It’s hard to imagine that 2 years ago SSL was optional i.e. browsers didn’t make it abundantly clear that the site you are on is ‘Not Secure’. But with the help of the global developer community and non-profit organizations like Let’s Encrypt, the EFF, and many others, it’s now thankfully taboo to have a site (even personal portfolios) without SSL.

From time to time, you will hear people say things like “I have nothing to hide”, until their personal information has been compromised. This is effectively the approach major tech companies today take, and more people seem to be realizing that this approach to privacy is fundamentally broken.

One part of a solution is building better ways to protect our data and our privacy. As Tim Berners-Lee recently said the internet should be a universal right. The same goes for privacy. Privacy protects journalists and whistleblowers, it protects activists and dissidents, all of whom are key to defending democracy.

To be sure, I don’t think blockchain is the key to protecting privacy, but it has a large community of enthusiasts who care about these topics and we’re proud to have them involved in our Protect Privacy hackathon. We have to start somewhere to protect these rights and take control of our data, financial or otherwise, and we’re hopeful this attempt to get more people involved in this conversation, with 11 organizations, including The Tor Project on board, will help. There are over $50,000 in prizes and we’d love to get your feedback on them and have you involved! Let’s find better ways to preserve, protect, and use our data.

If you have any questions, join us here. Or just let us know below 💬 - why does privacy matter to you?

Photo by Pierre Bamin on Unsplash