Hi, I haven't been following this thread and do not know anything about "Silent Circle." This is why I'm responding--I'm a human rights activist and I don't know the backstory to this group, good or bad. I'm responding to a number of off-putting aspects of the Silent Circle web site, most of which might be easily fixed.
So to play the devil's advocate--why would a human rights group that is not focused on infosec and doesn't already know these people be interested in participating in this? The bombastic text below seems to say, "Join us in our nebulous project. If you are lucky to receive a free subscription (unclear why you would want one) we will investigate you." The "bona fides" that are "established" here are that somebody is very arrogant. The tone of the web site is very cloak-and-dagger. Compare it to the Tor Project web site, which actually can protect human rights activists: that web site is upbeat, generally unpretentious, and the logo is a cartoon vegetable. It is publicly allied with EFF, which has a great reputation. In contrast, the logo for this company Silent Circle reminds me of "The Ring." Also, in my experience--the risk, and so the investigation, would be on the other foot--human rights groups would be investigating Silent Circle--the biggest risk is for the human rights organization and its staff and members. The Silent Circle web site makes a lot of promises and asks people to take a lot of risks with their information and possibly their lives. And when you go to "About us" they seem to be founded by US Navy Seal--which raises questions that are not answered. A "melting pot" of talent is a concern when one person is all it takes to endanger lives. Some possible fixes: Friendlier, less pretentious content on the "human rights" page (the all-black is a little goofy)--a specific person to telephone or OTR instead of filling out this form to send to a stranger, and the logos of endorsing organizations that people already trust. Does the Tor Project endorse it? Unfortunately for them, human rights groups supply--or at least endure--the cloak and dagger. Their encryption software shouldn't. Kate Krauss AIDS Policy Project (I also work with non-US, at-risk human rights activists) On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 2:55 PM, Ali-Reza Anghaie <[email protected]>wrote: > I believe this is new from them and perhaps in response to libtech's > ongoing discussions. > > https://silentcircle.com/web/human-rights/ > > "*If you are a leader, executive or organizer within an active human > rights group, which we can gather information on to establish bona fides, > then please fill out the form below. We are interested in providing you > with a limited number of free subscription packages for dissemination > amongst your network in order to protect individual privacy and anonymity. > We would like to build a relationship with you in order to best understand > your constraints and requirements. We will use the information that you > provide in this form to conduct open-source research upon your > organization, its affiliates, your areas of activity and your open-source > history.*" > > Cheers, -Ali > > > -- > Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password at: > https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech >
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