Calyx Institute

Last updated

The Calyx Institute
FormationMay 2010
Founders Nicholas Merrill
Micah Anderson
Kobi Snitz
Type 501(c)(3)
27-2800937
Headquarters Brooklyn, New York
Products CalyxOS, CalyxVPN, Calyx Mobile Hotspots
Executive Director
 Nicholas Merrill
Revenue (2019)
$1,615,118 [1]
Expenses (2019)$1,476,960 [1]
Website

The Calyx Institute is a New York-based 501(c)(3) research and education nonprofit organization formed to make privacy and digital security more accessible. It was founded in 2010 by Nicholas Merrill, Micah Anderson, and Kobi Snitz.

Contents

History

The Calyx Institute was founded on May 19, 2010, through a filing with the New York Department of State. Its original office consisted of a single desk in a law firm in Manhattan.

In 2011, Calyx was described in an article in The New York Times and also entered into the Congressional Record as a new non-profit that "aims to study how to protect consumers' privacy". [2] [3] The same year, The Washington Post described it as an organization that "promotes 'best practices' with regard to privacy and freedom of expression in the telecommunications industry" [4] In April 2012, Declan McCullagh at CNET published an in-depth profile of the Institute and its plans to develop best practices and proof-of-concept software for running a privacy-focused internet service provider and phone company. [5] The following month, the security publication CSO Online described the organization's plan as: "By showing there is a market demand for privacy, The Calyx Institute hopes to nudge telecoms in a positive direction and intends to 'release all software developed under an open source model as well as all underlying policies and network designs.'" [6]

On December 4, 2014, the Calyx Institute received its 501(c)(3) determination letter from the IRS, giving it the status of "public charity" and making donations to it tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. [7]

In 2017, it moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn, renting office space in the Industry City development.

In 2020, the Calyx Institute was a signer of an open letter asking Google to be more transparent regarding user data being shared with law enforcement. [8]

Leadership

The Calyx Institute's board of directors originally consisted of Nicholas Merrill, Micah Anderson, and Kobi Snitz; in 2016, attorney Carey Shenkman joined the board. [9]

The Institute also has an advisory board, which as of January 2022 consists of Enrique Piracés, Isabela Bagueros, Jonathan Askin, Matt Mitchell, Sandra Ordoñez, and Sascha Meinrath. [10] Past advisors included Brian Snow, Susan N. Herman, John Perry Barlow, and Bob Barr. [11]

Funding

The majority of the Calyx Institute's funding comes from its membership program. In its early years it received minor funding from Internews, the Wau Holland Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and NLnet.

DuckDuckGo donated $2,500 in 2017 to support Calyx's mission, [12] and the following year selected it as a participating organization in its Privacy Challenge crowdfunding campaign, through which it raised over $18,000. [13]

The Calyx Institute accepts donations in Bitcoin, which allows anonymity, but requires an email address for acknowledgement if desired. [14]

In December 2022, the Calyx Institute announced it was awarded a $1 million grant from Jack Dorsey's #startsmall philanthropy. [15]

Grantmaking

The Calyx Institute has given grants and other financial assistance to a number of organizations and projects including CryptoHarlem, [16] MuckRock's Hacking History project, and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.[ citation needed ]

Tools

Conferences

The Calyx Institute has participated multiple times in the DEF_CON hacker conference [25] [26] [27] and the HOPE conference, [28] and has also participated in the Hackers Next Door conference. [29]

It has also sponsored and presented at the Internet Freedom Festival. [30]

Reception

The Calyx Institute's membership program provides mobile Internet access as a benefit. This was recommended in September 2016 by Cory Doctorow in an article in Boing Boing entitled "I have found a secret tunnel that runs underneath the phone companies and emerges in paradise", [31] and in January 2017 by Jake Swearingen in New York Magazine . [32]

Since 2013, the Calyx Institute has been cited as an example of Internet users' being interested in protecting their privacy and related to Merrill's successful challenge of a national security letter. [33] [34] Its Internet offerings have been called "an exception not the norm". [35]

In 2019, several Calyx Institute servers were included in a study of the oldest, longest-running Tor exit nodes. [36] [37]

In a 2021 review of CalyxVPN, TechRadar called Calyx Institute a "long established non-profit" and said it was unusual in being "powered by donations" without ads and using open-source software. [38]

Related Research Articles

Virtual private network (VPN) is a network architecture for virtually extending a private network across one or multiple other networks which are either untrusted or need to be isolated.

The Great Firewall is the combination of legislative actions and technologies enforced by the People's Republic of China to regulate the Internet domestically. Its role in internet censorship in China is to block access to selected foreign websites and to slow down cross-border internet traffic. The Great Firewall operates by checking transmission control protocol (TCP) packets for keywords or sensitive words. If the keywords or sensitive words appear in the TCP packets, access will be closed. If one link is closed, more links from the same machine will be blocked by the Great Firewall. The effect includes: limiting access to foreign information sources, blocking foreign internet tools and mobile apps, and requiring foreign companies to adapt to domestic regulations.

