Encryption, chiffrement, шифрование; launching translations of our Email Self-Defense guide

The goal of our Email Self-Defense guide is to show everyone that email encryption is a necessary, easy, and accessible way to fight mass surveillance with free software. We know that if we want to reach people around the globe, it's going to take more than one language. That's why today, we're proud to announce translations into German, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Russian, Turkish, and Japanese, as well as an ongoing effort to make the guide and infographic available in as many languages as possible. Mass surveillance is a global issue, with many governments and corporations colluding across borders to track us throughout our digital lives. Inter-country communication is particularly subject to government surveillance, as many states' privacy laws are much less protective of outsiders. These scary truths are part of the reason this translation project is important. We'd like to highlight that, while the FSF coordinated the translation process and maintains the Web site, all of the translation was done by volunteers. We're grateful to this international community of active free software supporters. While coordinating the translations, we've made improvements to the guide itself, incorporating feedback left by users on our LibrePlanet community wiki and from encryption experts. With the help of a volunteer, we even created Edward, a friendly email bot that helps Email Self-Defense users test their new encryption systems. Edward is free software under the GNU Affero Public License, and you can download his source code. We want to keep improving Email Self-Defense so that it can have the biggest impact possible. We're particularly interested in adding instructions for encryption on mobile devices, as well as an FAQ to help troubleshoot common problems. Can you donate to help us do this important work? If you don't have dollars, you're also welcome to donate in Bitcoin or Litecoin. This launch is just the beginning of an initiative to get Email Self-Defense translated into as many languages as possible. Spanish, Malayam, Korean, Romanian and Greek translations are currently underway. If you'd like to create a version for a language that we haven't published yet or help maintain one of the existing translations, please send an email to campaigns@fsf.org. Email Self-Defense is only one important piece of the solution to bulk surveillance. While we learn email encryption tools, we also need to push politically to reign in surveillance, build a safer Internet, and force governments and companies to reduce the amount of data they collect about us in the first place. We hope translated versions of Email Self-Defense can be the entry into this multifaceted movement for people all around the world. If you'd like to receive some of the messages on this list in Spanish or French as well as English, you can update your language preferences. Zak Rogoff Campaigns Manager Note: Please don't forward this email. It has a customized link for editing your contact information.

Coming soon: Email Self-Defense in Spanish, German, Portuguese, and more

Dear Pascal, Two weeks ago, we released Email Self-Defense, our beginner's guide to fighting surveillance with free software email encryption. We had an outpouring of support from people who were happy to have a welcoming, accessible guide that also promoted free software and a reduction in the amount of data collected about people in general. We're excited to announce that volunteers are currently working on translating the guide and infographic into ten languages. Wow! In the meantime, we've also made some general improvements that will launch with the translations. In the coming weeks, we'll be announcing translations here, on our primary mailing list. If you'd like to receive some of the messages on this list in Spanish or French, you can update your language preferences. We try to give our translators an opportunity to work in teams and review each others' work, but there are some brave volunteers currently translating alone. Send an email as soon as possible to campaigns@fsf.org if you are fluent in Brazilian Portuguese, Romanian, Japanese, Malayalam, or Turkish and would like to help them. Zak Rogoff Campaigns Manager P.S. A US Supreme Court ruling made yesterday an important day for the fight against software patents. Check out our press release: US Supreme Court makes the right decision to nix Alice Corp. patent, but more work needed to end software patents for good. Note: Please don't forward this email. It has a customized link for editing your contact information. Read this post online. -- Follow us on GNU social | Subscribe to our blogs via RSS | Join us as an associate member Sent from the Free Software Foundation, 51 Franklin St Boston, Massachusetts 02110-1335 United States Unsubscribe from this mailing list. Stop all email from the Free Software Foundation, including Defective by Design, and the Free Software Supporter newsletter.

