Other goals include developing a "field guide" for new users in order to train the target audience for the application, such as journalists and human rights workers, as well as create a field training program. Kobeissi wrote that they'd like to establish a translation fund to ensure that translations are reliable and on-time with coming product releases. The application now does not store keys on the client side, so those keys must be regenerated, which is a time-consuming process that also requires users to authenticate themselves again.Ĭryptocat is translated into 32 languages, including obscure ones such as Tibetan, which is unpaid work that sometimes results in unreliable translations. Kobeissi wrote Cryptocat would also like to implement permanent storage of encryption keys. Cryptocat currently uses public key fingerprints. The project also expects to begin testing Cryptocat on Mozilla's Firefox operating system for mobile phones later this year.Īlso on the technical side, Cryptocat would like to employ the so-called "Socialist Millionaire Protocol" (SMP) within the application, which is a way for two people to confirm each other's identity. The applications will allow multiple people to chat at the same time and also have push notifications and message delivery confirmation amongst other features, Kobeissi wrote. In May, Cryptocat plans to release mobile applications for the iPhone and Android mobile platforms. "Cryptocat is being built so that anyone can chat on the Internet without being surveilled, even if they're not a computer scientist," Kobeissi wrote. On television, RT America has even gone so far as to refer to Cryptocat as CISPA's kryptonite because it's a service that denies third-party access to private conversations online thereby making the Cyber Intelligence Sharing Protection Act largely irrelevant.Kobeissi wrote in a report outlining Cryptocat's goals that while the project does not use in-depth methods to track usage due to privacy reasons, as many as 8,000 people were using the application daily in December. I guess that means we should get rid of hamburgers then.' It bothers me that we're so afraid that our freedom will be used against us that we're willing to just give it up." Kobeissi readily admits that this feature can be used for bad as well as good but it's worth the risk: "It's like if someone says 'Hamburgers: they can be used to feed the good and they can be used to feed the Taliban. Unlike other cryptography products that can later be used as a verifiable record of the communication event and the identities of the participants, perfect forward secrecy leaves no such trail. Indeed, in journalism sourcing also, the privacy of an off-the-record source can be a matter of life and death. An application like this can save lives, because during the tense moments of the Arab Spring the sources of certain instant messages and other online communications were tracked down and killed for their political views and organizational skills. But, the implications for privacy and freedom are truly astounding.
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