Support The Calyx Institute by making a donation and becoming a member, and while you're at it, get some great benefits !
- Bring online privacy by design to everyone:
- Help The Calyx Institute sustain and expand activities
The lack of online privacy and security have become front page news over the past several years.
Most of the world's electronic communications are being collected by governments and corporations, with little oversight or consent.
The Calyx Institute played a crucial role in bringing these issues into the forefront and keeping them there.
Like a calyx opens to support a flower in bloom, our goal is to continue and expand, creating a more robust and self-sustaining organization dedicated to online privacy and security issues.
About Calyx
In 2010, Founder and Executive Director, Nicholas Merrill had to stress the importance of cyber privacy and security. He didn't mind. Merrill had just been partially un-gagged from a National Security Letter received from the FBI in 2004 as the owner of a small Internet Service Provider. It was the first constitutional challenge filed against the USA Patriot Act statute. The experience prompted him to found The Calyx Institute.
In seven years, working with a shoestring budget, we've set up our organizational structure including 501(c)(3) tax exempt status, assembled a stellar advisory panel, leading partner organizations, supporting foundations and a network of supporters. Together we've published and translated educational materials, trained journalists and activists, inspired and continued ongoing litigation, attended conferences, generated press coverage and developed new technologies. Take a look.
Educating the public about privacy and security:
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CanaryWatch is a tool for tracking and alerting when service providers receive legal process, such as National Security Letters, but are prohibited from saying so. It is a partnership betwen Calyx and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society and NYU's Technology Law and Politics Clinic.
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Aroundblocks - these censorship circumvention teaching materials and training videos increase accessibility to privacy tools. Aroundblocks provides instructions on using Tor, a public anonymity network, and more specifically setting up bridges, or hidden gateways, into the Tor network for added security.
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Conferences, speaking and participation: PopTech, CCC Congress, HOPE, Turing Festival, Brooklyn Law School's Legal Hackathon, SXSW and many more.
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Events: Workshops, film screenings, cryptoparties and hackathons.
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Press coverage and social media: we've been featured in The Wall Street Journal, NPR, The New York Times, Reddit, CNET, PBS and others.
Helping the public with free technological resources for private communications:
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Free wireless 4G / LTE Internet access service (within the US only, subject to network availability) available as a benefit of membership when you make a donation at the Contributor level or higher
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The free network encryption service we maintain at Calyx.net via the LEAP Encryption Access Project.
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Our encrypted Jabber/XMPP service with TLS Forward Secrecy/DNSSEC/Tor Hidden Service/DANE-TLSA support.
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Our many Tor exit nodes that form a somewhat significant portion of the Tor anonymity network.
Defending our rights in the court system:
