Cyber-Rights.Net Tools:
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Internet Privacy Issues:
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About Cyber-Rights.Net
Following the introduction of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, security and privacy of
communications has become a real concern for Internet users in the UK. Restrictive measures for
intercepting all forms of communications are also included within the Council of Europe's CyberCrime
Convention 2001 and therefore concerns for private communications extend to an international stage.
For raising public awareness of these important policy issues and to encourage Internet users to use
secure and encrypted communications, Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) decided to launch the
Cyber-Rights.Net project based upon the Hushmail technology.
Both organisations are committed to the protection of private communications over the Internet. The
project was fully supported by Hush Communications for an initial period of three months beginning from
November 2000. During this time, any Internet users obtained free accounts through the
http://www.cyber-rights.net website and started using secure web based e-mail. This initial period
was extended and until November 2002 Cyber-Rights.Net offered completely free services to Internet
users.
On 29 November, 2002, Cyber-Rights.Net project (http://www.cyber-rights.net) powered by the Hush
Encryption engine™ has been re-launched by Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) in collaboration with
Hush Communications. On that date, the Cyber-Rights.Net system has been upgraded successfully to Hush
engine version 2.2. This up-to-date version of Hush uses industry standard algorithms as specified by
the OpenPGP standard (RFC 2240) to ensure the security, privacy and authenticity of your email. With
Cyber-Rights.Net mail, users need only create and remember their own passphrases, and the secure Hush
server does the rest. Encryption and decryption are transparent to the user.
In version 2.2 the following changes and additions were made:
- Cyber-Rights.Net and HushMail are compliant with the OpenPGP secure email standard
- There is a great new look and feel to Cyber-Rights.Net
- The menu commands are now context sensitive
- It's now easy to manage your storage space with graphical display of quota usage
- It's now easy to archive your emails and organise your folders
- It's now easy to manage, save or delete attachments
- You now have online document storage integrated with your Cyber-Rights.net account
- It's now easy to print your emails
- There are new Spam fighting features included with your Cyber-Rights.net account
Users of the Cyber-Rights.Net system will also be able to use the Hush Tools service
(https://www.hushtools.com/) which allows powerful encryption and digital signature operations to be
performed from any computer on the Internet, anywhere in the world. The Hush Tools allows users to
sign in and encrypt, decrypt, sign, and verify text and files. It also allows users of OpenPGP systems
to upload and download public keys, providing an easy means of secure communication between
Cyber-Rights.Net/Hush users and all other OpenPGP users.
From Friday, 29 November, 2002 Cyber-Rights.Net modified its services and start offering both free and
Premium accounts and services. Therefore, there are currently two different accounts offered by the
Cyber-Rights.Net service:
(1) FREE Cyber-Rights.Net Accounts
Cyber-Rights.Net will continue to provide free email to Cyber-rights.net users, but will make the
following service changes:
- In-active accounts will be disabled after 3 weeks. The accounts can be re-activated by upgrading
to premium status.
- New accounts created will be created with a 2 megabyte quota.
- Existing account quotas will be dropped to 2 megabytes. Existing users will be given three weeks
to manage their quotas down to 2 megabytes, after that time, the users email in excess of quota will
be bounced.
- There will be one popunder advertisement a session advertising the premium service.
- Hush will provide the Cyber-rights users with secure online storage, both free and paid users
will have access to this new facility from Hush.
- Free users will continue to be able to change their preferences and will be able to use the
Hushtools.
(2) PREMIUM Cyber-Rights.Net Accounts
The premium paid service will have the following characteristics:
- Paid accounts will have a 32,64,96,128 megabyte storage quota depending on the service upgrade
chosen
- There will be no account disabling
- There will be no advertising
- There will be access to customer support provided by Hush.
- There will be access to all of the user preferences
The users will have four different payment options for upgrades:
- Credit Card (online and automatic upgrade)
- Pay Pal (online and upgrade effected within 48 hours, usually within 6):
- E-Gold (online and upgrade effected within 48 hours, usually within 6)
- Money Order.
The following charges would apply in relation to the premium service:
- 32 megabyte premium account US$29.99
- 64 megabyte premium account US$49.99
- 96 megabyte premium account US$69.99
- 128 megabyte premium account US$89.99
A percentage of the paid upgrade charges will be received by Cyber-Rights.Net and by upgrading you
will be supporting the existence and maintenance of both the Cyber-Rights.Net project and Cyber-Rights
& Cyber-Liberties (UK) as an organisation.
Dr. Yaman Akdeniz, the Director, Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) stated that:
"We launched Cyber-Rights.Net in November 2000 with the intention of raising public awareness
of issues surrounding the security and privacy of online communications, and to encourage Internet
users to use and rely on secure communications. With the assistance of Hush Communications, the
Cyber-Rights.Net system has now been upgraded and is OpenPGP compliant. States and state bodies
continue to interfere with the privacy of communications over the Internet. More and more surveillance
powers are being introduced by nation-states and the legislation of numerous states fail to comply
with international human rights standards on privacy. Cyber-Rights.Net will continue to promote
privacy of communications especially in the absence of clearly defined conditions and safeguards
protecting the privacy of communications in homes and in working environments. Cyber-Rights.Net will
remain as an additional tool for concerned Internet users when securing their communications."
According to Mr. Benjamin Cutler, the Chief Executive Officer for Hush Communications, "Hush has
always strongly supported grass-roots and other organisations promoting privacy and security as tools
of ensuring Human rights and civil liberties. The goal of our company has always been to bring the
privacy benefits of strong encryption to the widest possible user-base and we are very pleased that
this new partnership arrangement with Cyber Rights will enhance our ability to do just that. By
offering a wider choice of account options, Hush and Cyber Rights will address the needs of a greater
number of potential users and maximise the use of our privacy solutions World-wide.
About Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK)
Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) (http://www.cyber-rights.org), is a non profit organisation
established to protect the interests of all honest, law abiding Internet users with the aim of
promoting free speech and privacy on the Internet. It was founded in 1997 and has been actively
involved with the Internet policy making process of the UK government, the European Union, Council
of Europe, OECD, and the United Nations.
About Hush Communications
Hush Communications Corporation is a premier provider of secure Internet communications worldwide.
Hush's core technology, the Hush Encryption Engine, enables virtually unbreakable encryption that is
seamless and transparent to the user, resulting in unmatched ease-of-use coupled with an exceptionally
high level of security. The technology is adaptable to a wide variety of Internet communications and
applications. Hush Communications Corporation is a U.S. company with subsidiary companies located in
Dublin, Ireland; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Austin, Texas, and is the provider of HushMail.Com, HushMail
Private Label and HushPOP, with worldwide headquarters based in Dublin, Ireland.
Cyber-Rights.Net is grateful to SoftCom Technology Consulting, Canada and MyHosting.Com for web hosting
the project since its launch in November 2000.
Cyber-Rights.Net would like to thank Surux Limited who developed
and maintain the website.
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