We are delighted to be in a position where we are able to share our resources, and equally enthusiastic that we can start this off by supporting the amazing PrivacyTools venture.
PrivacyTools is an endeavor which strives to inform, educate and empower privacy-minded people to withstand today’s mass surveillance. Their thriving community members do not only help each other out, but also equip and aid all newcomers into the field. The team’s openness in all their decision making, criteria and finances continues to validate their gained trust across the privacy scene. If you are able to spare time or money, we encourage you to support them too!
Before the Safing journey started, the work of PrivacyTools already impacted all three of us founders. Their website helped us in numerous ways. Whether to deepen our understanding of the importance of privacy or about arguments we can make for it. And most importantly, their software recommendations and instructions armed us to better fight today’s mass surveillance. I fondly remember the first time I proudly configured my about:config of Firefox, enthusiastically heading to the next section to install additional privacy enhancing extensions.
Being into our journey for more than two years, it is amazing having a look back and realizing how far we have come. But at the same time it’s also humbling to see how much of it cannot be credited to us, but instead to others. Fellow travelers, founders or privacy advocates - all generously shared their time and input to help us grow. They pushed us to rethink our strategies, gave valuable input on our designs or even gave us a platform where our voices were heard.
Shorty after receiving a big grant from the Austrian Institution for Research, PrivacyTools presented their sponsorship program via Github. Excitedly, I knew the time had come for us to start sharing our received resources with fellow privacy advocates. We decided this while fully being aware that this might fuel our journey too, or it might not - that’s for every reader of this announcement to decide. But to us, that is not a dealbreaker. In either case we are happily supporting a genuine and caring team!
After reaching out to the team, we were invited to a team chat to discuss everything further. Being listed as a sponsor is completely decoupled from their software recommendations, but still both parties wanted to get to know each other beforehand. As their team is spread across the whole globe, the chat spanned a few days, asynchronously. It was a very encouraging experience to meet and get to know fellow travelers, who are just as committed to the cause of privacy. If you want to meet the team or other fellow privacy enthusiasts, feel free to hop onto their chat ;) - it’s a great place to hang out.
Just as mentioned in the accompanying podcast, I really feel the privacy space is maturing. We are not only growing in numbers, but we are also growing tighter together. It is a great community, where one thing is allowed to fuel the other, all here to support one another. We are really hopeful that the 20s will be the decade where we take back our right to privacy. And you can count on Safing to play its part, not only with some kickass software, but also by supporting more and more projects which strive for the same utopia as all of us.
To the PrivacyTools team: Thank you so much for what you do!
December 20, 2019 • Written by David