When you think of people who fight to protect the Constitution and Bill of Rights, you no doubt think of Swedish nerds. Oh, you don’t? Well, maybe you should. Because that’s who’s developing an app that will allow you to send text messages that are impossible for the NSA, CIA, FBI, or any other acronym to monitor.
You may ask why the NSA et al. would want to monitor texts in which you complain about traffic or send photos of your lunch. And they don’t. But when NSA leaker Edward Snowden blew the whistle on Uncle Sam for monitoring the calls, texts, and emails of American citizens, things changed. And a Swedish guy named Peter Sunde and his nerd pals conceived of Heml.is (hemlis is Swedish for “secret,” get it?), which encrypts texts until they’re the DaVinci Code wrapped in a riddle slathered with Inception.
As explained in the video, Sunde — he’s one of the guys who founded The Pirate Bay, a file-sharing service that’s been fighting Da Man over copyright infringement issues since 2006 — wants to raise money from future Heml.is users to build the app with the promise that your data won’t be sold, and that whatever you text, nobody — not even the makers of the app — will know its contents except for the person you’re texting. (Uh, and all her friends, when she forwards them the pathetic shirtless selfie you texted her.)
Sunde and his bros are hoping to raise $100,000.
