Through November, the Open Technology Fund continued funding a variety of Internet freedom projects. A significant accomplishment was the program’s first disbursement of 2014 funds from the BBG. With it, OTF to began performing crucial security audits of projects actively receiving program support.
Notable accomplishments
- With improved usability features, Cupcake Bridge now has more than 1600 active users providing Tor bridges through its Chrome browser extension.
- The Mailvelope team is actively working on a redesign of OpenPGP.js to make it more modular and customizable to the benefit of any secure email effort.
- SecondMuse has started interviewing the Internet Freedom community as part of Phase One of their Ethnographic research project.
- A new version of Cryptocat was released. New features include Opera browser support, 40% faster key generation and the ability to save custom server settings.
- A beta version of the Cryptocat mobile app for Android and iOS was released.
- The Storymaker Android app has created an API for third parties to extend their pool of supported publishing targets (allowing for direct publishing to press organization servers)
- The University of California Berkeley Evaluation Testbed identified a significant vulnerability in a prominent Internet freedom tool used in China. Mitigation work is underway.
- The University of California Berkeley Counter-Censorship Incubator created an automated program to test banned search keywords on Sina Weibo.
- The LEAP platform received numerous feature enhancements and usability improvements as it matures to being production ready.
- OTF’s translation platform saw 150K+ words translated by 100+ volunteers.
- OTF’s 2013 portfolio included active supporting of 20 Internet freedom projects.
- OTF begun completing agreements with information security auditors to evaluate and remedy the privacy and security limitations of Internet freedom technology. This year, OTF expects to complete more than 40 such audits, an increase from last year’s 16.
- OTF begun expanding the Global Secure Cloud. Underway is a strategic assessment to identify ideal cloud locations for heavily censored countries such as Iran. Right now, more than 10 Internet freedom projects utilize the Global Secure Cloud to get close to repressed countries safely. Currently the cloud is built out in Turkey, Cambodia, South Korea and Thailand.
Select news collected by OTF from the month of November. Get the full feed live @OpenTechFund on Twitter
- Vietnam announces big fines for social media propaganda | Reuters
- Beijing’s cyberspies step up surveillance of ethnic groups with new language-tracking technology | South China Morning Post
- Iran Blocks Encrypted Chat Service Despite Claims of Internet Freedom
- South Africa provided funds for mass surveillance tech in Libya | Privacy International
- Getting to Know Tor, the Most Popular Anonymity Tool in the World | PBS
- Information on pro-democracy groups may have been intercepted by Cuba | UPI.com
- Internet Censorship is Reaching a Whole New Level Of Creepy in the Middle East | PolicyMic
- How Iran Uses Wikipedia To Censor The Internet | Buzzfeed.com
- Miami man skirts law with Cuban satellite business | MiamiHerald.com
- Tajikistan Blocks YouTube and News Site On Eve of Election | TechPresident
- Myanmar’s Promising Experiment With Internet Freedom | Forbes