Washington, DC – The Government Accountability Project (GAP) is distributing and encouraging use of a Privacy Statement for all Internet users to adopt as part of their signature line in their online communications. Similar to the standard legal disclaimers found at the end of many emails, this Privacy Statement goes further by explicitly prohibiting the collection of the communication and related metadata by the National Security Agency (NSA), consistent with the disclosures of the bulk metadata collection programrevealed by GAP client Edward Snowden in June 2013.
“For anyone who wonders what they can do about the surveillance state, this is one very tangible act ofprotest you can perform today,” stated GAP Executive Director Beatrice Edwards. “This is a reminder to both senders and recipients that dragnet warrantless surveillance affects us all. It’s illegal and highly intrusive in our daily lives.”
The 2014 GAP Privacy Statement reads as follows:
This communication may be unlawfully collected and stored by the National Security Agency (NSA) in secret. The parties to this email do not consent to the retrieving or storing of this communication and any related metadata, as well as printing, copying, re-transmitting, disseminating, or otherwise using it. If you believe you have received this communication in error, please delete it immediately.
GAP encourages all participating in the February 11 Day We Fight Back, sponsored by the ACLU, Access, Demand Progress, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, Free Press, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Mozilla, Reddit, ThoughtWorks and many others, to include this message as part of their stand against mass surveillance.
GAP champions government and corporate accountability and transparency by defending whistleblowers and advancing occupational free speech. Since its founding in 1977, GAP has helped in the effective exercise of conscience of over 5,000 whistleblowers.
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