Participate
The volunteer network is invited-only
There is no download on this page, and there will not be one until several things exist that do not exist yet. This page explains the model in full anyway, because a participation programme that cannot be explained before it is joined should not be joined.
What the volunteer layer is
Civic Shield’s design includes a browser extension, distributed by invitation, that reads publicly visible pages on behalf of the project while a volunteer’s device is otherwise idle. The material it returns enters the same pipeline as everything else: it is screened, classified on Civic Shield’s own systems, and reviewed by a person before anything is done with it.
It exists because a distributed network of ordinary connections reaches material that a single automated reader does not, and because supporters who want to contribute something other than money should have a way to do it that is honest about what it involves.
What would run on your machine — and what never would
Runs on your machine
- Reading publicly visible pages.
- Only material that is published to be found. Nothing that requires being let in.
- Project-operated accounts, where accounts are used at all.
- Never your accounts, never your credentials, never your logged-in sessions.
- Idle-time operation.
- The extension works when your device is not in use, and stops when it is.
- A manual submit control.
- If you find something yourself, you can send it in deliberately. That is a decision you take, not something that happens in the background.
Never runs on your machine
- No classification.
- No language model, no scoring, no analysis runs on your device. All of it happens on Civic Shield’s systems.
- No access to your browsing.
- Your history, bookmarks, open tabs, saved passwords, cookies and personal accounts are never read, stored or transmitted.
- No posting of any kind.
- Nothing is published, replied to, reacted to, followed, messaged or reported from your device or in your name.
- No monitoring of you.
- The extension is not a sensor pointed at the volunteer. It carries no telemetry about what you personally read.
The part most projects leave out
This is not risk-free, and we will not tell you that it is.
The reading happens over your internet connection. Whatever accounts are used, the traffic leaves your household. Your connection’s address is what the sites and services see. It can appear in their logs, in rate-limiting and blocking decisions, and in any legal process that reaches those logs.
Terms of service attach to conduct, not to account ownership. Automated reading of a service from your machine may breach that service’s terms regardless of whose account performs it. “Your own accounts are never touched” is true, and it does not answer this.
Your circumstances are yours. Volunteers live under different national rules and in different personal situations. Civic Shield cannot see your exposure and will not pretend to have assessed it.
The subject attracts hostility. Participation in work on antisemitism is not neutral, and the decision to take part is a personal one that deserves to be made with the downside written down.
What must exist before the first invitation
The programme is closed until every item below is in place. This is not a soft launch and there is no waiting list that converts quietly into a pilot.
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An independent legal opinion on volunteer exposure
Covering the jurisdictions volunteers would actually be in, and written for participants rather than for the organisation.
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A plain-language written consent flow
Given before installation, describing exactly what runs and what it means, and revocable at any time without explanation.
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A one-click stop control
A single, obvious control that halts all activity immediately and keeps it halted until the volunteer chooses otherwise.
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A written statement of responsibility
What Civic Shield takes responsibility for, and — just as importantly — what it does not. Vague reassurance is worse than a stated limit.
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A data protection impact assessment covering this layer
And a legal entity capable of being the data controller, which does not exist today.
Expression of interest
Tell us you would consider it
This registers interest and nothing more. It is not an application, it does not create an obligation on either side, and it will not put anything on your computer.
What a volunteer would never be asked to do
- Post, reply, report, brigade or argue with anyone.
- Use their own accounts, credentials or identity for any part of the work.
- Enter a private group, a closed community or a messaging channel.
- Look at graphic material as part of a queue. Human review is a staffed function.
- Recruit others, promote the organisation, or represent it in public.
The commitments on the principles page apply to volunteers exactly as they apply to staff. If a request ever conflicts with them, the commitment wins.