Global Encryption Day: Together with the Global Encryption Coalition and Edward Snowden, Tresorit stands up for strong encryption

Since the birth of cryptography, the essence of encryption to keep messages secret has remained unchanged. When many areas of our lives started to transition into the digital space, we were confident that this fundamental need for keeping information private and only accessible to trusted parties would be equally essential in this new era. This was the driving force behind building Tresorit. And it still motivates us today to not just design a product serving thousands of companies and individuals, but to also stand up collectively to defend the future of encryption.

This is what we are doing today, when we celebrate the first ever Global Encryption Day, organized by the Global Encryption Coalition – an alliance of over 200 members from across the world including Tresorit.

On this day, we have come together with digital rights organizations and tech companies to promote the use of strong encryption and prevent dangerous attempts by governments and law enforcement agencies to undermine it. In our joint statement with 150 organizations, we call governments and the private sector to reject efforts to undermine encryption and instead pursue policies that enhance, strengthen, and promote use of strong encryption to protect people everywhere.

Encryption keeps us safe

At Tresorit, our mission is to help people protect their digital information. End-to-end encryption is our most important tool for this. However, encryption is deeply ingrained in the technology behind all digital services, from banking to ecommerce or web browsing etc. As the Global Encryption Coalition reminds us:

“Encryption safeguards the personal security of billions of people and the national security of countries around the world. Marginalized communities, domestic abuse survivors, and politicians who work with highly sensitive information all need encryption to keep their communications private and secure. Even law enforcement uses encrypted communications systems to ensure that organized criminals and terror organizations cannot gain access to their investigations. Thanks to strong encryption, people can access online banking and healthcare services without fear of their personal data being stolen.”

Joining today’s campaign, Edward Snowden, Board Member of Freedom of the Press Foundation and the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations speaks up for strong encryption, too:

“It would have been impossible for me to whistleblow without encryption. My first messages to journalists were made with encryption and without secure end-to-end encryption it is impossible to see how brave investigative journalism could happen at all. If you weaken encryption, people will die. This year alone, after the fall of the government of Afghanistan, we saw how crucial encryption is in keeping ordinary people safe. The Covid pandemic brought home how essential encrypted messaging apps on our smartphones are for communicating with loved ones if we’re ill and need help. Doctors used encrypted messaging apps to communicate with their patients and share personal information securely. Encryption makes us all safer. From families protecting photographs of their kids, to personal healthcare information, encryption keeps our private information private.”

Encryption helps us trust the digital economy

Encryption has been an enabler of the digital economy and has facilitated the unprecedented transition to remote work during pandemic. And there is no way back: The shift to online workspaces and the uninterrupted running of businesses are inconceivable without strong encryption. We have learnt from our customers – individuals as well as business and NGOs – that end-to-end encryption has evolved and has now become a fundamental tool for companies of all shapes and sizes.

We have experienced that the demand for end-to-end encryption has increased steadily in the past decade and now it has the potential to become a gold standard for privacy. To make this happen, we need three things: companies offering e2ee products need to go the extra mile to develop user-friendly apps, users need to value end-to-end encryption together with its complexities and potential trade-offs, and governments need to accept once and for all that no encryption backdoors are tolerable whatsoever.

No to backdoors

As we have emphasized multiple times: the use of strong encryption has repeatedly been called into question by governments and international bodies. However, we say no to backdoors: any attempts to weaken or undermine strong encryption are likely to result in all users becoming more vulnerable to cyber-attacks and criminal activity.

See how you can join

• Make the Switch: Hundreds of technology companies and civil society have already made the pledge to use strong encryption. If you haven’t yet, #MakeTheSwitch today to encrypted services for emails, chat, cloud and other digital tools. Make your pledge to switch here.
• Attend an event to discuss encryption: There will be a series of events around the world to showcase the benefits of encryption. Find one here.
• Play a game: Who’s Listening is an interactive story-telling game where players have to make meaningful decisions using strong encryption to protect themselves and others from danger. Play here.