forked from cryptohagen.dk/website
51 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
51 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
#cryptohagen – Ten years of privacy protection help
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After Edward Snowden’s revelations in 2014, a group of activists decided that privacy
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protection help was needed. Not as grandiose top-down solutions for user privacy and cyber
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security but rather within an open-source tradition with constructive bottom-up solutions –
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and with time for a quiet conversation about individual needs. Afterwards you can implement
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possible actual solutions based on the motto that “your threat image is not necessarily my
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threat image.” This conversation often begins with the individual’s need for privacy and
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security, but in most cases, it also includes the need to protect the others one communicates
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with.
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Once a month
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Rather than using a lot of resources to create a bureaucratic structure, Cryptohagen’s
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solution was very simple: They met at a café on Sunday afternoon once a month, where those
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who needed help could drop by. Cryptohagen was created by busy IT people who decided to
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help others. A monthly meeting was realistically resourced. But it could not be done without a
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foothold in the open source environment, e.g. Bornhack, Labitat, data.coop, and IT-Politisk Forening.
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A core principle in Cryptohagen is continuity, continuity, continuity, since the individual user
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who needs help rarely has the resources to reach out to find this help and is often in a very
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stressful situation. This is why Cryptohagen still meets up on the last Sunday of the month at
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Café Mellemrummet at Nørrebro in Copenhagen (except in December).
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Also in Aarhus
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In 2019, a group of activists in Aarhus decided to make use of the experiences from
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#cryptohagen and establish #cryptoaarhus – with meetings on the second Saturday of every
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month. Since Cryptohagen’s Copenhagen website is naturally open source, it was easy for#cryptoaarhus to clone it. Gradually, in #cryptohagen, in addition to helping those who
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passed by in need of help, a need arose for us as a “friendly community” to update each other
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with presentations and deal with the rapidly increasing attack on the right to privacy (online
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and offline) and especially the global threats to the right to encryption.
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And, unfortunately, that work probably won’t end any time soon.
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Nomination for the Libre Prize
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In the summer of 2024, #cryptohagen and #cryptoaarhus were nominated for the Libre Prize
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for the following reason:
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“Cryptohagen is nominated for the Libre Prize 2024 because of a long and commendable effort to
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inform ordinary citizens at a grassroots level about their option to secure their own privacy on their
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own computers. The form is informal: Everyone can show up with their computer under their arm at a
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cafe in Copenhagen or Aarhus at a monthly meeting, where various activists then make their expertise
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available to those who want to learn more about privacy protection and cyber security. People who
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have been subjected to stalking or other digital abuse are encouraged to come forward and get help.
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With their form and voluntarism, Cryptohagen shows civic-mindedness and genuine concern for their
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fellow human beings. In a digital age where our basic civil rights are under pressure from tech giants,
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opaque algorithms and artificial intelligence, Cryptohagen sets a direction that is much needed. This
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is why Cryptohagen is nominated for the Libre Prize 2024.”
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It is #cryptohagen’s wish that other groups, like the activists in #cryptoaarhus, in the best
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open-source tradition establish themselves in several places throughout the country.
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Thank you for the first ten years.
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[cryptohagen]:https://cryptohagen.dk
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[cryptoaarhus]:https://cryptoaarhus.dk
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[bornhack]:https://bornhack.dk
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[data.coop]:https://data.coop
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[labitat]: https://labitat.dk
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[itpolitiskforening]: https://itpol.dk
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[libraprisen]: https://libre-prisen.dk |