Today, the rights of individuals are being eroded: by government, by corporations, by society itself.

Individual-i is a new campaign launched by Bruce Schneier, an internationally renowed writer and speaker on personal privacy and security issues.

The campaign is centered around the symbol displayed here, a "vaguely humanoid capital letter I", which is intended to be an easily recognizable symbol for the right to privacy and anonymity in the information age. This icon — the Individual-i — represents the rights of the individual.

It represents the rights to an open government, due process, and equal protection under the law.

It represents the right to live surveillance free, and not to be marked as "suspicious" for wanting these other rights.

It recognizes that a free society is a safe society, and that freedom is founded upon individual rights.

The battle for individual rights is just beginning and our side needs a symbol like this badly.

Launching a campaign such as this, via the online world, centered around a simple but enigmatic symbol, is a terrific idea.

If you believe passionately in individual rights and have a Web site, or write your own blog, what could be simpler than pasting the image (and a link back to www.individual-i.com) into your homepage, thereby instantaneously demonstrating to your subscribers, and passing visitors, that one of your core beliefs and principles is that of individual liberty.

Bruce Schneier isn't claiming any ownership or control, hoping that the symbol spreads organically, like a meme.

"The Individual-i symbol is not owned by any organization. There is no platform, no organizational structure, no meetings.

This symbol is in the public domain: uncopyrighted, untrademarked, unowned. Anyone can use it for any purpose."

One way to help the meme to spread would be to use social bookmarking tools, such as del.cio.us, Furl and Spurl, to 'tag' sites which display the symbol. The tag "individual-i" has already been created within bookmarking tools such as del.icio.us, Furl, Flickr and Technorati. So now, whenever you come across a Web site or blog that you are particularly impressed by, in terms of the quality, accuracy, credibility, or whichever virtue you think AND you notice the Individual-i symbol, then tag it appropriately.

So, if you believe passionately in:

• Freedom from surveillance


• Personal privacy


• Anonymity


• Equal protection


• Due process


• Freedom to read, write, think, speak, associate, and travel


• The right to make your own choices about sex, reproduction, marriage, and death


• The right to dissent

and you own a Web site or blog, add the image. Or, if you use social bookmarking tools when surfing the Web, remember to add the "individual-i" tag to your bookmarked sites, as appropriate.

Start making waves!