Winston Smith Project
The Winston Smith Project (, or PWS) is an informational and operational project for the defence of human rights on the Internet and in the digital era. The project was started in 1999 as an anonymous association and it is characterised by the absence of a physical reference identity. It is named after the main character in George Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four". The reference to Orwell's dystopia is embodied in the motto of PWS: "Unplug the Big Brother" which is aligned with its more generalist motto "Paranoia is a virtue". PWS aims to make users aware of the risks of violation of privacy on the Internet and threats to freedom of speech. PWS is engaged in spreading the informational tools and counter-censorship technologies that allow users to maintain confidentiality in their communications, anonymity in the network and freedom of expression. PWS has generated and maintains the e-privacy, Big Brother Awards Italy, Privacy Box and Project 95% initiatives. Objectives PWS upholds the thesis that the Big Brother described in George Orwell's novel is gradually gaining form, passively and with silent acceptance by the people. It is gradually inserted into our lives through the false statement: "it is right to sacrifice one's privacy in exchange for greater security". According to security experts such as Bruce Schneier, following events such as the SISMI-Telecom scandal, official bodies which monitor telecommunications are acquiring a de facto totalitarian power, whatever the official political situation. If the target is really to increase public security, the mere presence of monitoring agencies constitutes an element of insecurity. Because of the ignorance of citizens regarding security, official agencies push for an ever increasing situation which damages human rights. PWS is engaged in spreading tools to protect users from such risk. Fortunately, those tools exist because the Internet is based upon open technologies. Individual security can be achieved only by using preventive protection tools on private computers. It cannot be delegated to others such as Internet service providers. PWS aims to increase the use of technologies such as data encryption and anonymity. This can be achieved by using programs written according to the guidelines of secure software, such as: the software in use (including the operating system) must be an open system, allowing the user, if so inclined and capable, to verify its effective behaviour. the cryptographic algorithms employed must be public. Only thus can the community perform a mathematical analysis (cryptanalysis) and a study of potential attacks, in order to achieve a continuous improvement. If either of these conditions is missing, the software cannot be considered secure, as it is then based upon the concept of security through obscurity, which has never been proved a valid security paradigm. Events such as JAP, PGP 5.x and 6.x have shown the unreliability of this model. To be consistent with the proposed technologies, the PWS website is not available on the Internet, but through Freenet, with the following key: USK@RU-C2q5kN7K62WO3seMMjSTUY8izF2vCFyVFOnLf~Q0,wxvGO2QMT6IN9c7dNUhHeHnXVVwhq8YLbQL~DlMA7YE,AQACAAE/pws/3 A mirror is also available on the Internet to increase accessibility. To contact