[DFRI-listan] Trustworthy encryption - a step to stop the pollution of pervasive surveillance

[Erik Josefsson <erik.hjalmar.josefsson@xxxxxxxxx>]

Please feel free to propagate: http://www.greens-efa.eu/software-procurement-11372.html

Software procurement

Greens/EFA group engages trustworthy email encryption in response to mass surveillance revelations

The Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament has announced its decision to engage trustworthy email encryption based on free software. Commenting on the revelation, Greens/EFA co-president Rebecca Harms said:

"The world has had its eyes opened to the mass surveillance of the digital realm. The commercial and governmental surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden is undermining trust in our democratic institutions and the democratic process. As a small but concrete step in response to this, the Greens/EFA group is joining in a small free software project to use trustworthy email encryption. 

"This encryption system aims to ensure that nobody but the intended recipient of an email can read it. The emails need to be encrypted, sent, and then be decrypted on the receiving computer and nowhere else, using a selection of free software from Debian. We will start small scale, with 10 regular consumer laptops. This is not special hardware running special software but general computers running software available for everybody."