Burlington Hackers Want to Help Vermonters Opt Out of NSA Surveillance

Want to hide your digital tracks from the prying eyes of the National Security Agency? A group of Burlington hackers wants to help you.

Matt Cropp of Burlington’s community hackerspace, Laboratory B, says he and his pals have burned 100 copies of TAILS Linux on DVDs. They plan to hand them out on Saturday, February 1 at “NSA Out of Control,” Sen. Bernie Sanders’ town meeting at Montpelier City Hall. “TAILS is a fairly user-friendly live OS that can be booted from a DVD,” he writes in an email. “[It] routes all internet traffic through [anonymity network] TOR, and contains a whole slew of privacy tools that are already configured. The general goal is to give folks concerned with NSA over-reach the tools to opt out of the panopticon regardless of what’s happening in the political system.”

Cropp says the group plans to follow up the distribution with one or more “cryptoparties,” presumably at Laboratory B, for people curious about more advanced privacy tools. The hackerspace recently hosted a “Satoshi Square” meetup for fans of crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin.

Getting a copy of TAILS Linux isn’t the only reason to attend Saturday’s event — Sen. Sanders will be joined by Georgetown Law School professor David Cole and Heidi Boghosian, the executive director of the National Lawyers Guild, who will also address government and corporate surveillance.

Sanders made headlines a couple weeks ago when he asked the NSA whether it was spying on him and the agency refused to reply, explaining that doing so would violate his civil rights.