After posting Safe Sex and Safe Chat, I asked a close friend if they used Signal from Open Whisper Systems, thinsing it would be good to practice before security is an absolute requirement.
In response I was sent a link to: Internet privacy, funded by spooks: A brief history of the BBG by Yasha Levine.
I take that to mean they aren’t using Whisper. 😉
Levine’s factual points about U.S. government funding of Tor, Whisper, etc., accord with my general impression of that history, but I do disagree with his concluding paragraph:
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You’d think that anti-surveillance activists like Chris Soghoian, Jacob Appelbaum, Cory Doctorow and Jillian York would be staunchly against outfits like BBG and Radio Free Asia, and the role they have played — and continue to play — in working with defense and corporate interests to project and impose U.S. power abroad. Instead, these radical activists have knowingly joined the club, and in doing so, have become willing pitchmen for a wing of the very same U.S. National Security State they so adamantly oppose.
So long as privacy projects release open source code, I don’t see any source of funding as problematic. Drug cartels would have to launder their money first but even rumored drug money spends just like other. Terrorists should step up just to bother and confound the FBI, which sees informational darkness around every corner.
So long as the funding is toward the same goal, security in communication and all the work product is open source, then I see no natural limits on who can be allies of these projects.
I say allies because I mean just that, allies. Who may have their own reasons, some fair and some foul, for their participation and funding. So long as we are advancing towards a common goal, that in other arenas we have conflicts, is irrelevant.
One of the primary reasons why so many groups in the 1960’s failed is because everyone had to agree to be soul-mates on every issue. If you want a potpourri of splinter groups who spend more time fighting among themselves than with others, take that tack.
If, on the other hand, you want funded, effective research that may make a real difference to you and your allies, be more focused on the task at hand and less on the intrinsic goodness (or lack thereof) of your allies.