Imani Thompson arrived at Wonderville Bar in Brooklyn dressed for a night out, but she was there to help people sever ties with Google. The 26-year-old cybersecurity organizer hosts what she calls "cybersecurity disguised as a party," blending dance floors and cocktails with practical lessons on digital self-defense.
The Brooklyn event, organized alongside the Cypurr Collective, is called Break Up With Google. Its stated mission is straightforward: teach attendees how to reduce their exposure to surveillance by major tech firms. But Thompson insists the social element matters equally. "People need a familiar environment to deal with a little friction," she 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 has hosted variations on this model repeatedly. Wine nights with friends. Gatherings at a local lesbian bar. The format stays consistent: participants sip drinks and socialize while learning how to scrub their personal data from search engines or activate advanced privacy settings on their phones. It works because it feels normal.
Similar events are now occurring across the country. Activists in Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta and Pittsburgh are running workshops, conferences and parties designed to help people regain control of their digital footprints. Some attendees learn to migrate toward more secure, transparent platforms. Others collaborate on building their own digital tools entirely.
The demand appears real. A YouGov poll from December found that 61% of Americans worry about their digital security and consider limiting data access important. Yet only 33% actively take steps to protect themselves. These community gatherings aim to close that gap by making the leap feel achievable and social rather than isolating.
Why the urgency matters
The tech companies most people depend on daily serve a dual purpose. They solve real problems: messaging friends, shopping, navigation. They also expose users profoundly. The data these firms collect allows them to infer precise personal details, from sexual violence to financial hardship, according to Luc Rocher, a senior research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute.
That information flows through real-time bidding auctions where companies bid for the chance to show targeted ads to specific users. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties likens the process to experiencing a data breach 747 times daily.
Government surveillance compounds the problem. The National Security Agency has collected Americans' phone and internet data for years under various programs. In 2023, the FBI acknowledged overstepping legal authority to monitor protesters involved in 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations. Congress recently approved an $85 billion budget increase for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with funds directed toward contracts with Palantir, an AI firm designed for intelligence agencies, and Paragon, Israeli spyware technology. The Department of Homeland Security is actively surveilling protests in Minnesota, Los Angeles and other cities, though the methods remain unclear. Last month, FBI Director Kash Patel admitted during congressional testimony that his agency purchases Americans' data through online brokers.
Beyond government reach, tech giants wield extraordinary power over daily life: how people communicate, what they buy, how their appliances function. Companies like Meta and OpenAI, which once promised connection and free expression, now primarily extract user attention and data to enrich shareholders and erode democratic safeguards.
Daly Barnett, a senior researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, frames the stakes plainly. "Generally speaking, we're living under the most sophisticated surveillance apparatus in all of human history," he said. "While the reach and sophistication of these surveillance apparatuses escalate, so too are authoritarian movements. It makes sense those two things would escalate at the same time, but people are recognizing those two trends and trying to figure out what to do about it."
Building alternatives
In Seattle, Resist Tech Monopolies runs community book clubs, movie nights and educational events introducing attendees to alternative tech concepts. The group has experienced explosive growth. "We had to pause onboarding because our interest form has been growing faster than what we can keep up with," said Fairouz, a volunteer whose full name is withheld for privacy reasons. "We see interest from both tech-savvy and non-tech-savvy people, most notably from political and grassroots groups that want to train their members and community."
Resist Tech Monopolies belongs to Co-op Cloud, an international tech federation committed to building and sharing libre software tools. LibreOffice replaces Microsoft Office. Apache serves as an alternative web server. The model emphasizes transparency, democratic design and sustainability. Anyone can contribute, from programmers to artists to teachers to ethicists.
In Los Angeles, a workshop at TAPE, a digital archive space, produced a practical example. One participant created a voicemail exporter that allows iPhone users to download their messages to a laptop or hard drive, eliminating reliance on Apple's servers and reducing vulnerability to corporate surveillance or government access.
Jackie Forsyte, an archivist at TAPE who co-led the workshop, explained the underlying principle. "Apple uses third-party Google and Amazon datacenters to store user data. When data is out of your hands and into the hands of a corporation, you lose autonomy, period. Let alone the risks if a corporation bends to the political will of an administration or police agency, it puts sensitive data at risk."
The irony is not lost on organizers. Thompson, TAPE and others rely on Instagram to advertise their events. Full escape from corporate tech ecosystems remains impractical. But accessible tools exist right now: Privacy Badger, a browser extension, or ProtonMail, encrypted email service. These reduce exposure without requiring users to abandon technology entirely.
Thompson continues hosting de-Googling parties with a simple goal. "I just want people to feel empowered in general in their relationships to technology," she said. "I'm finding when people dip their toes, they get really excited and creative."
Author James Rodriguez: "Turning surveillance resistance into a social event is clever, but the real test is whether bar-room pledges stick once people go home to their Gmail inboxes."
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