OpenVPN is a virtual private network (VPN) system that implements techniques to create secure point-to-point or site-to-site connections in routed or bridged configurations and remote access facilities. It implements both client and server applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tor (network)</span> Free and open-source anonymity network based on onion routing

Tor is a free overlay network for enabling anonymous communication. Built on free and open-source software and more than seven thousand volunteer-operated relays worldwide, users can have their Internet traffic routed via a random path through the network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DuckDuckGo</span> American software company and Web search engine

DuckDuckGo is an American software company with a focus on online privacy. The flagship product is a search engine that has been praised by privacy advocates. Subsequent products include browser extensions and a custom DuckDuckGo web browser.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas Merrill</span> Free speech and privacy advocate

Nicholas Merrill is an American system administrator, computer programmer, and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Calyx Internet Access, an Internet and hosted service provider founded in 1995, and of the non-profit Calyx Institute. He was the first person to file a constitutional challenge against the National Security Letters statute in the USA PATRIOT Act and consequently the first person to have a National Security Letter gag order completely lifted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orbot</span> Free software project to provide anonymity on the Internet from an Android smartphone

Orbot is a free proxy app that provides anonymity on the Internet for users of the Android and iOS operating systems. It allows traffic from apps such as web browsers, email clients, map programs, and others to be routed via the Tor network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guardian Project (software)</span> Open source security software project

The Guardian Project is a global collective of software developers, designers, advocates, activists, and trainers who develop open-source mobile security software and operating system enhancements. They also create customized mobile devices to help individuals communicate more freely and protect themselves from intrusion and monitoring. The effort specifically focuses on users who live or work in high-risk situations and who often face constant surveillance and intrusion attempts into their mobile devices and communication streams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VPN blocking</span>

VPN blocking is a technique used to block the encrypted protocol tunneling communications methods used by virtual private network (VPN) systems. Often used by large organizations such as national governments or corporations, it can act as a tool for computer security or Internet censorship by preventing the use of VPNs to bypass network firewall systems.

Hotspot Shield is a public VPN service operated by AnchorFree, Inc. Hotspot Shield was used to bypass government censorship during the Arab Spring protests in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Tor Project</span> Free and open-source software project for enabling anonymous communication

The Tor Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) research-education nonprofit organization based in Winchester, Massachusetts. It is founded by computer scientists Roger Dingledine, Nick Mathewson, and five others. The Tor Project is primarily responsible for maintaining software for the Tor anonymity network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brave (web browser)</span> Chromium-based open-source web browser

Brave is a free and open-source web browser developed by Brave Software, Inc. based on the Chromium web browser. Brave is a privacy-focused browser, which automatically blocks most advertisements and website trackers in its default settings. Users can turn on optional ads that reward them for their attention in the form of Basic Attention Tokens (BAT), which can be used as a cryptocurrency or to make donations to registered websites and content creators.

A DNS leak is a security flaw that allows DNS requests to be revealed to ISP DNS servers, despite the use of a VPN service to attempt to conceal them. Although primarily of concern to VPN users, it is also possible to prevent it for proxy and direct internet users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mullvad</span> Virtual private network provider

Mullvad is a commercial VPN service based in Sweden. Launched in March 2009, Mullvad operates using the WireGuard and OpenVPN protocols. It also supports Shadowsocks as a bridge protocol for censorship circumvention. Mullvad's VPN client software is released under the GPLv3, a free and open-source software license.

NordVPN is a Lithuanian VPN service with applications for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Android TV, and tvOS. Manual setup is available for wireless routers, NAS devices, and other platforms.

KeepSolid VPN Unlimited is a personal virtual private network software product available for iOS, macOS, Android, Windows, and Linux.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mozilla VPN</span> Virtual private network service

Mozilla VPN is an open-source virtual private network developed by Mozilla. It launched in beta as Firefox Private Network on September 10, 2019, and officially launched on July 15, 2020, as Mozilla VPN.

iodéOS Android-based operating system

iodéOS is an Android-based mobile operating system developed by French company iodé. The operating system is a fork of LineageOS and does not include Google Play Services, instead using MicroG as a free and open-source replacement.

CalyxOS is a Android-based operating system for select smartphones, foldables and tablets with mostly free and open-source software. It is produced by the Calyx Institute as part of its mission to "defend online privacy, security and accessibility."