US Supreme Court makes the right decision to nix Alice Corp. patent, but more work needed to end software patents for good

US Supreme Court makes the right decision to nix Alice Corp. patent, but more work needed to end software patents for good BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Thursday, June 19, 2014 -- Today the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled a prominent software patent invalid in the case of Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank, saying that implementing an abstract idea on a computer does not make that idea patent-eligible. The FSF, Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), and Open Source Initiative (OSI) had co-filed an amicus curiae brief in the case, stating their position that software on general-purpose computers is not patentable. "Today's ruling is an important and meaningful step in the right direction, but the Court and Congress must go further," said Zak Rogoff, a campaigns manager at the FSF. Software patents force software developers, especially those who write free software, to navigate a minefield of spurious legal claims. The number of software patents has ballooned as software companies have scrambled to amass arsenals of patents to threaten each other, as in the recently exposed aggression by Microsoft against Google over smartphone patents. In the case ruled on today, Alice Corp. had claimed a patent for an unoriginal idea, simply because it was implemented in software to run on a computer. FSF executive director John Sullivan lauded the Supreme Court for recognizing this: "For years, lawyers have been adding 'on a computer' to the end of abstract idea descriptions to try and turn them into patents, much like kids have been adding 'in bed' to the end of their fortune cookies to try and make new jokes. We're pleased to see the Court reject this attempt and send a signal to others." For decades, the FSF has argued that it is impossible to solve the problem of software patents by getting individual software patents struck down. The FSF will continue to work for their complete abolition, and participate actively in future legal decisions. Those wishing to become involved in the grassroots movement against software patents can get started with the FSF-hosted End Software Patents project and its prominent wiki. An analysis of the Supreme Court's ruling is currently underway on the wiki and open for public participation. Sullivan added, "Software patents are a noxious weed that needs to be ripped out by the roots. Too many organizations are clamoring for 'reform,' thinking they can trim the weed into a Bonsai. The FSF is one of the few organizations working for the only real solution. Software on general-purpose computers is not patentable, period." About the Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at https://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA. Media Contacts Zak Rogoff Campaigns Manager Free Software Foundation +1 (617) 542 5942 campaigns@fsf.org ### -- Follow us on GNU social | Subscribe to our blogs via RSS | Join us as an associate member Sent from the Free Software Foundation, 51 Franklin Street Fifth Floor Boston, Massachusetts 02110-1335 United States Unsubscribe from this mailing list. Stop all email from the Free Software Foundation, including Defective by Design, and the Free Software Supporter newsletter.

We're glad you liked Email Self-Defense. Let's take it farther.

Last Thursday was a big day for defending our freedom and privacy on the Internet. The FSF and its supporters joined the ranks of thousands for Reset the Net, the biggest-ever day of action against bulk surveillance. All in all, it was a whopping success, with major Web sites commiting to improve their security and more than thirty thousand people visiting the FSF's brand-new Email Self-Defense guide. The Email Self-Defense guide, along with its infographic, made the rounds on reddit, Boing Boing, Slashdot, and Hacker News, and we think it's likely to become one of the Web's most popular guides to email encryption. It's also a powerful vector for the free software message, emphasizing the importance of computer user freedom for security more than other prominent guides. We want to promote tools like this guide in-person and online, to help as many people as possible learn to protect themselves using free software. Can you help us by joining the FSF as a member (if you aren't already), or donating $25? If you're not able to donate, you can still get people learning about free software encryption by sharing the infographic with the hashtag #EmailSelfDefense. If you're a fan of any encryption and privacy-related Web sites, email them and ask them to link to the guide. Most of all, you can make a point of using encryption yourself whenever possible -- even for messages that aren't sensitive. We're excited about all the offers we've received to translate the guide and infographic. Stay tuned for versions in a variety of languages coming soon. We've also gotten a lot of feedback on Email Self-Defense, and we see that people are rightfully excited about this project. Here are some of our favorite comments: "I haven't found a guide that's anywhere near this approachable for people scared of technology, and the infographic is also ace." - an anonymous supporter "This is our opportunity to get my less-techy friends using encryption, while showing them why free software is important. Right on, FSF." - a Slashdot commenter Thanks to these commenters, and everyone in the free software community who participated in Reset the Net. Your actions give us hope for a future free of suspicionless bulk surveillance. And free software is going to be a big part of that future. Please join us as a member, or donate today. Zak Rogoff Campaigns Manager Free Software Foundation -- Follow us on GNU social | Subscribe to our blogs via RSS | Join us as an associate member Sent from the Free Software Foundation,

