious-consumer-in-2024/
If you know someone who loves books and can’t resist getting them a book as a gift, may we suggest the CREDO Mobile affiliate store on Bookshop.org. Not only do you avoid using Amazon, but every purchase on Bookshop.org helps independent bookstores. You can find almost any book at the CREDO Mobile affiliate on Bookshop.org.
(1) https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/hidden-ways-holidays-harm-environment-reduce-waste/story?id=93487258
Posted on November 12, 2024
On endangered species: CREDO Mobile makes a difference
Earlier this year, we sent a donation to the Center for Biological Diversity, which fights to secure a future for the species, great and small, that are now on the brink of extinction.
There has never been a time in human history when so many animals and plants were disappearing so fast. Left unchecked, the wildlife extinction crisis could take a million species in the coming years. It’s gut-wrenching to think of a world without them.
But the Center is working to stop the crisis by fighting for greater protections of vulnerable species and the places they call home. As a direct result of advocacy by the Climate Forests Campaign, in which the Center plays a lead role, the Biden administration has proposed the National Old-Growth Amendment to protect remaining old-growth forests and expand old growth across all 128 national forests.
In January, the Center joined other conservation groups to sue the Forest Service over its plan to log a sensitive area in North Carolina’s Nantahala National Forest—and in June the Forest Service scrapped the plan. After another lawsuit by the Center and partners, the Forest Service abandoned its plan to log in Utah’s Ashley National Forest, saving vital habitat for bighorn sheep, deer, elk, bears and raptors.
Since our donation, the Center has expanded its efforts. It’s pressing for stronger federal protections of old-growth forests, suing to preserve the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests, and defending Roadless Rule protections in the Tongass National Forest.
The Center is also taking important steps to compel a phaseout of offshore drilling and prevent the reopening of old oil and gas infrastructure in California. They are petitioning to plug old offshore oil wells in federal waters and suing over unlawful offshore oil lease extensions and outdated drilling plans off California’s coast.
The Center for Biological Diversity was able to do all these things because our customers do one thing: use our service. When they do, they raise much-needed donations for progressive nonprofit groups like the Center. If you’re a CREDO Mobile member, thank you. If you’re not, please join us now and make a difference in the world—just by using your phone.
Posted on November 12, 2024
Donations spotlight: Help Other 98% hold the line against misinformation, one meme at a time
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This November, the Other 98% is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will be vital to the nonprofit as it uses meme warfare and savvy boots-on-the-ground actions to challenge the billionaires and corporations that have hijacked our democracy and fights like hell for an America that works for the other 98% of us.
Read this important blog post about the Other 98%, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send much-needed grant money to the group to assist its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding November grantees.
The Other 98% is a netroots powerhouse that specializes in winning the battle of the story. Even if you haven’t seen our name on Facebook or other social media platforms, you’ve probably come across our memes. From the Koch brothers to Martin Shkreli to Project 2025, Other98 has been spotlighting shadowy villains and elevating the people who heroically stand in their way since 2010. Today, we reach anywhere from 2 million to 10 million people every single day with compelling narratives designed to educate and mobilize support for solutions to the most critical issues of our time.
Our organization was founded, in part, as a response to our serious concern about the Tea Party: a faux populist, faux grassroots “movement” that coopted the language and symbols of working-class activism and paired it with racist, misogynist dog whistles and outright lies designed to undermine the genuine grassroots populist movement springing up in the wake of the 2008 recession and subsequent bailout of big banks.
We were worried that this group’s promotion of blatant doublespeak, condensed into nastily simple memes (recall that the racist “birther” meme was popularized by none other than Donald Trump), would pose an existential threat to our democracy.
And we were right. Nearly 15 years later, lies and deception have been fully embraced as a legitimate political strategy by regressive politicians and their billionaire backers. “Lock her up,” “Build the wall,” “They’re eating the cats and dogs”—the Trump era has been defined by poisonous, dangerous memes that perpetuate and entrench fear, apathy, cruelty and civic disengagement.