A virtual private network (VPN) service provides a proxy server to help users bypass Internet censorship such as geo-blocking and users who want to protect their communications against data profiling or MitM attacks on hostile networks.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Calyx Institute Form 990 2019". The Calyx Institute.
  2. ↑ "Twitter Shines a Spotlight on Secret F.B.I. Subpoenas". The New York Times. January 9, 2011.
  3. ↑ 2011  Congressional Record, Vol. 157, Page  H1490
  4. ↑ "How the Patriot Act stripped me of my free-speech rights". Washington Post. October 25, 2011.
  5. ↑ "This Internet provider pledges to put your privacy first. Always". CNET. April 11, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Fight the Patriot Act and win. Next? Promise privacy, a surveillance-free ISP". CSO Online. May 10, 2012.
  7. ↑ "IRS 501c3 Determination Letter" (PDF). December 4, 2014.
  8. ↑ Morse, Jack (December 8, 2020). "Activists demand Google open up about user data shared with police". Mashable. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  9. ↑ "Leitner Human Rights Speaker Series: Carey Shenkman, Institute for Social Policy and Understanding – Equal Treatment?: Measuring the Legal and Media Responses to Ideologically Motivated Violence in the United States". Leitner Center for International Law and Justice.
  10. ↑ "Advisory Board". Calyx Institute. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  11. ↑ "Archived 2014 copy of Calyx Institute advisory board" (PDF). Cryptome. October 2014.
  12. ↑ "2017 DuckDuckGo Donations: $400,000 to Raise the Standard of Trust Online". Spread Privacy: The Official DuckDuckGo Blog. February 14, 2017.
  13. ↑ "2018 DuckDuckGo Privacy Donations: $500,000 + $142,000 From You!". Spread Privacy: The Official DuckDuckGo Blog. June 5, 2018.
  14. ↑ McCorry, Patrick; Shahandashti, Siamak F.; Clarke, Dylan; Hao, Feng (2015). "Authenticated Key Exchange over Bitcoin". In Chen, Liqun; Matsuo, Shin'ichiro (eds.). Security Standardisation Research: Second International Conference, SSR 2015, Tokyo, Japan, December 15-16, 2015, Proceedings. Springer. p. 4. ISBN   978-3-319-27152-1.
  15. ↑ "startsmall grant - Calyx Institute". calyxinstitute.org. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
  16. ↑ "CryptoHarlem - Calyx Institute". calyxinstitute.org. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  17. ↑ "LineageOS 18.1 leva o Android 11 para mais de 60 modelos de celulares". Canaltech (in Brazilian Portuguese). April 3, 2021. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  18. ↑ Crochart, Pierre (April 1, 2021). "LineageOS 18.1 (Android 11) est sorti et déjà compatible avec plus de 60 smartphones". Clubic.com (in French). Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  19. ↑ "Datura Firewall: Technical notes on CalyxOS built-in firewall app". CalyxOS.
  20. ↑ "Calyx: is this free and unlimited VPN worth downloading?". Tech Radar. July 30, 2021.
  21. ↑ Nicholas Merrill (January 30, 2014). "New public XMPP / Jabber server with Forward Secrecy/DNSSEC/Tor Hidden Service/DANE support - jabber.calyxinstitute.org". liberationtech list. Stanford University.
  22. ↑ Rahman, Amn (2016). Improving the transparency of government requests for user data from ICT companies (Thesis thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. hdl:1721.1/104826.
  23. ↑ "Canary Watch tracks government requests for your information online". Gizmag. February 4, 2015. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  24. ↑ "Meet Canary Watch, A Way To Disclose Gag Orders Without Disclosing Them". readwrite. March 9, 2015.
  25. ↑ "DEFCON 25 Vendors".
  26. ↑ "DEFCON 26 Vendors".
  27. ↑ "DEFCON 27 Vendors".
  28. ↑ "11th HOPE Speakers".
  29. ↑ "Hackers Next Door 2019 Schedule".
  30. ↑ "Internet Freedom Festival: VPN Village 2020". Archived from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  31. ↑ Cory Doctorow (September 22, 2016). "I have found a secret tunnel that runs underneath the phone companies and emerges in paradise". Boing Boing. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  32. ↑ Swearingen, Jake (January 12, 2017). "Intelligencer: True Unlimited Phone Data Plans Are Dead". New York Magazine. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  33. ↑ Stanger, Allison (September 24, 2019). Whistleblowers: Honesty in America from Washington to Trump. Yale University Press. p. 116. ISBN   978-0-300-18956-8.
  34. ↑ Klein, Joshua (2013). Reputation Economics: Why Who You Know Is Worth More Than What You Have. St. Martin's Publishing Group. pp. 77–78. ISBN   978-1-137-38701-1.
  35. ↑ Open Technology Institute (November 2013). "Virtually Unused, Virtual Private Networks and Public Internet Users" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on August 5, 2021.
  36. ↑ Akmut, Camille (June 12, 2019). "Lustrum, the oldest relays of the Tor network and their ISP's". Open Science Framework.
  37. ↑ Akmut, Camille (June 11, 2019). "Fearless, 1000 days and still running: the 'most resilient' exit nodes of the Tor network and their ISP's – a quantitative approach". Humanities Commons. Archived from the original on August 5, 2021. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  38. ↑ Williams, Mike (July 30, 2021). "Calyx: is this free and unlimited VPN worth downloading?". TechRadar. Archived from the original on July 30, 2021. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
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