Quite interesting, but it raises several questions in my mind...firstly, the aim of Calyx can be either good or bad, because while I'm definitely against the government's current interest in snooping into things that they have no right to pry into, that doesn't mean that I'm against it being able to do so in strictly defined parameters, as in crime investigations, which are court ordered, and are within the scope of the Constitution, like has been done for many years with wiretapping telephones.

I really only have a very basic understanding of how VPNs work, but it seems that while end-to-end encryption would protect the content of transmissions, it would not protect identification of an individual's IP number. If that is true, it would have no effect on curbing the ability of the government and/or other organizations from using this to bring unfounded accusations and actions against anyone based on the general nature of a website or torrent, which is my greatest current concern.Therefore, it is difficult for me to evaluate the pros or cons of this endeavor at this time.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this type of com already avaiable...at least in certain areas?

It doesn't protect the IP address - but it does protect the contents of any transmissions.

They can't bring unfounded accusations if they have no idea what has been transmitted.

I don't think it is available anywhere else.

He is planning on doing something similar with a mobile phone network.

You're probably right, but if you understand VPNs, perhaps you would explain. I think that a VPN protects data while en-route on the internet but I'm not sure exactly how, nor am I certain how long that protection exists? If it is via encryption, I would imagine that it would require having an ISP with a service compatible with dealing with it, but at some point, it would have to be decrypted for it to be of any use to the receiver. That also poses the question of whether it would be functional in both directions, or only by the transmitter which would be setup for such operations?

If it is only unidirectional, that would mean that data such as files or email couldn't be protected, unless all points en-route were setup to perform in that fashion. If I understood the article, Calyx is proposing end-to-end encryption, so how could that be possible?

They can't bring unfounded accusations if they have no idea what has been transmitted.

Maybe the government couldn't, but RIAA and the ISPs could, because that is the crux of the problem with the announcement that the major ISPs are going to launch a massive spying program soon.

I don't know the precise mechanism and I don't care.

I don't know enough about the technicalities to discuss it.

However, the aim is clear:

Calyx Institute will encrypt all communications in a way that prevents even its own staff from decoding messages or other data, even if they want to.

All messages on Calyx servers will be encrypted, and only the customer will be able to decrypt his or her own data. With such a plan in place, any and all government demands for customers' data will be impossible to meet.

The software is already under development by another nonprofit foundation called LEAP

If you don't care, that is fine with me, but it doesn't satisfy my curiosity, and before I could decide whether to support the idea, I would have to understand much better than I do now, regardless of how appealing it sounds. The thing that confuses me most is that I think that all of the pieces necessary already exist, but not in a comprehensive manner. I would just like to be able to see how they are going to fit all of the pieces together, and see the finished picture, which is what I shall end up evaluating....masterpiece or graffiti.