Today, we’re witnessing a snowballing feedback loop of distrust in our democratic institutions, leading to political demoralization and low civic engagement. Low engagement creates disappointing results, which further erodes trust. When even progressive lawmakers fail to deliver on a whole range of campaign promises they made to voters, it creates the impression that there is no one fighting for regular people, which disincentives civic engagement even further. But if voters check out and stop making cohesive, tangible demands, the cycle will only continue.
Not too proud to meme
We wish we hadn’t been right about what the Tea Party symbolized but we are heartened by the fact that we were right about something else too: the best weapon against a bad meme is a good one. As the New York Times pointed out in 2018, “If the goal is to build a movement that is effective in opposing attacks on democratic ideals and a free press, the left can’t be too proud to meme.”
Other98 overpowers and drowns out toxic memes by elevating progressive ideas to “everybody knows” status. By this we mean narratives so powerful and prevalent that they become simple common knowledge. “Everybody knows” that airplane food is bad and “everybody knows” that there is too much money in politics. We know the American people—despite what our elected officials might have us believe—are largely in support of, for example, commonsense gun control laws, investing in renewable energy and making the 1% pay their fair share of taxes. Our job is to highlight the solutions to these issues in a way that resonates deeply enough for people to share them with their friends and family. When these messages are validated through networks of trust, people take ownership of them as their own thoughts and feelings, and change becomes not only possible but inevitable.
Connecting with millions of voters
Our organization is unique in that we’re both wildly viral on social media and also deeply rooted in grassroots organizing spaces. Other98 team members worked on the ground of some of the biggest movement moments of the past decade, from Occupy Wall Street to Standing Rock to the protests against Trump’s Muslim ban, and we’re extremely proud of the role we played in bringing global attention to those stories and so many more.
We’re also very proud of the work we did in the leadup to this election. Our top-15 Project 2025 posts have reached over 10 million people, all without paid promotion of any kind. This means that the millions of voters who are encountering these memes are connecting with them enough to feel compelled to share them in turn.
We are writing this post in mid-October. The election may be over by the time you see it. Two very different roads lay ahead of us. But one fact will remain no matter who wins: we have to find a solution to this crisis of public trust. It’s one thing to disagree on solutions to a problem but it’s a whole other thing to disagree about the nature of reality itself. Work like ours helps stem the tide of disinformation and build public consensus for progressive solutions to the biggest challenges facing our planet, from climate chaos to white nationalism. This work is difficult to explain and even harder to fund, so we are deeply grateful to the CREDO Mobile team and its community for its generous support. Thank you!
To learn more, please visit Other98.com.
Posted on November 8, 2024
Donations spotlight: Help Fight for the Future expand the internet’s transformative power for good
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This November, Fight for the Future is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will be vital to the nonprofit as it works to ensure that the internet continues to hold freedom of expression and creativity at its core.
Read this important blog post about Fight for the Future, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send much-needed grant money to the group to assist its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding November grantees.
Founded in 2011, Fight for the Future Education Fund (Fight) is a queer women-led team of strategists, activists and technologists who have been behind the largest online protests in history. Our mission is to ensure a just internet and promote technology as a force for empowerment, not exploitation.
Our high-visibility campaigns focus on technologies and policies that disproportionately impact and harm Black, Brown and Indigenous people and communities, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people and others who face systemic oppression.
We achieve victories previously thought impossible through a unique tactical approach that integrates technology, coalition-building, advocacy and bold messaging to mobilize activism at a mass scale. In the past year alone, our victories have included: organizing hundreds of prominent musicians to boycott venues that use facial-recognition technology and fighting its discriminatory use in schools and sports arenas like MSG and Citi Field; overcoming an industry lobbying blitz to successfully get strong net neutrality protections restored; and, in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, successfully pressuring one of the world’s largest tech companies to finally encrypt user’s private messages.
