Blogs

Privly Mentors for the Google Summer of Code

Submitted by Sean McGregor
on Tue, 04/09/2013 - 06:44

Today Google's Open Source Office welcomed the Privly Foundation as a new mentoring organization for the Google Summer of Code (GSOC). The GSOC connects university students with open source projects like Tor, Linux, and Wikimedia for a summer of coding under the mentorship of project core committers.

Students interested in grafting privacy onto the web should checkout Privly's GSOC wiki. Privly Foundation student(s) will work full-time on a Privly project this summer and be paid a stipend of $5,000 by Google.

Tags: 
privly
Google
Summer of Code

Academic Foundation of Privly

Submitted by Sean McGregor
on Wed, 04/03/2013 - 18:34

Privly's architecture has foundations in two academic projects. The following is an excerpt from a paper submitted to a security symposium. After Privly receives reviews from our double blind reviewers, we will publish the paper in its entirety.

Privly combines the paradigm Confidentiality as a Service (CaaS) [1] with the hyperlink-based cryptography of the browser extension Scramble! [2]. Fahl et al. [1] proposed CaaS as a means of increasing the usability of cryptographic systems.

Tags: 
academic
inspiration
privly

Chrome Extension Alpha Release

Submitted by Sean McGregor
on Mon, 04/01/2013 - 18:24

Following a series of advances, the Google Chrome extension has reached an Alpha version for "Eagle Owl". The next version, "Horned Owl," will be eligible for release in Beta following a security review.

Advances in this Version

Security Advances

  1. Locally stored applications: The Chrome extension now runs no remote-code.
  2. Security glyph: Every Chrome extension now places a unique security glyph above Privly content when you hover over it. If your extension's glyph is not present then don't trust the source of the content.

Functionality Advances

  1. PlainPost Application: The PlainPost
Tags: 
privly-chrome
Release
alpha

Chrome Extension Updates

Submitted by Sean McGregor
on Fri, 02/01/2013 - 22:01

For the first time in the development of the Privly extensions, a non-Firefox extension has gained the lead in terms of functionality. Last week we made many exciting changes to the Google Chrome Extension, including:

User Whitelisting
For the first time, there is a GUI interface for adding domains to your whitelist. When combined with the selection of a content server, this has the effect of opening the Alpha for any developer, regardless of whether they have an account on privlyalpha.org.

Locally Served Applications
Automatically injecting content containing remote code (code delivered at

Tags: 
Chrome Extension
Whitelist
Content Server

Privly.org Moves to the Open Source Lab

Submitted by Sean McGregor
on Sun, 01/27/2013 - 02:02

We are happy to announce that the Oregon State University Open Source Lab is now hosting the Privly Foundation's home, privly.org.

The Open Source Lab is a nonprofit organization working for the advancement of open source technologies. The lab provides hosting for more than 160 projects, including those of worldwide leaders like the Apache Software Foundation, the Linux Foundation and Drupal. Together, the OSL’s hosted sites deliver nearly 430 terabytes of information to people around the world every month.

Privly Joins The Open Invention Network

Submitted by Sean McGregor
on Fri, 01/18/2013 - 22:10

The Privly Foundation has joined with more than 400 leaders in technology, including Red Hat, Google, Facebook, and Twitter, as a licensee in the Open Invention Network (OIN). The OIN's mission to promote a positive, fertile ecosystem for Linux brings the Privly project access to a large portfolio of defensive patents.

The OIN is a leader in the use of "Defensive Publications," which provide much needed protection for innovative open source projects. Expect several defensive publications from Privly in the near future.

Open Invention Network Logo

When will Privly be "Released"?

Submitted by Sean McGregor
on Mon, 11/12/2012 - 01:24
Before we give an official projection when Privly will be "released," you have to understand that Privly is not a single piece of software. Privly is several extensions, applications, and content servers forming a "new way" of doing things. This "new way" is similar to a protocol, but the implementation challenges of particular platforms require that we not freeze the specification until we figure out how to roll out the Privly concepts to all major platforms.
Tags: 
Release
schedule
alpha
library

Development Roadmap

Submitted by Sean McGregor
on Tue, 07/17/2012 - 19:05

EDIT: The most up to date version of this document is found on the Privly Wiki.

Greetings Privly People!

It is time that we set a more solid development agenda. The current state of development for each release is found here. We are going with an Owl theme for the first 10 release names. Depending on developer and user preferences, the versions and functionality may shift in order. Please note that this document is not set in stone. Contributors are encouraged to experiment and discuss changes to this plan and the underlying specifications.

Tags: 
roadmap
timeline

Welcome to the Privly Community!

Submitted by JenDavidson
on Fri, 04/27/2012 - 18:09

Update July 6 2012: We're going to have 3 Google Group mailing lists. We're abandoning Mailman for the time being. The "Team Center" will still be stopped. Instead we will contact each other using the Privly developer mailing list - email address TBD.

Update June 26 2012: Since Google Group has transformed to be a forum solution, and because we're working on a Mailman solution, we will no longer be using this site for a forum. We will discontinue "Team Center" as well, to make communicate easier across individuals. Please continue to keep your People Page updated.

By popular request, we’re

Tags: 
community

Will Sites Block Privly Links?

Submitted by Sean McGregor
on Fri, 04/27/2012 - 06:26

Many have asked "won't sites block Privly links?" My quizzical response has always been, "why would they?" It is not in the interest of site owners to block Privly links. There are at least three reasons.

The first reason comes from websites' uncomfortable relationship with links. Reading linked content often requires users to follow the link to a different website. A system that keeps users from clicking on links increases revenue.

Second, sites like Facebook get most of their revenue from looking at who your friends are and what you "like." When you send a message on Facebook, the content of

Tags: 
integration
host site
advertising
user base

Pages

Feedback