WE ARE ALWAYS LISTENING

People claimed they didn’t care about the NSA’s domestic spying. Then Jeff Greenspan and I spied on them as (unofficial) NSA subcontractors. All of a sudden, they cared.

 

How It Started

I went to cafes and restaurants around NYC, taping old micro cassette recorders, stamped with “Property of NSA” under tables.

 
 

The Launch

We sent this note, along with a recorder and video to a journalist at Wired. The next day, it was their front page.

The Story

Word of the project exploded across Twitter, and drove a steady stream of visitors to WeAreAlwaysListening.com (offline now)

The Site

Visitors to the site were greeted with this announcement, which included a link to the recordings section.

The Recordings

Each audio post was titled “We’re listening as...” Like this one where “we’re listening as you discuss your most intimate moments.”

The Action

For those bothered by this type of surveillance, we offered an "angry" link. This took them to an ACLU page where they could urge their government reps to end this type of data collection during an upcoming vote on the Patriot Act.