The Most Important Email I’ll Send This Year
Hi everyone,
No matter where you are in the world, I wanted to take a moment to tell you how grateful I am that you’re here.
Thank you.
Our work at Ludlow Institute and NBTV is community supported. We only exist because people like you believe that privacy matters and that a better digital future is worth fighting for. You help us fight for that future every day.
This week’s newsletter is just to let you know much I appreciate you, and to remind you that you caring genuinely shapes what we are able to do.
First, Thank You to everyone who supports us.
Everything we build, every tutorial we release, every investigation we publish is possible because you show up for us. You share our work. You support our nonprofit. You give your time, your attention, and your trust.
You make this mission possible. Truly.
Thank You to the Builders
I’m grateful for the engineers, researchers, hackers, and creators who spend long nights building the tools that keep us safe. Encrypted platforms, secure messengers, hardened operating systems, privacy-preserving protocols. Most people never think about the work that goes into maintaining and building these projects, yet the future of freedom relies on them. Thank you for building these tools for us.
You are creating the infrastructure of digital freedom.
Thank You to the People Who Use These Tools
Privacy tools only matter when people actually use them. Thank you to everyone who has switched messengers, de-Googled their phone, experimented with aliases, spun up a local AI model, tested new tools, filed bug reports, and helped strengthen these ecosystems through real use.
Unless we participate in the privacy landscape, these tools disappear.
You are the adoption curve that keeps them alive. You create the network effect that leads others to adopt them too.
Thank you for being the trailblazers.
Thank You to the People Who Spread the Word
In a world where everyone is fighting to steal your attention, you choose to put your attention toward something that matters: Privacy.
You talk about it with your friends. You share videos. You teach, and you help. Cultural change happens because ordinary people decide the status quo is not acceptable and then do something about it.
Your willingness to stay focused in a distracting world is rare. We need more people willing to use their power the way you are. Thank you for having such a profound impact on the future we are able to write.
Thank You to Everyone Who Cares
I’m grateful for every person who refuses to accept a world where everything we do is surveilled.
Privacy only survives if people insist on it. And right now, thousands of you are insisting. You are the reason this movement is growing. You are the reason we can push for a better future. You are the reason we will win.
If You’re Just Getting Started
If you’re new here and just beginning your journey into privacy, welcome. This community cares about your well-being, cares about your future freedom, and wants to help you succeed. Ask your questions. There will always be people ready to chime in and point you in the right direction.
Here is our Privacy 101 video to get you started:
Thank you to all of you, for helping us build a world where privacy is normal again.
Yours in privacy,
Naomi
Consider supporting our nonprofit so that we can fund more research into the surveillance baked into our everyday tech. We want to educate as many people as possible about what’s going on, and help write a better future. Visit LudlowInstitute.org/donate to set up a monthly, tax-deductible donation.
NBTV. Because Privacy Matters.