But the threats continue to grow. As Fight Director Evan Greer recently wrote in a call to action, “The stakes couldn’t be higher. Big Tech has colonized much of what we used to call the internet, creating a near monopoly on channels for speech and employing a surveillance-driven business model that’s wreaking havoc on democracy, eviscerating privacy and civil rights, and endangering the lives of the most vulnerable.”
There is so much work to be done. But we’re up to it. With continued advocacy and activism, we’re leading the charge to protect the digital freedoms that make a just and equitable society possible. Here’s a look at some of the most critical issues Fight is tackling now.
Stopping the spread of biometric surveillance technology
Facial recognition and other biometric surveillance technologies—like palm scanning and emotional AI—are becoming increasingly pervasive and intrusive, infringing on civil liberties and putting people in danger. This surveillance is basically impossible to opt of, puts our highly sensitive biometric data at risk of abuse by hackers and other bad actors, has led to a number of discriminatory and wrongful arrests—traumatic events that can forever change the course of someone’s life—and imperils our democracy with its chilling effect on privacy and the freedom of movement, expression and dissent.
As a leader in the fight against facial-recognition technology, we have mobilized a coalition of over 40 racial justice, LGBTQ+ and human rights organizations to push for a federal ban and dealt major blows to the spread of facial recognition. Our campaigns have successfully kept facial recognition off of 60 college campuses, halted its use at major music festivals and rallied over 100 artists and 30 venues to reject it. Our live protests against its discriminatory and harmful use at MSG and other sports and music arenas, including most recently at New York’s Citi Field, have been covered nationally. As one of the first organizations in the U.S. to start campaigning against the use of facial recognition in retail stores, we were thrilled to recently add to our scorecard a win against Rite Aid, the result of an FTC enforcement action that cracked down on Rite Aid’s discriminatory surveillance. We are also working to ensure that the Biden administration addresses and prioritizes the AI harms associated with facial recognition, particularly in schools, public housing, healthcare and law enforcement.
Each rejection of this technology is an immediate win for everyone’s security, safety and autonomy, especially for individuals and communities who have long faced systemic discrimination. But there is an urgent need for more advocacy to stop the spread of facial recognition. We’ll keep amplifying the alarm about its dangers, launch large-scale campaigns that empower thousands to send mass comments to federal agencies and pressure companies to reject facial recognition and other biometric surveillance tech until we get an outright ban that protects us all.
Expanding privacy: Reproductive justice and the fight for private messaging
In an era of increasing surveillance, the fight to protect personal privacy is all the more urgent. And with the onslaught of anti-abortion and anti-trans bills, the need for secure, private communication is more critical than ever. Without end-to-end encryption, platforms can access private messages, leaving many individuals—particularly those crossing state lines for abortion or gender-affirming care—exposed to law enforcement, hackers and even nosy employees.
Our campaign to make private messaging safe was launched immediately after Roe was overturned and focuses on the essential role of default end-to-end encryption in safeguarding marginalized communities, including gender-affirming care funds, abortion seekers, trans activists, sex workers, immigrants, racial justice activists, workers who are organizing, journalists and human rights defenders. We built out a 70-plus intersectional coalition to drive tech accountability, including racial justice, LGBTQ+, climate and reproductive justice organizations and we have relentlessly pressured Meta, Slack, Discord, Apple, Google and others to adopt privacy preserving policies.
We’ve now made huge gains in this fight. This year, Meta officially launched default end-to-end encryption for Messenger, and Instagram, Google, Apple and Discord have expanded its use. Our efforts have been vital in safeguarding the privacy and security of millions of at-risk individuals and we’ll continue to step up pressure on all messaging platforms. We’ve also expanded the campaign to hold Big Tech accountable for surveillance and censorship practices that threaten bodily autonomy and we’re pushing rideshare companies to ensure location-privacy practices and policies that protect those seeking care across state borders.
