What the US post office teaches us about privacy

George Washington could have become a king, but instead devoted his life to giving power back to the people. This is why his political heritage remains so strong today, inspiring millions around the world to continue striving for liberty and democracy. One of my favorite US presidents, Washington proved that great leaders rule by empowering the people, not by usurping the power.

In the next decade, billions of online citizens will join the web making national borders less relevant and the world more connected. Technology and the hopes it fuels have empowered millions of people across the globe to demand social and political change from some of the most oppressive governments. Yet, the same technology is being used to suppress and monitor more than half of the world’s population that still live under undemocratic regimes and lack basic rights.

The United States Postal Service was one of the most visionary civil liberties ideas of its time – deeply rooted in Washington’s belief that a strong state and society can only exist if every citizen has access to uncensored information and can freely communicate without government’s prying eyes. The Postal Act of 1792 that began the history of a modern post office established free speech and a right to private communications, going as far as imposing the death penalty for robbing mail service personnel. The newly established post office was envisioned to be the antipode of the crown post operated by the British government, which frequently opened and censored correspondence.

The same commitment to privacy and access to free, uncensored information is the reason we started Wickr. Our vision is to bring this service to billions by making strong trusted encryption incredibly easy and intuitive for personal or business use.

Today, we need to breathe new life into Washington’s idea of the post office to provide these basic rights to all 3 billion people already connected to the web, and to those who will be coming online in the next decade. We need to collectively balance our global web to ensure the internet remains a platform for free speech and uncensored information, where privacy and real human connection enable strong social discourse and economic prosperity. I call that space the private web.

The public web has brought us incredible innovations that have improved lives and celebrated human creativity. But as we all move online, it becomes increasingly clear that the internet requires a long overdue fine-tuning, just as any complex and ever evolving system.

We, as web users, are generating millions of pieces of information about the most personal aspects of our lives on a daily basis, creating dangerous treasure troves of detailed and calibrated information. Once in the open, we lose ownership of that information, to the point that we do not even know who is collecting it. Businesses increasingly depend on technology, becoming more and more vulnerable to critical data security breaches. Global financial, transport and security systems are being compromised almost weekly – either through targeted attacks or as a result of poor and outdated safeguards.

To expand the benefits of the internet, we need to continue building the private web – through applications, technology, policies and norms – to power innovation, develop ideas, protect our assets and strengthen human rights for all. Although achieving privacy and universal access to free, uncensored information will always be a moving target as technology evolves, our ability to intentionally choose a right mode of communications, private or public, is a critical step towards bringing George Washington’s vision closer.

Today, it is essential to set the ground rules that will govern our networks and infrastructure systems in the future. Strong encryption is a key component of the private web. Having trusted encryption without a back door – for either governments or criminals – will enable us to keep out not only prying eyes of totalitarian regimes but cyber criminals as well.

A recent debate around technology backdoors has raised a critical point. Is it possible to weaken encryption in a way that would only allow access to the “good” government and never to criminals or authoritarian regimes? The answer has been a loud resounding “no” from many prominent technologists. Considering that most American internet companies are operating as global entities that must comply with local laws, we should never adopt a policy that we would not want another government to adopt and take advantage of. If the US government passes a law that requires a backdoor to operate in America, then what would stop the Chinese and Russian governments from doing the same, requiring US companies to give backdoor access to them as well?

Many questions remain regarding how exactly to achieve that vision in the hyper connected, digital world. How will the private and public web coexist? What should the standards of data collection be? How can companies that profit today from leveraging our personal and business information innovate around new business models? How do we establish trust with companies we let host our most sensitive and valuable information? How do we verify public promises companies and governments make about their data retention and usage practices? Who has the duty of care to our children’s data, our health and financial information? How do we promote encryption by default? There are many more questions we all need to consider if, as a society, we value the progress we’ve made and the rights we continue to fight so hard for, both offline and online.

The US Post Office served as a catalyst for building strong political and social discourse. For the first time, citizens were able to engage in political conversations without fear of being persecuted. Speech is only free when we have direct control of our communications – whether public or private – without the need to self-censor or fear that a piece of communication can be used out of context many years after it was sent.

It is time to invest our energy, creativity and resources into building the web’s private hemisphere to carry on the tradition of private communications, uncensored information and ownership of our assets.

Full details on all of the Technology Pioneers 2015 can be found here 

Have you read?
Who will be king in a cashless world?
Are smart mini-sensors the next big thing in tech?
The solar cells that can power buildings

Author: Nico Sell is Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Wickr Inc, a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer

Image: A lock icon, signifying an encrypted Internet connection, is seen on an Internet Explorer browser in a photo illustration in Paris April 15, 2014. REUTERS/Mal Langsdon