Why Do We Need 1985?
June 10th, 2013 - Over the last week, the country (and the world) have been rocked by the government's admission, after a wistleblower leak, that they have been monitoring the phone call data of every American in the country for many years. President Obama has said that we can't have "100% privacy" anymore. U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) said "This is called protecting America!" U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said we've "got nothing to worry about." U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) said that "everyone should just calm down."
1985 is a protocol and, with your help, a mobile application that will prevent government spying through the use of relays and encryption. It will operate peer-to-peer, meaning it can't be shut down, it will be free for calls between 1985 users (and cheap for calls to landlines or mobile non-users), and it will be statistically impossible to know who is on both ends of the call.
Everyone deserves privacy, and one need not have "something to hide" in order to be uncomfortable with Big Brother tracking their conversations.
What Does The Money Go To?
We need money for two things:
- To fund a small development team to write the software
- To fund the infrastructure to route calls to landlines and mobile non-users
Please continue to fund beyond the funding goal. Two reasons: #1, if you fund at the $25 level, you'll get the first year of landline/mobile non-user service for cheaper than it will normally cost. #2, If funds beyond our funding goal are received, we will be able to do things like offer free or cheaper subscriptions for landline/mobile non-user calling, produce the app for other platforms (BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and ordinary desktop/laptop computers), etc., so please continue to donate even as we surpass our goal. Your donation will not be wasted.
The Impact
We hope to put an end to en mass spying on the communications of citizens. The entire country need not use this software to achieve this goal: even if only a few percent of people do, spying on the rest of the citizens no longer accomplishes anything, because one would have to assume that anyone placing a call "worth spying on" would be among the few percent using 1985.
Who Runs 1985?
1985 was invented by Jonathan Corbett, a civil rights activist known for his work fighting the Transportation Security Administration's nude body scanners as well as the "stop-and-frisk" policy of the NYPD. He is also the owner of a mobile application development firm. His two passions combine together to put him in a position that is uniquely capable of seeing this project to completion.
Where Can I Find More Information?
Watch the YouTube video for a 2-minute overview. If you're interested in the tech details, we have more of that on our Web page, as well as contact information.