We are a movement of technologists who care about digital privacy enough to use our skills (be they development, design, analysis, testing, security, crypto, usability or writing) to make a difference. That means helping to build and improve software for everyday people to maintain their privacy online, and establishing ourselves as a relevant and credible voice in the privacy debate.
Our community has been growing, and we’ve been contributing to Pixelated, as well running meetups, talks, and virtual hack nights.
But we had a problem! Cryptohack sounds cool, but it never really represented what we’re about. Strong crypto is important for privacy, but so are usability, performance, delighter features, and everything else that goes into successful software. We need to attract many different groups of people to our movement, and we suspected that Cryptohack kept many of them away by making it seem like we’re all about the crypto.
So we decided to change our name. We looked for one
- with an active verby voice (like Make Poverty History, Save the Children or Code for America),
- that captures that we’re a community of folks who make software who care about privacy, and,
- shows that we will use our skills to improve privacy tools.
We asked the Cryptohack community to come up with a name to represent us. There was some great discussion. I love that we’ve built a community where we can have open, honest and productive debates.
Now Cryptohack is dead, long live Hack for Privacy.
Nothing else will change; we’re the same community of software-makers using our skills to benefit privacy. Hopefully now our name shows who we really are.
I’m really keen to see where we can go, and I hope you’ll join us for the ride. Our next hack night is on Wednesday 29th June.
Join us: https://cryptohack.herokuapp.com
Posted by Andrew