To mark the one year anniversary of the first reporting based on information revealed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden on June 5, 2013, privacy advocates, organizations, and technology companies all over the world on Thursday are participating in\u00a0<\/span>‘Reset The Net<\/a><\/strong>‘\u2013an online day of action in which participants pledge to take real steps to protect online freedoms and fight back against mass surveillance.<\/span><\/p>\n “Don’t ask for your privacy,” goes the call issued by the campaign, “Take it back.”<\/p>\n Coordinated by a broad coalition of policy organizations and activist groups\u2013and initiated byFight For the Future<\/a>\u2013’Reset The Net<\/a><\/strong>‘ calls on websites, app developers, organizations, and individual internet users to promote what they call “privacy packs<\/a>” so that people everywhere can have better access to online privacy and encryption tools.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, as a way to show its support for the day, internet giant Google announced\u00a0new end-to-end encryption methods<\/a>\u00a0for its widely used Gmail service.<\/p>\n Websites (including this one), tech companies, and advocay organizations of all stripes\u2013including Amnesty International, Greenpeace, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Common Dreams and\u00a0scores of others<\/a>\u2013have all signed on and pledged to improve their privacy protections for their members and users.<\/p>\n As just one example, Josh Levy, of media reform group\u00a0Free Press<\/a>, described what actions his group is taking in a blog post on Wednesday:<\/p>\n We\u2019ve removed every third-party tracker from our websites. The standard Facebook and Twitter buttons that you find across the Web \u2013 the ones those companies use to track your surfing behavior\u00a0whether or not you\u2019re actually logged in to their services<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 are gone. In their place are buttons that let you preserve your privacy while you share our stuff.<\/p>\n In that same spirit we\u2019ve removed Google Analytics from our site. While the service is helpful in telling us where our Web traffic comes from, it tracks your every move after you leave our properties. We find that behavior too intrusive. We\u2019re now using\u00a0Piwik<\/a>, the free and open-source Web analytics software thatrespects the privacy<\/a>\u00a0of Internet users.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And Snowden himself released the following statement in support of the day and its mission:<\/p>\n One year ago, we learned that the internet is under surveillance, and our activities are being monitored to create permanent records of our private lives \u2013 no matter how innocent or ordinary those lives might be.<\/p>\n Today, we can begin the work of effectively shutting down the collection of our online communications, even if the US Congress fails to do the same. That\u2019s why I\u2019m asking you to join me on June 5th for Reset the Net, when people and companies all over the world will come together to implement the technological solutions that can put an end to the mass surveillance programs of any government. This is the beginning of a moment where we the people begin to protect our universal human rights with the laws of nature rather than the laws of nations.<\/p>\n We have the technology, and adopting encryption is the first effective step that everyone can take to end mass surveillance. That\u2019s why I am excited for Reset the Net \u2013 it will mark the moment when we turn political expression into practical action, and protect ourselves on a large scale.<\/p>\n Join us on June 5th, and don\u2019t ask for your privacy. Take it back.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n