Gloria Spindle – Peng! Collective: Intelexit

Angel: Now I am very happy to have you all here

for the next talk on a really important topic.

And we all called last year for

more creative campaigns on all our issues,

that we talk about here at congress.

And so the Peng! Collective thought about a

really creative campaign that also got

a lot of attention in the last year.

And because they call for all

the intelligence officers to really exit

their careers and to find some other

more valuable service to our society,

I'm very honoured to introduce

Gloria Spindle to you,

who is a former Google nest employee,

—You might remember that great campaign—

and will now present the "Intelexit" to you.

Thank you! Your Applause!

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silence on the audio stream

Gloria: Hello!

And hello to all the live streaming people
out there as well.

Blubb blubb we can see you!

I hear they're a lot, maybe more than
what's in this room.

All the lights are dimming.

Okay, so! I don't know if anyone else

is as interested in the parts

of the Snowdon documents as I am,

which are the kind of little cultural titbits
that you find that give you a sense of

what it's like to be within the Secret Service.

I'm really kind of fascinated
by this particular gentleman.

The SIGINT Philosopher, who was a columnist

for the NSA on the internal news letter

and he is really quite creative

and he writes a lot of pieces

about the ethical quandaries of working
in the Secret Services.

And most of them end with just like:

"You should just like keep your head down
and you should just keep doing

what you're supposed to be doing,

'cause that's the best way to go ahead
and protect your county."

So this quote is really the kind of crux

of what the “Intelexit” Initiative
is founded on.

We recognise that people who are working

in the Secret Services, and I'm sure

some of you in the audience tonight

are working in the Secret Services

— pretty certain there are some disgruntled, maybe unhappy,

maybe ethically confused people
working in spy agencies,

maybe you're just a contractor

and you feel like: Oh I'm not so involved,

but I still feel like
I have blood on my hands.

And those are the people
that “Intelexit” is talking to.

very mild applause

That was like have a clap.
I mean come on, people!

applause

Thank you! Thank you! Jesus!

Don't be afraid of clapping!

So those are the people that “Intelexit”
is really talking to.

And we wanted to reach out to those people,

because there hasn't been a campaign yet
that has actually recognised,

that they are humans working,

thousands and thousands of people

going every day to their surveillance jobs,
operating drones

and even the people who are just

answering emails or you know pushing paper,

running the photocopy machine,
if they even have those.

— Who knows what they have in there —

Those People,
they are people who obviously

have ethical issues about working

in these systems

and feel responsible
for mass surveillance,

drone warfare and the slow, maybe fast,

degradation of democracy as we know it.

So, introducing “Intelexit”!

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So what Intelexit does is

it's an initiative, a civil initiative

grounded in the idea that we
need to find a way

to support people who want to leave

their jobs at the Secret Services

and we need to normalise
the idea of quitting.

applause

Because actually it's a very just and

sometimes honourable thing to do,

just to follow your ethics and

give up your job,

if you don't feel like you're contributing
to society in a good way.

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So that’s why Intelexit pitch.

Some of you might know:

I'm from Peng! as it was introduced earlier

and we are known for our hoaxes

and our media hacks and our culture jamming.

So intelexit is been a really, really
interesting campaign for us

and I’ll explain it as I go.

Because of course you see it's a bit of

performance and it's a bit of humour

but it's also very serious at the same time.

So, just to introduce Peng! to you,

for those who don't know.

Here we were... this was at re:publica

impersonating Google managers and

presenting some really creepy,

data collecting products.

A personal drone for daily life,

an app that monitors your well-being,
emotional well being,

and matches you with other people
who also need a hug

and creepy thing about that is most

of this distopian visions have now actually

come to light and are existing

in the real world today.

Actually people do use drones
to follow their children to school.

That's a real thing.

So and here we are impersonating the
leading party of Germany

and here we are in live television,
cracking an egg over the head of a presenter

of a very dodgy television program

and this was our program to self....

provide self help for trolls,
sexist trolls on twitter

and that was our self help coach.

We had a bot army which was analyse...

we had a language analysis
happening on twitter

and then we had an army of 160 bots

which were going out and enrolling trolls

on twitter into our self help program

and sending them nice inspirational videos

every day to help cure them.

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So as you can see we have a...

we utilise a range
of tactics and techniques

in what we call campaigning.

Some people call it art,
some people call it theatre,

some people call it a joke,
some call it entertainment,

but we see it as campaigning
and what we are constantly trying to do

is to shift the narrative.
We look at...

shift the narrative around
various social justice issues.

We look at issues we think that really need

a kind of different spin
happening in the media

and we take them and find a way to
reframe them and then we push them out

and hope that we get a lot of attention.

