Gen Z for Change Launches “Eyes on AI” – A First-of-Its-Kind Tool Exposing Your Surveillance Footprint

Your Daily Habits Are Fueling a Massive Data Harvesting Operation

You DM friends on Instagram. You ride the subway every day. You’re a journalist. These simple facts alone place you squarely in the crosshairs of an expansive surveillance apparatus that knows your identity, your conversations, and your movements both online and offline.

And even if you’re careful about what you share with Big Tech, your daily digital footprint is a goldmine of surveillance data: the apps you use, facial recognition cameras in public spaces, AI assistants that know your preferences, the stores you visit, the smartwatches on your wrist, and the very phone you’re using to read this article. Even the most privacy-conscious individuals are leaking data constantly, but how do you identify your vulnerabilities and take action?

A groundbreaking campaign from youth digital advocacy organization Gen Z For Change aims to change that. Today, they launch “Eyes on AI” – a revolutionary assessment tool that reveals exactly how government agencies and their Big Tech partners are collecting your personal data.

The Surveillance State Has Gone Mainstream

Cheyenne Hunt, executive director of Gen Z For Change, explains that the current political climate has created an unprecedented surveillance threat to young organizers. Many of the group’s leaders are young people of color who have had negative encounters with government entities like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). As digital organizers, they face the cruel irony of needing to use the very platforms that threaten their safety.

“We’ve had to very quickly become keenly aware of the fact that we are being watched in a really intense and new way by the government and their partners and Big Tech,” said Hunt. “And that collusion is out in the open.”

But this isn’t just about activists or journalists. Everyone is vulnerable, Hunt emphasizes. With Eyes on AI, individuals across all demographics can assess their personal risk. “Warrantless surveillance is entirely legal and artificial intelligence is powering it,” the website warns visitors. “AI-powered surveillance tools are reading your data, learning your routine, and creating a profile of you to eat away at your privacy.”

The Tool That Feels Like Being Recruited (and Rejected) by a Spy Agency

The Eyes on AI assessment tool is deliberately designed to mimic the viral personality quizzes and meme games that flood social media – the kind that analyze your Spotify stats or the viral Rice Purity Test. But instead of something fun and silly, this tool reveals stakes that are genuinely alarming. “Your future is for sale,” the campaign reminds viewers.

Immediately upon interaction, the “agent” on the other end knows your IP address. You don’t need to provide any other personal information for it to understand how you’re being surveilled. All it needs to know is what apps you use, how you pay for groceries, whether you receive spam emails frequently, or if you’re currently a college student (it doesn’t even need to know your school).

This design choice is intentional, explains Dominique Demetz, Gen Z For Change creative director and one of the tool’s developers. The tool is meant to unsettle you because “we have normalized surveillance and data collection, which is not normal and actually very, very terrifying.”

No Personal Data Required – It Already Knows Enough

The tool’s brilliance lies in its ability to work without collecting any personally identifiable information that could be scraped and misused, such as race or immigration status. Yet it can still paint a remarkably accurate picture of your digital vulnerability.

“The goal is to show how every part of your life, from how you travel, what religious apps you use, your healthcare provider, is all connected in a web of surveillance,” said Hana Memon, Gen Z For Change digital strategist and Eyes on AI creator.

Importantly, the tool doesn’t save any user inputs or reports. Everything runs locally using JavaScript, and Gen Z For Change is making the entire project available on GitHub for transparency.

Built on Real Surveillance Research

Eyes on AI pulls data from respected digital privacy watchdogs including Surveillance Watch’s interactive databases, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Atlas of Surveillance, and Tech Equity’s labor resources covering bossware and employee monitoring.

The tool walks users through the numerous ways their lives are being recorded and monetized, then offers the option to download a comprehensive report with:

• Personalized recommendations to reduce data collection
• Resources about specific surveillance threats
• A glossary of top surveillance actors, including ICE and other government entities
• Tech-specific risk categories (automated license plate readers, predictive policing, etc.)

Gen Z For Change: From Social Media to Strategic Coding

Since its founding in 2020 as a youth-led, social media-focused movement builder, Gen Z For Change has evolved significantly. The organization now views strategic coding as a weapon against political and tech oligarchies that have wielded their influence to consolidate power.

Previous coding campaigns include the Gen Z for Palestine resource hub, immigration toolkit F.I.G.H.T., and abortion organizing tool S.A.F.E.R. The group has also created tools to pressure hotels to refuse boarding ICE agents and mobilized their creator network to support political candidates.

“Made with ❤️ by gen-z for change’s meddling kids,” the site proudly declares.

Coming to a City Near You

The campaign extends far beyond the digital tool. Gen Z For Change is preparing massive activations including:

• Creator network warnings to their combined 500 million followers
• Posters and billboards in major cities
• A massive 1984-style warning projected on the Brooklyn Bridge featuring Demetz’s own eye
• Federal policy advocacy (the U.S. still lacks comprehensive privacy regulation)

The team is already implementing their own recommendations, using encrypted messaging platforms, removing their information from data brokers, and being hyper-aware of their movements through public spaces.

“Young people have been used as lab rats by these companies,” said Hunt. Now, Gen Z For Change wants to help the rats fight back.

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