Stopping data brokers and restoring personal privacy: Getting a national opt-out registry
Data brokers are another insidious threat to personal privacy. Companies you have likely never heard of, like Acxiom and RELX, have a staggering reach into the most private corners of our lives, collecting and selling detailed information on over two-thirds of U.S. residents, tracking our daily movements, relationships, transactions and activities.
This massive data trove enables wide-scale surveillance and puts vulnerable communities, including those fleeing domestic violence, social justice advocates, abortion seekers and others, at particular risk. The sale of personal data collected not only fuels surveillance but also exposes individuals to hacking, doxing, AI scams and discrimination in housing, employment, banking and other areas.
To stop data brokers in their tracks, Fight for the Future has built a coalition of 30-plus organizations to push the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on corporate data-collection practices and abuse. Central to our campaign is getting the FTC to create a national opt-out registry, which would limit data exposure, mitigate the surveillance of vulnerable individuals, restore personal privacy and security, and help protect everyone from the harms of nonconsensual data collection and sale.
The fight for internet justice: Defending net neutrality
High-speed internet enables people across society to access education, employment, healthcare, entertainment, banking, commerce and community, and is critical to everyone’s ability to participate fully in civic and cultural life.
Yet millions of people in the U.S. still lack reliable, affordable internet access. For over a decade, Fight for the Future has been at the forefront of the battle for broadband access and net neutrality, which ensures that internet service providers cannot prioritize certain content, such as that of Big Tech like Amazon or Meta, or throttle access to others.
In 2015, Fight built the tech and led the messaging that made net neutrality a household word and clinched the victory that established net neutrality protections. When those protections were repealed in 2017, we led the charge that helped generate the passage of the Save the Internet Act in the House. And, in 2024, after more than a year of pushing hard for a fully staffed Federal Communications Commission, we won back net neutrality.
How did we do it? We relaunched our campaign hub Battle for the Net, built a coalition of over 140 signers, mobilized a wide range of supporters, from individuals and businesses to veterans and first responders, to generate tens of thousands of comments and published an open letter signed by over 275+ influential artists, including Tom Morello, Amanda Palmer and Cory Doctorow, that emphasized the importance of strong Title II net neutrality protections for their livelihoods.
But the battle is far from over. Big Tech continues to push for monopolistic control of the internet, threatening to send us back to a web of inequity and walled access. And Supreme Court rulings like the recent reversal of the Chevron doctrine mean net neutrality and hundreds of other agency rulings could be struck down by the courts.
Fight remains steadfast in our efforts. We’ll keep defending net neutrality and working for broadband affordability and justice to ensure that the essential human right to connect is protected.
To learn more, go to FightForTheFuture.org.
Posted on November 7, 2024
Conscious consuming for the holidays: Try these alternatives to Amazon
Amazon. If you’re like us, you’ve got feelings. On the one hand, it’s so convenient. A few clicks and whatever you want is at your door in a day.
On the other hand, a lot goes on at Amazon that conscious consumers are not OK with, like its impact on local economies. Like its opposition to unionization by its employees. Like its massive CO2 emissions: 69 million metric tons in 2023, which is about what the nation of Hungary emits in a year.
Add it all up and you might decide it’s time to look for options. Unfortunately, they aren’t easy to find—which is why lot of people haven’t found them. One-fourth of Americans shop at Amazon at least once a week and half of Americans now have an Amazon Prime account.
But options are out there. Maybe they’re not as simple, cheap and fast as Amazon but they do exist. They sell what you need—and what you just plain want—and they do it without a moral compromise packed in bubble wrap. In 2021, Amazon generated enough plastic waste to cover the Earth in 800 layers, despite the fact that Amazon “would have no problem” switching to plastic-free packaging, according to former Amazon executive Rachel Johnson Greer. “It’s really a question of will.”