So we started looking at the issue of

surveillance and the Secret Services.

And, well, quickly one runs into the obstacle

of how do you talk about this.

Like we have this clichés of, you know,

the eye and, you know, Edward Snowden’s face

and we have these visuals that kind of

don't really mean anything anymore

and everyone really struggles
to actually understand

what the issue means and how do we talk about

the Secret Services,
when they're completely inaccessible to us?

So this a photo, for example, of the regulations

for taking photographs at Fort Meade.

You see, you’re not really allowed
to take photographs of the buildings.

So if you start with that as a kind of metaphor

for the inaccessibility of the Secret Services

to our general culture.

We don't even have visuals for them.

We've got like one photo of the NSA
that floats around the internet

and just gets repurposed and repurposed.

We can't access these people,

we can't access their structures,
we can't access their information.

Yes we have leaks now,
but how do we actually open it up more?

And that was the question,
we kept asking ourselves.

You've got this issue of intangibility

and then you also got the issue that

everything is so secret.

I mean even if a Christmas card
is sent internally in the NSA,

it's classified as top secret.

Then you've got technology which is so complicated

the general public can't understand it

and it's like all these acronyms and these

weird flow charts and bad design

and it's just really complicated.

And then of course there is fear.

And Fear is really crippling for activists

like ourselves, for civil society.
It is really difficult.

We don't want to broach this issue.

We don't want to step into it,

because it's scary,
because once you step into it,

it means that you are
a target, of course.

And also, funny enough, fear is also the way

the narrative is often shaped.

This is what we use,
to try and raise awareness

about surveillance.
We make people afraid.

We, you know, we talk about this invincible,

dark danger of surveillance
creeping in on us.

No one knows,
if they’re being watched or not.

And this, we think, is a narrative
that really needs to be shifted.

So we wanted to find a way to bring hope,

to bring a positive image to this narrative

and also to bring it down to humans

like not to talk about technology,

not to talk about these
dark and complex systems

but to talk about the people

and talk to the people who are upholding
these structures.

So this is what we came up with:

off-voice from video:
Right now, thousands of people work

in the shadows
of the intelligence community.

They don't ask questions.

They follow orders.

Keep their heads down,

do their work.

But what happens,
when you see something you can't forget?

And you realise that the system you are

part of is chipping away our democracy

every hour, every day.

You feel stuck,
overwhelmed.

Some people have already made
the decision to leave.

Others are thinking about it every day.

Intelexit helps people break free
from the intelligence community

and build a new life.

You expose yourself within the system,

you ultimately end up
being forced out of the system.

I remember confronting my immediate supervisor

the number 3 person: What are we doing?

We are violating the constitution!

– Many Secret Service employees are disillusioned.

– Why are we taking equipment

—it is traditionally for foreign facing,
outward facing—

and we're now instrumenting our networks

within the United States of America?

- If you're surveilling the population,
you're all on the same side.

Right? You want all the data and you want to
talk to people who have the most data.

So the NSA is a
nexus of surveillance for the world.

– It's what ever you can get away with.

That was part of the "game".

And whatever would serve
as the interest of "national security".

– When one is forced to act against one's
moral values, they can experience

extreme levels of
what we call cognitive dissonance.

– I was radioactive because
I'm questioning what are we doing.

Where do you then go?
Where does your life then …

Where do you recreate your life?

– What Intelexit does is help individuals

transition from the world on the inside

to the world on the outside.

– The more you can move
from the inside to the outside,

the better you'll integrate
into the real world.

– What is really great about Intelexit is
that it helps people to confront their fears.

– So take it from me:

If you're looking to get out,
try Intelexit!

– Be smart. Exit intelligence now.

roaring applause

I was really impressed
with Bruce Schneier there.

Bruce Schneier is just amazing without end.

I mean, who knew he had those talents?

Someone take him to acting school.

Like, it's amazing!

Okay, so then we made the video,

but of course we knew, we know
that the people that we are talking to

the spies, are some of the
most introverted people in the world.

And probably some of them the people

most stuck in a filter bubble in the world.

So we knew we had to kind of
take our preach further

and we had to go to where they are.

So you know we thought big and we pretended

we just forgot about that we didn't really
have a budget.

And so we just hired a van.
Because that's what you do.

So we just hired this van and drove around

Fort Meade and the NSA buildings,

tried as much as we could to get
as close as possible to them as we could.

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So this is outside Lockheed Martin

on a national business parkway.

The main area of all the NSA contractors

and they are really best friend with the NSA
and now they started making drones as well.

They’ve been supplying technology
to the military and the CIA and NSA forever.

So that’s us parked outside there,
giving them a strong moral punch

with the slogan.

And then we went to one of the most popular

cafes where NSA officers and contractors
like to go for lunch.

