“Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age. Privacy is not secrecy. A private matter is something one doesn’t want the whole world to know, but a secret matter is something one doesn’t want anybody to know. Privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world.
If two parties have some sort of dealings, then each has a memory of their interaction. Each party can speak about their own memory of this; how could anyone prevent it? One could pass laws against it, but the freedom of speech, even more than privacy, is fundamental to an open society; we seek not to restrict any speech at all. If many parties speak together in the same forum, each can speak to all the others and aggregate together knowledge about individuals and other parties. The power of electronic communications has enabled such group speech, and it will not go away merely because we might want it to.
Since we desire privacy, we must ensure that each party to a transaction have knowledge only of that which is directly necessary for that transaction. Since any information can be spoken of, we must ensure that we reveal as little as possible. In most cases personal identity is not salient. When I purchase a magazine at a store and hand cash to the clerk, there is no need to know who I am. When I ask my electronic mail provider to send and receive messages, my provider need not know to whom I am speaking or what I am saying or what others are saying to me; my provider only need know how to get the message there and how much I owe them in fees. When my identity is revealed by the underlying mechanism of the transaction, I have no privacy. I cannot here selectively reveal myself; I must always reveal myself.
Therefore, privacy in an open society requires anonymous transaction systems. Until now, cash has been the primary such system. An anonymous transaction system is not a secret transaction system. An anonymous system empowers individuals to reveal their identity when desired and only when desired; this is the essence of privacy.
Privacy in an open society also requires cryptography. If I say something, I want it heard only by those for whom I intend it. If the content of my speech is available to the world, I have no privacy. To encrypt is to indicate the desire for privacy, and to encrypt with weak cryptography is to indicate not too much desire for privacy. Furthermore, to reveal one’s identity with assurance when the default is anonymity requires the cryptographic signature.
We cannot expect governments, corporations, or other large, faceless organizations to grant us privacy out of their beneficence. It is to their advantage to speak of us, and we should expect that they will speak. To try to prevent their speech is to fight against the realities of information. Information does not just want to be free, it longs to be free. Information expands to fill the available storage space. Information is Rumor’s younger, stronger cousin; Information is fleeter of foot, has more eyes, knows more, and understands less than Rumor.
We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. We must come together and create systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place. People have been defending their own privacy for centuries with whispers, darkness, envelopes, closed doors, secret handshakes, and couriers. The technologies of the past did not allow for strong privacy, but electronic technologies do.
We the Cypherpunks are dedicated to building anonymous systems. We are defending our privacy with cryptography, with anonymous mail forwarding systems, with digital signatures, and with electronic money.
Cypherpunks write code. We know that someone has to write software to defend privacy, and since we can’t get privacy unless we all do, we’re going to write it. We publish our code so that our fellow Cypherpunks may practice and play with it. Our code is free for all to use, worldwide. We don’t much care if you don’t approve of the software we write. We know that software can’t be destroyed and that a widely dispersed system can’t be shut down.
Cypherpunks deplore regulations on cryptography, for encryption is fundamentally a private act. The act of encryption, in fact, removes information from the public realm. Even laws against cryptography reach only so far as a nation’s border and the arm of its violence. Cryptography will ineluctably spread over the whole globe, and with it the anonymous transactions systems that it makes possible.
For privacy to be widespread it must be part of a social contract. People must come and together deploy these systems for the common good. Privacy only extends so far as the cooperation of one’s fellows in society. We the Cypherpunks seek your questions and your concerns and hope we may engage you so that we do not deceive ourselves. We will not, however, be moved out of our course because some may disagree with our goals.
The Cypherpunks are actively engaged in making the networks safer for privacy. Let us proceed together apace.
Onward.
Eric Hughes <hughes@soda.berkeley.edu>
9 March 1993
My personal note:
Cypherpunks are a loosely organized group or movement of individuals who are deeply concerned about online privacy, computer security, and the use of strong cryptography to protect individual rights.
The term “cypherpunk” combines “cipher” (referring to cryptography) and “punk” (evoking an activist and contrarian ethos). They promote the idea that cryptographic technology should be used to safeguard private communication and individual freedoms from surveillance and control by governments, corporations, or unwanted third parties.
Key principles and objectives of the Cypherpunks movement include:
- Privacy: Cypherpunks place a strong emphasis on the importance of individual privacy in the digital world. They believe that privacy is a fundamental human right that should be preserved and protected using strong cryptography.
- Cryptography: They advocate for the use of strong cryptography and encryption tools to secure online communication and personal data. Cryptography is seen as the primary tool to counter surveillance.
- Open Source: Many Cypherpunks support the concept of open-source software and provide the cryptographic software they create for free so that it can be used by anyone.
- Empowerment: Cypherpunks seek to empower individuals with technology tools that enable them to control their own data and communications, without relying on third parties.
- Protection from Government Surveillance: They express concerns about government surveillance of citizens’ online activities and strive to create cryptographic solutions that shield individuals from such surveillance.
- Anonymity: Some Cypherpunks advocate for online anonymity, allowing individuals to communicate and transact without revealing their identities.
The Cypherpunks movement has had a significant impact on the development of privacy technology and cryptography in the digital age. They have contributed to the creation of encryption software, privacy-focused services, and decentralized technologies like blockchain. Although the movement emerged in the early 1990s, many of the principles and goals of Cypherpunks remain relevant in contemporary debates about online privacy and security. The Cypherpunks Manifesto emphasizes the importance of individual privacy, encryption, open-source code, and the empowerment of individuals to protect their own data and communications. It also touches on the inevitability of cryptography and the idea that privacy is a fundamental human right that should be preserved through technology. The Cypherpunks movement has had a significant influence on the development of online privacy tools and the promotion of digital rights.
-NOXtoshi-