Small Actions Matter

There is so much to do in the movement for better privacy rights. So much, that it's sometimes easy to feel discouraged when facing the scale of what's left to accomplish. But everything helps. Every small improvement counts, and every small victory should be celebrated.

Even if you don't feel like you have the energy to move a mountain today, there are plenty of small actions you can do.

Moreover, you don't have to move this mountain alone! If you push on it a little today, and a thousand people join you tomorrow, then a thousand more the day after, this mountain will eventually move.

Here's why every action and each victory matter, no matter how small:

Small actions cumulate over time, and with numbers

Discouragement often emerges from envisioning too much of what's left to do at once. While it's important to expand your perspective, when it comes to action, it's also important to segment the task at hand into smaller bites.

Even if you do not have the resources to organize a large campaign around a privacy issue, do not minimize the power that you have.

All the small contributions you can make will culminate over time, and end up having a significant impact overall.

Additionally, you are not alone in this battle. If you can make a small contribution today, and perhaps convince one or two other advocates to do the same, you have already contributed significantly to the movement.

Divide your big ideas in small bites

Whenever you have a big idea to attack a privacy issue, make sure to plan out your action by splitting up the task over time, and delegating to allies.

For example, if you want to organize a petition, perhaps ask one person to help with the website infrastructure, another with the design, another with the text, and another with the backend. Then, instead of trying to collect one million signatures by yourself, try to find allies and ask if they can help collect a few signatures each. Multiply your small impact by delegating to many.

Each person who signs the petition is contributing their own small action. Each person who helps spread the word about the petition is adding another small action. And each person who contributes to promoting the petition on their own channels helps as well. All this counts, and it all matters.

What can seem like a large project at first can become much more realistic and manageable after delegating and splitting up the tasks.

Evaluate your resources, and see what's possible within these limitations

What you can accomplish will, of course, depend on the resources you have access to. If you are an individual, or a small organization with a very tight budget, you will not be able to commit as many resources as a large organization with lots of employees and stable funding.

But regardless of the resources you have, there's always something you can do to contribute.

Here are examples of some actions you might be able to do, from small tasks to larger projects:

• Sign a petition related to an ongoing privacy issue, and encourage others to do the same.

• Write a social media post about an ongoing campaign from a digital rights organization you care about.

• Write a social media post about an ongoing privacy issue you care about.

• Contact your local representatives to tell them how privacy rights are important to you or your organization.

• Donate to a privacy organization and promote a privacy project you like.

• Contribute to a privacy project you like that is looking for volunteers.

• Build a web page to inform the public on a privacy issue (e.g. Patrick Breyer's Chat Control page).

• Build a web form or application to inform the public and facilitate taking action against a specific privacy issue (e.g. Fight Chat Control, Stop Online ID Checks).

• Find organizations sharing your values to sign a public joint statement about an ongoing privacy issue.

• Read more on small and big tactics you can use for your privacy activism from the Activist Handbook.

More resources

• Privacy is not dead: Beware the all-or-nothing mindset (Privacy Guides)

• Learn about Points of Intervention to better plan and divide your actions (The Commons Social Change Library)

• Social change myths: What is a movement (The Commons Social Change Library)

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