This Café JOE.
And we parked out there

during lunch time as well.

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And then of course, because you can't talk

about the Secret Services in one country
without talking about the other ones,

'cause they are all in bed with each other,

we of course had to go to the UK as well.

So here we are outside the "Donut" and
this is us trying …

okay, to be honest
laughing

that's trying to hand out flyer, brochures
to the people.

Like that was our plan.

We were gonna hand them out
to the employees on their way to work.

And they were just like imitates engine roar
they had, like, been briefed..

or I don't know.
They were just ignoring us.

And also maybe we didn't brief that guy

very well on what to dress
as an Intelexit ambassador.

And then we hit all the …
laughter in the audience

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This is outside the Dagger Complex in Germany.

One of the lesser known spots for the NSA

where they kind of have a central hub

for the signal's intelligence
gathering in Europe,

it's been written about in the Spiegel.

Very secret, very difficult
to get there as well.

And there we are, again,
from the other side.

And that is the antenna
from the Dagger Complex.

And then we also went to Wiesbaden,

which is the traditional
home of the US military in Germany

And the Clay Kaserne Building!

This is where supposedly, forthcoming

is going to be
one of the NSA’s biggest buildings

and operations in Europe,
also all very secret.

No one knows what's going on.

And then we went to the
US Embassy in Berlin.

And this for non German speakers just says:

"Enough with paranoia!"

This is why we had the like
dadaistic pineapple on there.

"We’re helping you to
get out of the Secret Services!"

And then we went to the
German Secret Services as well.

This is there new office block,
the Bundesnachrichtendienst

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and we also went
to the old offices, just in case.

laughter and applause

And then we went to …
—we did a lot in a week—

we went to the Verfassungsschutz which is

the domestic intelligence in Germany.

And this is located in Köln,
to remind them about

—so the Verfassungsschutz actually
stands for roughly translated in English is:

Protectors of the constitution—

and in order to remind them about
the constitution

we stuck the constitution on their wall there.

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And then there they are ripping it up.

This was like a dream we had
for a very long time

and finally we have realized it. laughing

And then we thought we take a bigger step...

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laughter in the audience

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applause in the audience

According to sources, Intelexit website

was blocked on the internal network
after that dropped.

So that was our week and that was Intelexit.

And I just want to
share a few learnings with you,

because it was a very
interesting campaign for us

and one of a kind, really.

So I think the first thing
on a very kind of

just basic level is that it is possible

to talk about this issue
without creating fear,

without making everyone, you know,

really worried about their information

and the data and their general feeling
of well-being.

There is a way of kind of shift the narrative

and look more at the outside and stop

holding the defensive.

Okay, then second thing is that

they are just as good in faking as we are.

This was the response from the GCHQ to a

journalist question for an article about
Intelexit, which is amazing,

because they basically just said
that they don’t do

anything unlawful and they actively encourage

staff to discuss any concerns that they have

inside, which we all know is not true.

And they also they really pride themselves

on the structures they have in place
to support this.

So I think this was
the biggest surprise for us.

Like we are always dealing in this kind of

projecting of either utopias or distopias

out into the world

and sometimes when you have a vision

and you project something out,

actually it kind of turns into reality.

And that's what happened.

You know, we played this line of

yes it's sort of a fake, but at the same time

we really mean what we’re putting out here.

Yes, we actually think there should be
an Intelexit Foundation created.

And there should be loads of money

flowing in for people who want to get out.

And there should be a civil way to exit.

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But, you know, what can we do?

We're just like a small art collective

in Berlin. You know.

We can make a big wave, but we're

quite limited on our resources.

But actually we got responses,

we got people coming to us

and that was a real surprise

and we realised we have
a lot of responsibility, too.

And so, this is the other learning that

there is no clear line
between insanity and reality.

So you kind of constantly, when you get

people contacting you this like,

of course you get people who think that

they are pursued by the CIA

or think that they used to work at the secret
service

and then there is people who talk to aliens

and these kinds of things

and then you get people with really legitimate
stories

and there is a kind of constant balance

and we really had to learn how to

assess these.

And luckily we had amazing support from

investigative journalists, particularly from

whistle-blower platforms who have experience

with this and help us.

But that's just part of the game.

Okay, I think this is our other learning,

that we realised, that

at the end of this week,

there really is a need for this.

There is a need to respond to kind of

discourse that's out there

and create a new one

and then there is also really a need to

provide this kind of support and

actually reach out to people who are

trapped in these structures and want to get
out.

So we've been working really hard and trying

to build up networks of support with people

who have legal skills,

who have psychological training

and who can also help, if people want to

get out and leak or blow the whistle,

who can help with that.

