GnuPG Needs Your Help!
For
- over 20 years, GnuPG has helped protect online communication.
+ over 20 years, GnuPG has helped protect online
+ communication.
Cindy
- Cohn
, Executive Director of
- the Electronic Frontier
- Foundation (EFF), describes GnuPG as "the way that I most
- often communicate with people who are in need around the
- world." Sheera
- Frenkel
, Foreign Correspondent
- for BuzzFeed News,
- relates: "As a news organization, we're trained on using
- GPG. "It's about your sources and what happens to them when you
- leave the country and you publish that explosive story and the
- government is looking for the whistleblower that handed you that key
- piece of information." And famously, GnuPG was Edward Snowden's
- tool of choice to securely communicate with journalists about the
- NSA mass surveillance leaks.
+ Cohn, Executive Director
+ of the Electronic Frontier
+ Foundation (EFF), describes GnuPG as "the way that
+ I most often communicate with people who are in need
+ around the
+ world." Sheera
+ Frenkel, Foreign
+ Correspondent for BuzzFeed News, relates: "As a
+ news organization, we're trained on using GPG.
+ "It's about your sources and what happens to them when you
+ leave the country and you publish that explosive story and
+ the government is looking for the whistleblower that
+ handed you that key piece of information." And
+ famously, GnuPG was Edward Snowden's tool of choice to
+ securely communicate with journalists about the NSA mass
+ surveillance leaks.
- But, GnuPG is not only used to encrypt email. GnuPG protects the
- software updates for nearly all free software operating systems,
- which power two-thirds
- of all web sites. And, GnuPG is widely used by organizations
- and companies. For instance, Arthur Jordan
, Vice-President of
- Information Technology at 2U told us:
- "when we reached out to universities about how they wanted to do
- secure file transfer, they were already using GPG encryption."
+ But, GnuPG is not only used to encrypt
+ email. GnuPG protects software updates
+ for nearly all free software operating systems, which
+ power two-thirds
+ of all servers on the Internet. And, GnuPG is widely
+ used by organizations and companies. For instance, Arthur
+ Jordan, Vice-President of
+ Information Technology at 2U, told us:
+ "when we reached out to universities about how they
+ wanted to do secure file transfer, they were already using
+ GPG encryption."
- Yet despite the critical role that GnuPG plays for journalists, - activists, and lawyers in particular, but, more generally, anyone - who uses the Internet, in 2012 GnuPG had a funding crisis. Due to a - lack of contracts, Werner Koch, GnuPG's leader, was forced to - lay off the only other person working on GnuPG full-time. And, by - 2014, Werner had to take side jobs unrelated to GnuPG to - supplement his income. + Yet, despite the critical role that GnuPG plays for + journalists, activists, and lawyers in particular as well + as anyone who uses the Internet in general, in 2012 GnuPG + had a funding crisis. Due to a lack of + contracts, Werner Koch, GnuPG's lead developer, was forced + to lay off the only other person working on GnuPG + full-time. And, by 2014, Werner had to take side jobs + unrelated to GnuPG to supplement his income.
- The situation looked so bad that Werner was ready to give up. But, - friends convinced him to give crowd funding one more shot. The - response was amazing. Not only did the donation campaign raise - enough money to fund Werner, but it pulled in 250.000 Euros in small - donations, and Stripe, Facebook and the Linux Foundatation each - committed to donating about 50.000 Euros per year. -
-
- The GnuPG Team at OpenPGP.conf 2016
-- Given this amazing response, Werner decided to grow the team again. - To date, he has hired 5 developers, and the past two years have seen - a number of improvements to GnuPG and the surrounding ecosystem. - For instance, we've worked on simplifying key discovery, adopted a - set of Python bindings, contributed some improvements to Enigmail, - and supported the GnuK project—a free source and free hardware + The situation looked so bad that Werner was ready + to give up. But, friends convinced him to give a donation + campaign one last shot. The response was + amazing. Not only did he receive enough money to fund + himself, but he pulled in + 250 000 euros in small donations, and + Stripe, Facebook and the Linux Foundatation each committed + to donating about 50 000 euros per year. +
+
+ The GnuPG Team at OpenPGP.conf 2016
++ Given this amazing response, Werner decided to + grow the team again. To date, he has hired 5 + developers, and the past two years have seen a number of + improvements to GnuPG and the surrounding ecosystem. For + instance, we've worked + on simplifying + key discovery, adopted a set + of Python + bindings for GPG, contributed some improvements + to Enigmail, + and + supported the + GnuK project—a free source and free hardware security token.
- Unfortunately, the money from the donation campaign is now nearly - exhausted. So, to secure our medium-term future, we've decided to - again turn to the community. Our sense is that if we have to feel a - responsibility to someone—and it is impossible not to feel that - way towards someone who gives you money—then it should be towards - the public and not a few corporations. This time, however, our - focus is on recurring donations and not one-time donations, like - last time. + We want to continue this work in the long + term. But, we want to do so in such a way that + our first loyalty is unambiguously to the general public. + This means making sure that a majority of our funding + comes from individual donors, and not corporations. + Further, to ensure long-term stability, our focus is on + recurring donations and not one-time donations, like last + time.
- Our primary goal is to get donation commitments for 15.000 Euros per - month—enough to fund 3 developers. We can reach this goal if just - 2000 people donate 5 or 10 Euros each month. + Our primary goal is to get donation commitments + for 15 000 euros per month—enough to + fund 3 developers. We can reach this goal if + just 2000 people donate 5 or 10 euros each month, + the equivalent of just 2 or 3 cups of coffee.
- This money will firstly allow us to continue our maintenance of - GnuPG. It will also be used to fund our work on the GnuK security - token, -
- The GnuK Token
-
+ The GnuK Token
+- If we manage to double this number of donations—if 4000 people - donate 5 or 10 Euros each month—then we will continue to grow the - team. In particular, we will hire someone to work on GPG Tools, - which so many activists and journalists rely on to secure their - online communication. Further, ... + Our stretch goal is to double this number of + donations. If 4000 people donate just 5 or + 10 Euros each month, then we will continue to grow the + team, and dedicate them to helping other projects in the + GnuPG ecosystem. One project that we really want to + contribute to is GPG Tools, which many activists and + journalists rely on to secure their online communication. + We want to make sure that GPG integration in Apple's + mailer is supported as soon as a new version of macOS is + released.
- Now, maybe you don't use GnuPG to encrypt your email. Nevertheless, - some journalists whose work you value rely on GnuPG to protect their - sources, some activists fighting for a cause that you sympathize - with rely on GnuPG to protect their communication, and some lawyers - speaking with their clients rely on GnuPG to protect attorney-client - conversations. And, free software-based operating systems use GnuPG - to verify software updates. + Now, maybe you don't use GnuPG to encrypt your email. + Nevertheless, some journalists whose work you value rely + on GnuPG to protect their sources, some activists fighting + for a cause that you sympathize with rely on GnuPG to + protect their communication, and some lawyers speaking + with their clients rely on GnuPG to help protect + attorney-client conversations. And, free software-based + operating systems use GnuPG to verify software updates.
-So, if you - are convinced as we are that this work is essential to - protecting democracy, then please help us to continue our - work and stay independent, for just the cost of one coffee - each month.
+So, if you are convinced as we + are that this work is essential to protecting democracy + and privacy, then please help us to continue our + work and stay independent.
GnuK