A lot of people find information like that to be ethically suffocating. So they’re exploring alternatives to Amazon. In our recent survey of CREDO Mobile members and their shopping habits, 96% of respondents said they consider themselves socially responsible consumers and 97% said they purchase from socially responsible companies. As for Amazon, 17% of our members said they never shop there, 26% said “sometimes and I feel bad about it” and around half said they use Amazon only sometimes or rarely.
More ethical “everything”
Amazon famously calls itself “the everything store.” But there are other ecommerce sites that offer a wide range of products and do it in an ethical and ecofriendly way. They usually pack with less plastic or with sustainable materials, offset their shipping emissions and focus on earth-conscious items and brands. Their prices might be a bit higher but they don’t inflict a large hidden cost on their workers, our planet and its people.
DoneGood has clothing, bags and totes, home accessories, kitchenware, jewelry, self-care and a lot more. The DoneGood team vets every brand to make sure it pays decent wages, empowers communities and has ecofriendly practices.
There is eBay, of course, where you can shrink your shopping footprint by purchasing secondhand. Also check out eBay Refurbished, which sells reconditioned products up to 50% off the list price, with warranties as good or better than the original warranties. And Etsy, the global marketplace that supports
independent creators of crafts, housewares, art, soap, planters, T-shirts and much more. In 2020, it generated almost $4 billion in income for small businesses.
Other sustainable, ethical alternatives to Amazon include:
- EarthHero: home, kitchen, cleaning, beauty, pets.
- Grove Collaborative: nontoxic, cruelty-free household supplies, personal care and wellness.
- Hive: household goods, beauty products and groceries.
- Made Trade: home goods, furniture, gifts and clothing.
- Package Free: home, beauty, kitchen.
- Ten Thousand Villages: fair trade gifts and accessories made by artisans around the world.
- Thrive Market: up to 30% off organic and non-GMO groceries.
Books not from Amazon
Local bookstores are what Amazon isn’t: a relaxing space to be around books and other people who enjoy them. And that’s why bookstores continue to thrive. In 2023, more than 200 new independent bookstores opened, while membership in the American Booksellers Association grew by 11%.
A lot of those bookstores now offer what Amazon does: delivery. If you have a bookstore in your town, there is a good chance it will bring books to your door.
If you want to shop online, there is a “neighborhood” bookstore on the internet: Bookshop.org, where you’ll find just about any book you can find at Amazon—and the community feeling that makes your local bookstore such a joy, albeit in virtual form.
Better still, Bookshop.org supports independent booksellers around the world. It knows local bookstores are vital hubs that foster culture, curiosity and a love of reading, and it’s committed to helping them. The site gives independent bookstores a platform to compete against Amazon, as every purchase at the site supports independent bookstores financially and helps them maintain their presence in local communities. Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $28 million for independent bookstores.
CREDO Mobile has partnered with Bookshop.org and you can visit our affiliate store if you’re looking for a shortcut to progressive books or books by LGBTQ+ and BIPOC authors. Make a purchase at the CREDO Mobile store and you’ll also generate donations for the progressive nonprofits we support. (We’ll earn a commission if you click through from our affiliate site and make a purchase at Bookshop.org.)
A phone company that connects with you
Every day, more people are choosing to do business with companies that share their values. They’re shopping local stores instead of Amazon. They’re opting for sustainable clothes instead of sweatshop fast-fashion. They’re buying reusable tumblers instead of drinks in plastic bottles. In fact, over 80% of consumers now say they prefer brands whose values align with their own.
Does this sound like you? Then join us. Switch to CREDO Mobile, the phone company that shares your progressive values.
You’ll get all you need from your mobile service: the nation’s top-rated network, competitive plans and great deals on new devices.
And you’ll get much more: a powerful way to support your values whenever you use your phone. Our unique donations program generates funding for progressive nonprofits working hard to make our planet a more free, fair and sustainable place. Since 1985, we’ve donated over $95 million to nonprofit groups like Earthjustice, Rainforest Action Network and Stand.earth. These donations cost our members nothing extra. But they mean everything to the groups that depend on us.