So we kind of at the moment when people come

we are trying to direct them to the right
resources.

Because of cause we're not

a whistle blowing platform.

And we are not a legal organisation,

so we can't provide a lot of things,

but we have good networks and we can try

and connect people with them.

So what's coming next?

We are trying to build up our infrastructure

so that people can actually have a very secure
way

to contact us.

We are building up this network of support

and we want to create a list of future

employers for people who actually do leave

the secret services so that they can find

places to get jobs afterwards.

And we want to continue doing more

outreach and more campaigning on this issue

and I think that that is our main goal.

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That's a safe within a safe,

which is now part of our kind of secure

infrastructure in our offices,

thanks to the support of very experienced

and knowledgeable expert people

who can help us set up the kind of

the best way for people to kind of

to enter the risk assessment to enter the

best means of communicating with us.

And then on our outreach plans

we really want to create a way to talk to

people who're working in the secret services

for an every day person in this audience

or on the stage just to call up the NSA

or the BND or the GCHQ and get through

to someone who is sitting in their office

on their phone and have a conversation

with them like callcenter-style.

You know like: How are you doing today?

Can we talk about your job?

How do you feel about working at the

secret services?

We want to create an anonymous reaching

system for someone to call completely

anonymously to a set of numbers

which we can't reveal the source of

and to reach out to these people.

So of course we need support and help.

And these are all the things you can help
us with.

If you got skills, we need all kinds of skills,

we need skills to build up this call center

operation of ours, so that people can actually

anonymously call and we can have something

that is very exciting and we can premier at

events.

So that you can actually have

call center operations on stage calling up

doing it live.

And then we also need people who will

translate our materials.

We would like to get them into other

languages, we only have English and German
atm.

And we would like to kind of reach out more

internationally.

And if you've got connections,

well that's also always good,

if you've got people who are lawyers,

who have experience working with people

who are either in trauma or

people who have been in the secret service

for example.

Legal skills, psychological skills,

journalists - we need all those kinds of

connections in different jurisdictions.

We are pretty well set up in Berlin and

in Germany, but we really need help

in the UK and the US as well for now.

And then if you've got ideas for outreach

for new actions we are also really open

to hearing those.

We've got the call center idea at the moment.

Calling up the spies.

We want new ideas and if you know people

who are working there just have that

conversation with them.

Just start a conversation about you know,

ethics of the workplace.

applause

And now... the big question...

And I even do that to say how important it
is.

If you like Peng!'s work we are not ashamed

any more. We were ashamed for a long time

to ask for money,

but we're not ashamed any more.

We live of idealism alone, people,

and we need help to keep our actions going!

This year I think we did 6 actions or something

really large campaigns and we need help to

kind of support our infrastructure,

to support our staff,

to support our projects more than anything,

so that we can keep on doing what we are doing.

So we've developed a way for you to become

a monkey donator which I highly recommend

great feelings of positivity and love will

travel with you for many years after

you have done this.

Mother Theresa said:

If you can't feed a hundred penguins,

then just feed one."

So, feed one of us!

Even if it's just like the pinky finger of

one of us and sign up for a year to

keep seeing great action coming out

from Peng!

And that's me.

And we've got one more thing,

surprise!
Where are you? Hello!

So we have one other way to donate,

which is that you can buy one of the

awesome Intelexit T-shirts,

which Paul is gonna come here and model

for us quickly.

laughing and applause

And there's a run for your life!

That's the kind of lame one...

but these ones are cool!

Thank you!

Are we meeting afterwards?

I think we're going to have...

We don't have time for questions

and answers now.

But we really want to get feedback

from people.

I think there is an IRC Chat or Radio happening,

but if people want to come we're going

to meet.

Where are we meeting?

In front!

laughing

Of this huge hall.

Can someone give me a location,

I only got here today...

Can you give us a location?

Herald: Okay, So it's sensible to meet

at the tea tent I suppose.

Gloria: Tea tent!

In 15 minutes!

Herald: In front of hall 2, there is a big
tea tent,

where you get tea, where you also

meet many other people who are working

in this direction therefore, right?

Gloria: Yes!

Herald: And I have one question still,

because you told we can support on the Internet

is there also a way to donate anonymously?

Gloria: Well, you can donate with bitcoin

or you can just give us cash.

Herald: Everybody, big piles of cash,

bring them here!

Gloria: Not saying no to cash...

Herald: Thank you, Gloria!

Gloria: Ah, they got a bag!

Herald: And there is a bag for cash!

laughing

Gloria: You can put it in very anonymously
here.

laughing

Herald: Bring your blocking for your face

if you really want to be anonymous.

Thank you, Gloria!

Everybody who wants to come,

please go to the tea tent!

applause

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