Calyx Institute

The Calyx Institute was founded on May 19, 2010, through a filing with the New York Department of State. Its original office consisted of a single desk in a law firm in Manhattan.

In 2011, Calyx was described in an article in The New York Times and also entered into the Congressional Record as a new non-profit that "aims to study how to protect consumers' privacy".{{cite web| title=Twitter Shines a Spotlight on Secret F.B.I. Subpoenas |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/business/media/10link.html|date=January 9, 2011| work=The New York Times}}{{USCongRec|2011|H1490}} The same year, The Washington Post described it as an organization that "promotes 'best practices' with regard to privacy and freedom of expression in the telecommunications industry" {{cite news|title=How the Patriot Act stripped me of my free-speech rights|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-the-patriot-act-stripped-me-of-my-free-speech-rights/2011/10/20/gIQAXB53GM_story.html|date=October 25, 2011|newspaper=Washington Post}} In April 2012, Declan McCullagh at CNET published an in-depth profile of the Institute and its plans to develop best practices and proof-of-concept software for running a privacy-focused internet service provider and phone company.{{cite web|title=This Internet provider pledges to put your privacy first. Always.|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/this-internet-provider-pledges-to-put-your-privacy-first-always/|date= April 11, 2012|work=CNET}} The following month, the security publication CSO Online described the organization's plan as: "By showing there is a market demand for privacy, The Calyx Institute hopes to nudge telecoms in a positive direction and intends to 'release all software developed under an open source model as well as all underlying policies and network designs.{{' "}}{{cite web|title=Fight the Patriot Act and win. Next? Promise privacy, a surveillance-free ISP | url=https://www.csoonline.com/article/2222360/fight-the-patriot-act-and-win--next--promise-privacy--a-surveillance-free-isp.html|date=May 10, 2012| work=CSO Online}}

On December 4, 2014, the Calyx Institute received its 501(c)(3) determination letter from the IRS, giving it the status of "public charity" and making donations to it tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.{{cite web|title=IRS 501c3 Determination Letter|url=https://calyxinstitute.org/documents/Calyx-501c3-determination.pdf|date=December 4, 2014}}

In 2017, it moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn, renting office space in the Industry City development.

In 2020, the Calyx Institute was a signer of an open letter asking Google to be more transparent regarding user data being shared with law enforcement.{{Cite web|last=Morse|first=Jack|date=2020-12-08|title=Activists demand Google open up about user data shared with police|url=https://mashable.com/article/google-transparency-geofence-keyword-warrants|access-date=2021-08-05|website=Mashable }}

The Calyx Institute's board of directors originally consisted of Nicholas Merrill, Micah Anderson, and Kobi Snitz; in 2016, attorney Carey Shenkman joined the board.{{ cite web | url=http://www.leitnercenter.org/events/Leitner-Human-Rights-Speaker-Series-Carey-Shenkman-and-Kumar-Rao-Institute-for-Social-Policy-and-Understanding-Equal-Treatment-Measuring-the-Legal-and-Media-Responses-to-Ideologically-Motivated/ | title=Leitner Human Rights Speaker Series: Carey Shenkman, Institute for Social Policy and Understanding – Equal Treatment?: Measuring the Legal and Media Responses to Ideologically Motivated Violence in the United States | work=Leitner Center for International Law and Justice }}

The Institute also has an advisory board, which {{As of|2022|01|lc=y}} consists of Enrique Piracés, Isabela Bagueros, Jonathan Askin, Matt Mitchell, Sandra Ordoñez, and Sascha Meinrath.{{ cite web | url=https://calyxinstitute.org/about/advisory-board | title= Advisory Board |website=Calyx Institute |access-date=2022-01-02 }} Past advisors included Brian Snow, Susan N. Herman, John Perry Barlow, and Bob Barr.{{ cite web | url=https://cryptome.org/2014/10/pre-snowden.pdf | date= October 2014 | title=Archived 2014 copy of Calyx Institute advisory board | work= Cryptome }}

The majority of the Calyx Institute's funding comes from its membership program. In its early years it received minor funding from Internews, the Wau Holland Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and NLnet.

DuckDuckGo donated $2,500 in 2017 to support Calyx's mission,{{cite web| title=2017 DuckDuckGo Donations: $400,000 to Raise the Standard of Trust Online | url=https://spreadprivacy.com/duckduckgo-donations-2017/| date=14 February 2017 | work=Spread Privacy: The Official DuckDuckGo Blog}} and the following year selected it as a participating organization in its Privacy Challenge crowdfunding campaign, through which it raised over $18,000.{{cite web| title=2018 DuckDuckGo Privacy Donations: $500,000 + $142,000 From You!|url=https://spreadprivacy.com/2018-duckduckgo-privacy-donations-results/|date=5 June 2018| work=Spread Privacy: The Official DuckDuckGo Blog}}

The Calyx Institute accepts donations in Bitcoin, which allows anonymity, but requires an email address for acknowledgement if desired.{{Cite book |first1=Patrick |last1=McCorry |first2=Siamak F. |last2=Shahandashti |first3=Dylan |last3=Clarke |first4=Feng |last4=Hao |contribution=Authenticated Key Exchange over Bitcoin |editor1-last=Chen|editor1-first=Liqun |editor2-last=Matsuo |editor2-first=Shin'ichiro |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BBkpCwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Calyx+Institute%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA4|title=Security Standardisation Research: Second International Conference, SSR 2015, Tokyo, Japan, December 15-16, 2015, Proceedings |year=2015|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-27152-1|page=4}}

