Universal Privacy Alliance

Founder of @signalapp, @moxie Marlinspike on Telegram:   "Telegrams not a private messenger. There's nothing private about it. It's the opposite. It's a cloud messenger where every message you've ever sent or received is in plain text in a database that telegram the organization controls and has access to it" "It's like 'Russian oligarch starts unencrypted version of WhatsApp', a pixel for pixel clone of WhatsApp. That should be kind of a difficult brand to operate. And somehow, they've done a really amazing job of convincing the whole world that this is an encrypted messaging app and that the founder is some kind of Russian dissident, even though he goes there once a month, the whole team lives there, and their families are there." " What happened in France is they just chose not to respond to the subpoena. And so that's in violation of the law. And, he gets arrested in France, right? And everyone's like, oh, France, but I think the key point is they have the data, like they can respond to the subpoenas where as Signal, for instance, doesn't have access to the data and couldn't respond to that same request.  To me it's very obvious that Russia would've had a much less polite version of that conversation with Pavel Durov and the telegram team before this moment. "

So, @Google handed ICE my credit card and bank account numbers as they attempted to track and detain me. I fled to Switzerland before they could. Now my lawyer at @EFF has written to @Google, @Meta, and other tech companies urging them to resist fulfilling subpoenas.

My point here is that the implementations of AI agents esp in the OS, w the pervasive permissions, insecure MCP architectures, and requirement for data access, undermine Signal’s (and others’) ability to provide privacy via e2ee at the application layer. This is a big problem.

Here's our 25-min video news-documentary version of the story of Red Bull, the whistleblower who leaked me the secrets of a crypto scam compound while trapped as a forced laborer inside it. youtube.com/watch?v=zOcNaW… Hope you'll watch—and take in the scale of this global crisis.

Please don‘t scan your eyeballs at the Gap, thank you for your attention to this matter

One year ago today, a prison guard banged on my cell door and said: YOU'RE FREE!! After more than 11 years under a life sentence, I walked out of max security prison with Leaf Erikson, the plant I was growing in my cell. Leaf and I are so grateful for our second chance at life.

Come add your voice and share about how privacy shows up in your work, activism or community! Privacy & Security Day at the Womxn in Web3 Hub is all about co-creating better systems — not talking at people, but building knowledge with them. From cultures of care with @sandypeng, to cyberfeminist perspectives on protest with @RocioGonzalezT9, every session invites you to shape the conversation, share your lived experience, and walk away with something you can use. Thank you for cocreating with us @mujeresencrypto @dev3pack 🧡

I don’t understand why the EU is so absolutely unrelentingly determined to do ChatControl, no matter how many times democratically elected governments refuse them. It’s becoming scary and pathological. patrick-breyer.de/en/chat-contro…

We are so proud of every human that is building, contributing, sketching, calling, lifting, painting, curating the Cypherpunk Congress this year. We wanted more diversity, color, imagination in Privacy. This will bring loads of it. To us this is not a trend. This is our lifestyle

A very special fireside @ Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress: @ethereumfndn president @AyaMiyagotchi @web3privacy program director @ontologymachine Expect visionary takes on decentralisation, state of @ethereum privacy, Bhutan & other real-world cases. congress.web3privacy.info

In one week, we're filling the Womxn in Web3 Community Hub at @EFDevcon with conversations and workshops about privacy & security! It has never been more important to know how to protect your own privacy, assets, safety and information. On Wednesday, 19 November, we're bringing together brilliant minds to outfit you with these skills! Schedule and speakers below – we look forward to seeing you 🧡

Statement from Foundation We are incredibly saddened by the harsh five-year sentence given to Samourai Wallet co-founder Keonne Rodriguez. We believe this outcome is unjust and deeply troubling. It directly conflicts with previous guidance from FinCEN; where one federal agency provided clarity, another chose prosecution. The current administration often speaks in support of Bitcoin, yet the Justice Department continues to pursue policies that may predate this administration – targeting privacy technologies and open-source developers. The administration’s silence on these cases increasingly feels like tacit consent. While the Samourai team could be abrasive online, they were principled libertarians who fought for freedom and recognized that Bitcoin is not private by default. Years ago, we explored integrating CoinJoin into our Envoy mobile wallet and hoped to collaborate with Samourai, but we paused development due to legal uncertainty. We also donated 0.5 BTC to their defense – the least we could do to support those building for financial privacy. We urge the administration to consider a pardon for Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill and to issue a clear public stance affirming that privacy tools are not crimes. Open-source developers deserve protection, not persecution.

🇪🇺 Telegram sent this message to all its users in France regarding Chat Control. People must know the names of those who try to steal their freedoms: Today, the European Union nearly banned your right to privacy. It was set to vote on a law that would force apps to scan every private message, turning everyone’s phone into a spying tool. France led the push for this authoritarian law. Both former and current Interior Ministers, Bruno Retailleau and Laurent Nuñez, supported it. Last March, they declared that police should see French citizens’ private messages. The Republicans and Macron’s Renaissance group voted for it. Such measures are supposed to “fight crime”, but their real target is regular people. It wouldn’t stop criminals — they could just use VPNs or special websites to hide. Officials’ and police messages wouldn’t be scanned either, since the law conveniently exempts them from surveillance. Only YOU — ordinary citizens — would face the danger of your private messages and photos being compromised. Today, we defended privacy: Germany’s sudden stand saved our rights. But freedoms are still threatened. While French leaders push for total access to private messages, the basic rights of French people — and all Europeans — remain in danger.

We’ve been told that as long as we have nothing to hide, we have nothing to fear. But in fact, an increasingly powerful surveillance state is a major threat to individual liberty and to the country as a whole. @naomibrockwell @mattkibbe @LudlowInstitute @theblaze @BlazeTV

Today's post is a preview of my talk at the Network State Conference in Singapore! It's a big idea for how to improve and implement the concept of the Network State. noahpinion.blog/p/network-stat…

In FAREWELL TO WESTPHALIA, two technologists argue that new forms of organization could supplant traditional governments reason.com/2025/09/16/a-r…

SEC Commissioner @HesterPeirce delivered an amazing speech today on financial privacy, which included references to Phil Zimmermann’s Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) and Eric Hughes’ A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto. She stated: “Rather than something to be feared, we should embrace these tools’ ability to help humanity live freer lives without unwarranted financial surveillance. People use these tools for bad purposes too, but treating technology as the villain will impinge on legitimate users’ privacy.”

The Storm conviction is unacceptable in “the crypto capital of the world.” Here are the necessary steps to right this wrong and protect software developers: 1) DOJ must accept the jury’s refusal to convict on money laundering and sanctions, and must not retry the case 2) DOJ must dismiss the Section 1960 charge, or else Roman must be pardoned 3) Congress must amend Section 1960 to clarify that money transmission requires control of funds and does not apply to the developers of non-custodial software There is no greater threat to crypto than DOJ’s misguided war on developers, which started under Biden and must stop under Trump. This battle may have been lost, but the war will be won.

Roman Storm Found Guilty of Unlicensed Money Transmission Conspiracy By @davidzmorris therage.co/roman-storm-tr…

No verdict today in US v. Storm. Update and analysis from @davidzmorris