The National Security Agency (NSA) monitors the internet. But what is the NSA searching for? In 2013 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a list of over 370 keywords related to terrorism, cyber security, infrastructure, health, places and political dissent.

By using some of these depicted words in an e-mail, Facebook post or tweet, you could earn new followers in Washington – against your will. Even harmless sentences can put you in danger.

My work presents four harmless sentences containing some of these keywords. They distinguish from the other words by a subtle difference, the usage of a slab serif font instead of a sans serif font. On the first sight the keywords are not recognizable, underlining the lack of knowledge of the user, who does not know, that he/she makes use of a suspicious keyword.

The letters and words are created by notches on a board. The grey threads form the surrounding while the letters stay white. The created thread structure symbolizes the internet network.

Each board has received one color, visualizing the current situation of danger. The more keywords a user has used in a social media post, the higher is the danger to be classified as a criminal.