Encryption & Privacy

In March 2025, senior Trump administration officials including the National Security Advisor used Signal to discuss classified military strike plans against Yemen's Houthis, and inadvertently added The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the group. While this demonstrated trust in Signal's encryption, it highlighted that the app was not approved for classified communications.

In 2024, the Tails privacy-focused operating system merged its operations with the Tor Project. Tails, which routes all internet traffic through Tor by default, had been a standalone project since 2009. The merger consolidated two key privacy infrastructure projects under one organizational umbrella, strengthening both.

In 2024, Mullvad launched DAITA (Defense Against AI-guided Traffic Analysis), a feature that adds dummy traffic patterns to prevent AI systems from identifying user behavior even on encrypted VPN connections. This addressed emerging threats from machine learning-based traffic analysis that could deanonymize users despite encryption.

In 2023, Proton publicly challenged demands from Australia's eSafety Commissioner for access to user data, arguing that breaking encryption for law enforcement would undermine security for all users. Proton maintained its position that privacy is a fundamental human right.

In 2023, Signal Foundation president Meredith Whittaker publicly stated Signal would leave the UK market rather than comply with the Online Safety Bill's provisions that could require breaking end-to-end encryption. The UK government ultimately backed down from requiring backdoors.

The FSF has sustained advocacy campaigns against proprietary surveillance technology and for user privacy. Key efforts include maintaining comprehensive documentation of proprietary surveillance practices by companies like Microsoft and Apple, publishing the Email Self-Defense Guide for encryption, campaigning against centralized web services that enable mass surveillance like PRISM, and advocating for decentralized free software alternatives. The FSF frames software freedom as essential to privacy, arguing that proprietary software inherently enables surveillance since users cannot inspect what the software does with their data.

In December 2022, Apple launched Advanced Data Protection for iCloud in the US, expanding end-to-end encryption from 14 to 23 data categories including iCloud Backup, Photos, Notes, Drive, and Messages Backups. The feature rolled out globally in January 2023. This encryption prevents Apple from accessing most iCloud data even in response to law enforcement requests or in the event of a hack, representing a significant expansion of user privacy protections beyond the default iCloud encryption that allowed Apple to hold decryption keys.

In 2021, Signal received a federal grand jury subpoena from the Central District of California. Signal's court filing showed it could only provide two pieces of information: account creation timestamp and last connection date. No message content, contacts, groups, or profile information was available, validating their privacy-first architecture.

After the Hong Kong National Security Law was enacted in June 2020, Telegram announced it would not process Hong Kong government data requests. Telegram stated: 'Telegram has never shared any data with the Hong Kong authorities in the past and does not intend to process any data requests related to its Hong Kong users until an international consensus is reached in relation to the ongoing political changes in the city.' Telegram had been widely used by Hong Kong protesters for encrypted organizing.

Starting in 2020 and continuing through multiple reintroductions, the EFF led opposition to the EARN IT Act, which would have removed Section 230 protections from platforms that use end-to-end encryption. EFF organized public campaigns, testified before Congress, and built broad coalition opposition that prevented the bill from passing.

Despite widespread use and privacy advocates calling E2E encryption essential, Slack has never offered end-to-end encryption. In 2018, Slack's CISO stated paying customers were more interested in enterprise key management than E2E encryption. Slack encrypts data in transit and at rest but data remains accessible to Slack's systems and personnel, with workspace owners able to monitor all chats including private ones.

Signal Foundation created the Signal Protocol (formerly TextSecure Protocol), which became the gold standard for encrypted messaging. The protocol was adopted by WhatsApp (2B+ users), Facebook Messenger, Skype, and Google Messages. Signal open-sourced the protocol and its client applications.

In 2016, the EFF filed an amicus brief supporting Apple in its legal battle with the FBI over the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone. The FBI sought a court order to compel Apple to create a tool to bypass iPhone encryption. EFF argued this would set a dangerous precedent for government-mandated backdoors in consumer technology.

In February 2016, Tim Cook publicly refused a court order to help the FBI unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter, publishing an open letter arguing that creating a backdoor would set a dangerous precedent and undermine security for all iPhone users. Cook framed encryption as essential to civil liberties. The FBI ultimately unlocked the phone with a third party's help and withdrew the case.

In February 2016, Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly refused an FBI court order to create software that would bypass iPhone encryption security to unlock a device recovered from the San Bernardino shooting. Cook argued that 'building a backdoor to the iPhone' would be 'too dangerous to create' and warned there was 'no way to guarantee' limited use. Apple filed a motion to vacate the court order, arguing it was unconstitutional. The case became moot when the FBI obtained a $1+ million tool from Israeli company Azimuth Security to crack the iPhone independently. Cook's public stance established Apple as a defender of encryption rights.

After Edward Snowden's 2013 revelations that the NSA had been intercepting Cisco networking equipment in transit to implant surveillance backdoors, Cisco took countermeasures by shipping products to seemingly random addresses to throw off interception efforts. CEO John Chambers also wrote to President Obama protesting the NSA's practices. Cisco published a formal human rights position opposing backdoors and stating it does not deliberately build backdoors into its products.

Following the Snowden revelations in 2013, Berners-Lee publicly condemned mass surveillance programs by the NSA and GCHQ, calling them 'appalling and foolish.' He called for a 'full and frank debate' about government surveillance and the balance between security and privacy.

In May 2013, Founders Fund (Thiel's VC firm) led a $2 million funding round in BitPay, one of the earliest Bitcoin payment processing companies. This was an early institutional bet on cryptocurrency infrastructure when Bitcoin traded around $100. Thiel's libertarian philosophy aligned with Bitcoin's vision of currency free from government control - he had previously stated PayPal's original goal was to 'free currency from government intervention.'

EFF created two widely-used privacy tools: HTTPS Everywhere (with the Tor Project), which automatically upgrades web connections to HTTPS, and Privacy Badger, which blocks invisible trackers. HTTPS Everywhere was installed by millions and helped push the web toward universal encryption. In 2022, EFF retired HTTPS Everywhere as major browsers had adopted HTTPS-by-default.