https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/16/big-tech-breakup-parties
"Imani Thompson shows up at Wonderville Bar in Brooklyn looking ready for a DJ
set, or to drink, or to dance the night away with friends. While she’ll
probably do the latter, she’s also a cybersecurity organizer leading the
evening’s event.
Thompson is the host, along with the New York City-based tech organizing
coalition Cypurr Collective, of
Break Up With Google. Its purpose isn’t a
mystery; the main goal is to help attenders understand how to mitigate their
vulnerability to surveillance through major tech services. But it’s also
important for people to have fun while they do it, Thompson said – hence the
DJs playing until the wee hours of the morning.
“People need a familiar environment to deal with a little friction,” Thompson
said. “Learning to script a little at your local bar is less
fight-or-flight-inducing than doing [it] in an environment that feels like
school.”
Thompson, 26, has hosted lots of these events, which she calls “cybersecurity
disguised as a party”. Wine nights with friends, gatherings at a local lesbian
bar and the February get-together are all designed for people who want to
divest from companies like Google, Microsoft and Apple. At one of these
parties, participants might sip cocktails and flirt with strangers while they
learn how to get their personal data scrubbed from search engines or how to
turn on their phone’s most advanced privacy settings.
Other workshops, conferences and parties are popping up across the country, too
– in Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta and Pittsburgh – where activists are
teaching communities how to regain agency over their digital lives by using
more secure, transparently run platforms or even building their own digital
tools.
According to a YouGov poll conducted in December, 61% of Americans are
concerned about their digital security, saying that limiting access to personal
data is very important to them, but only 33% say they’re actively doing
something about it. The tech privacy-focused conferences, workshops and meetups
are giving people the support and agency to protect that information without
giving up the tech that underpins modern life.
“When it comes to digital security, the idea is not ‘I have nothing to hide’,”
Thompson said, “but rather ‘I have something to protect’.”"
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
