New campaign aims to convert intelligence staff

A new campaign has kicked off in Germany in an effort to encourage employees of the NSA and British spy agency GCHQ to quit their jobs.

Launched by a group of Berlin-based anti-surveillance activists on Monday, Intelexit wants the employees of the American and British intelligence community to reconsider their profession, WIRED reported.

The group has started the project by installing billboards near the agencies’ headquarters.

One reading “listen to your heart, not to private phone calls,” was installed near the Dagger Complex, a military base and an outpost of the US National Security Agency in the southwestern German city of Darmstadt.

GCHQ, British Government Communications Headquarters, would also see a billboard near one of its centers in Gloucestershire’s Cheltenham.

That one carries the text “the intelligence community needs a backdoor,” ironically touching on the intelligence agencies’ demands to have access to citizens’ decrypted communications.

A van was also set to patrol around the NSA’s Fort Meade headquarters in Maryland, featuring the message.