"It's about raising awareness," says Filer. "We would go to protests, to be there and observe.
I followed politics in that kind of young, progressive way — like I'd go to protests.
Reporters rarely go to protests these days; the risk of getting shot at or arrested is too high.
But if you go to protests and demand that the government takes a stronger stance, there's a lot of police repression.
"Most people I know who go to Slow Food events are the culinary equivalents of the guys in college who go to protests to meet girls," he said.
Smith also said he wanted Armstrong to collect information about Cambridge campaigners who were planning to go to protests in other parts of the country.
He added, "You see immediate results from some rallies because they work toward a clear goal, but sometimes I go to protests where I know I won't see progress for 200 years".
"It's actually the young people who don't go to protests, but sit at home sharing and liking statuses who are most at risk from this sort of surveillance," said Eva Blum-Dumontet, advocacy officer at Privacy International.
"We usually don't go to protests, because of fear, but now this is sending a message of hope and an opportunity to educate our children, politically," Mario Ovalle, 48, a lawyer who attended the march with his daughters, aged 9 and 12, told the Associated Press.
"I'm really not into going to protests.
I've been going to protests since I was 10 – any kind of civil rights cause.