Join the FSF and allies: strengthen the Tor anti-surveillance network

Hi Pascal, We're joining our allies at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Tor Project, and Freedom of the Press Foundation in kicking off the Tor Challenge, an effort to strengthen the global Tor network that protects Internet traffic from surveillance. Tor is a publicly accessible, free software-based system for anonymizing Internet traffic. Tor relies on thousands of computers around the world called relays, which route traffic in tricky ways to dodge spying. The more relays, the stronger and faster the network. That's where you come in: Start a relay and register it with the Tor Challenge! It's easy and works on all operating systems, including the best one -- GNU/Linux. Tor is used by journalists, political dissidents, and everyday folks around the world. In fact, it was used by Edward Snowden for his famous leaks. The FSF is proud to run our own Tor relay as well. We've long been supporters of Tor, and we're pumped to join our allies in promoting it. As we write this, there have already been 370 new relays set up in the past two days. Let's help double that! To learn about more tools and actions you can take to secure privacy for yourself and your community, see the FSF's bulk surveillance page. For a discussion of pushing back bulk surveillance on a mass scale, read Richard Stallman's article "How Much Surveillance Can Democracy Withstand?". Zak Rogoff Campaigns Manager Free Software Foundation -- Follow us on GNU social | Subscribe to our blogs via RSS | Join us as an associate member Sent from the Free Software Foundation, 51 Franklin Street Fifth Floor Boston, Massachusetts 02110-1335 United States Unsubscribe from this mailing list. Stop all email from the Free Software Foundation, including Defective by Design, and the Free Software Supporter newsletter.

Reset the Net with our email self-defense guide

Dear Pascal, One year ago today, an NSA contractor named Edward Snowden went public with his history-changing revelations about the NSA's massive system of indiscriminate surveillance. Today the FSF is releasing Email Self-Defense, a guide to personal email encryption to help everyone, including beginners, make the NSA's job a little harder. We're releasing it as part of Reset the Net, a global day of action to push back against the surveillance-industrial complex. Email encryption is a simple way to give yourself a shield that can protect you and your community from the giant surveillance system we all face. If you need any proof of the effectiveness of these tools, remember that Snowden used them to leak his precious information safely. Many effective shields, wielded well and held together in solidarity, make a strong wall. The Email Self-Defense Guide will lead you all the way through the process of sending and receiving your first encrypted mail. Check out the guide, and get started encrypting your email! It comes with a gorgeous infographic, which you can share with the hashtags #EmailSelfDefense and #ResetTheNet. "Encryption matters, and it is not just for spies and philanderers. [Encryption] is a critically-necessary security measure for anyone who wishes to communicate with you." -- Edward Snowden Encrypting your email can not only protect you and your loved ones from the NSA, it also keeps big Internet corporations from collecting your data as well. Gmail, for example, mines your email to serve you ads. If that email is encrypted on your desktop, Google's servers will never see the contents of your messages (even if you don't use Gmail yourself, every email you send to someone who does ends up on their servers). And even if you think that you personally have nothing to hide, remember: if the only people who encrypt their email DO have something to hide, then the NSA can easily target those emails and use their massive resources to break the encryption. The more people encrypt all their email, even the trivial stuff, the harder it becomes for the NSA to target whistleblowers, journalists, and others with legitimate, legal reasons to keep information private. If you already use email encryption, we encourage you to check out the guide and give us feedback on it. You can also make a big difference by sending it to your friends and offering to help them use it to get started. Challenging the surveillance state takes a multi-pronged approach; we'll need to take legislative action, and we'll need to sharply reduce the amount of data that companies are collecting about us in general. Today thousands of people -- and some of the most popular websites -- are taking concrete steps to secure their part of the Internet. With free software tools and principles, we can make suspicionless, dragnet-style surveillance exponentially more difficult and expensive for governments to conduct. Learn how to practice email self defense, then head over the Free Software Directory to download our free software privacy pack. Zak, Libby, John, William, and the rest of the FSF team P.S. If you like Email Self-Defense, please consider making a donation. We have big plans to get it in the hands of people under bulk surveillance all over the world, and make more tools like it. You can read this post online at https://fsf.org/blogs/community/reset-the-net. You can also read our press release online at https://fsf.org/news/reset-the-net. -- Follow us on GNU social | Subscribe to our blogs via RSS | Join us as an associate member Sent from the Free Software Foundation, 51 Franklin Street Fifth Floor Boston, Massachusetts 02110-1335 United States Unsubscribe from this mailing list. Stop all email from the Free Software Foundation, including Defective by Design, and the Free Software Supporter newsletter.