Visa Inc (V), Mastercard Inc (MA), Google Inc (GOOG): How Will You Ensure Privacy in The Post-Snowden Internet?

Technically speaking, Trsst is a working reference implementation that defines a simple and open standard for secure blogging on the open web. Why would you need it? Its creator Michael Powers writes:

At the end of the day, every company you trust – Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Twitter, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), or Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) – is a corporation owned by shareholders and subject to governmental jurisdiction.

• At any time, the directors and shareholders of these companies may revoke their promises to you about privacy, and they may do so without even notifying you about it.
• At any time, the governments under which these companies operate may enact legislation that appropriates or nationalizes the data in their possession, including your personally identifying information and stored communications

The only hope we have is a decentralized cryptography-based messaging infrastructure that no government can control where no corporation need be trusted and all communications are encrypted and only you hold the decryption keys.

John Biggs writing over at Techcrunch doubts the project will get made despite its noble aspirations. He argues  ”broadcast technologies like Twitter are already so ubiquitous that the average user wouldn’t move elsewhere – as evidenced by App.net”  That might be the case, but we have to look at the bigger picture. Michael Powers makes an excellent point, about the necessity for secure systems:

“Revolutions are started on social networks like Twitter and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). Dissidents, informants, confidential sources, journalists, and those they trust all rely on these services.  Trsst will better preserve their causes, their freedom, their livelihood, and even their lives”. I guess whether or not this project can survive, will be an indicator of how seriously we value our inherent right to privacy online.

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