In December 2022, the Calyx Institute announced it was awarded a $1 million grant from Jack Dorsey's #startsmall philanthropy.{{Cite web |title=startsmall grant - Calyx Institute |url=https://calyxinstitute.org/news/2022/startsmall-grant |access-date=2023-04-15 |website=calyxinstitute.org}}

The Calyx Institute has given grants and other financial assistance to a number of organizations and projects including CryptoHarlem,{{Cite web |title=CryptoHarlem - Calyx Institute |url=https://calyxinstitute.org/projects/education/cryptoharlem |access-date=2022-04-28 |website=calyxinstitute.org}} MuckRock's Hacking History project, and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.{{Cite web |title=Completed Microgrants - Calyx Institute |url=https://calyxinstitute.org/projects/microgrants-and-small-project-support/completed-microgrants |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314054341/https://calyxinstitute.org/projects/microgrants-and-small-project-support/completed-microgrants |archive-date=14 March 2023 |access-date= |website=calyxinstitute.org}}

• CalyxOS is a fork of the Android Open Source Project that aims to give users better privacy and control over their personal data.

• SeedVault is an open-source data backup application for Android. Calyx Institute is credited for LineageOS including SeedVault backup.{{Cite web|date=2021-04-03|title=LineageOS 18.1 leva o Android 11 para mais de 60 modelos de celulares|url=https://canaltech.com.br/android/lineageos-181-leva-o-android-11-para-mais-de-60-modelos-de-celulares-181885/|access-date=2021-08-05|website=Canaltech|language=pt-BR}}{{Cite web|last=Crochart|first=Pierre|date=2021-04-01|title=LineageOS 18.1 (Android 11) est sorti et déjà compatible avec plus de 60 smartphones|url=https://www.clubic.com/os-mobile/android/actualite-367204-lineageos-18-1-android-11-est-sorti-et-deja-compatible-avec-plus-de-60-smartphones.html|access-date=2021-08-05|website=Clubic.com|language=fr}}

• Datura is an open-source firewall application built in CalyxOS for controlling the per-app network access.{{cite web|title=Datura Firewall: Technical notes on CalyxOS built-in firewall app|url=https://calyxos.org/docs/tech/datura-details|publisher=CalyxOS}}

• Calyx Institute runs CalyxVPN, a free VPN service that does not require an email address or any personally identifiable information from the user. It is based on an open-source system called LEAP, which uses OpenVPN.{{cite web|title=Calyx: is this free and unlimited VPN worth downloading? |date=July 30, 2021|url=https://www.techradar.com/news/calyx-is-this-free-and-unlimited-vpn-worth-downloading |website=Tech Radar}}

• In January 2014, The Calyx Institute announced it had set up a new XMPP chat service, Calyx XMPP Service, at that time unique in forcing the use of end-to-end encryption using off-the-record messaging and leveraging DNSSEC and DANE as well as making itself accessible as a Tor hidden service.{{cite web |author=Nicholas Merrill |title=New public XMPP / Jabber server with Forward Secrecy/DNSSEC/Tor Hidden Service/DANE support - jabber.calyxinstitute.org|url=https://liberationtech.stanford.narkive.com/mfvcZd1B/new-public-xmpp-jabber-server-with-forward-secrecy-dnssec-tor-hidden-service-dane-support-jabber |website=liberationtech list |publisher=Stanford University |date=January 30, 2014 }}

• In 2015, a coalition of organizations consisting of the EFF, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, NYU Law, the Calyx Institute, and the Berkman Center created a website called Canary Watch in order to provide a compiled list of all companies providing warrant canaries,{{Cite thesis|title=Improving the transparency of government requests for user data from ICT companies|url=https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/104826|publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology|date=2016|degree=Thesis|first=Amn|last=Rahman|hdl=1721.1/104826}} with prompt updates of any changes in a canary's state. It is often difficult for users to ascertain a canary's validity on their own and thus Canary Watch aimed to provide a simple display of all active canaries and any blocks of time that they were not active.{{cite web | url=http://www.gizmag.com/canary-watch-government-information-requests/35932/ | title=Canary Watch tracks government requests for your information online | work=Gizmag | date=February 4, 2015 | access-date=5 March 2015}}{{cite web | url=https://readwrite.com/2015/03/09/canary-watch-gag-orders-national-security-letter/ | title=Meet Canary Watch, A Way To Disclose Gag Orders Without Disclosing Them | work=readwrite | date=March 9, 2015}}

The Calyx Institute has participated multiple times in the DEF_CON hacker conference{{cite web | url=https://defcon.org/html/defcon-25/dc-25-vendors.html | title=DEFCON 25 Vendors}}{{cite web | url=https://defcon.org/html/defcon-26/dc-26-vendors.html | title=DEFCON 26 Vendors}}{{cite web | url=https://defcon.org/html/defcon-27/dc-27-vendors.html | title=DEFCON 27 Vendors}} and the HOPE conference,{{cite web | url=https://xi.hope.net/speakers.html | title=11th HOPE Speakers }} and has also participated in the Hackers Next Door conference.{{cite web | url=https://hnd.techlearningcollective.com/2019/schedule/ | title=Hackers Next Door 2019 Schedule}}

It has also sponsored and presented at the Internet Freedom Festival.{{cite web | url=https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/IFF_VPN_Village_2020 | title=Internet Freedom Festival: VPN Village 2020 | access-date=July 8, 2021 | archive-date=July 9, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709191156/https://internetfreedomfestival.org/wiki/index.php/IFF_VPN_Village_2020 | url-status=dead }}

The Calyx Institute's membership program provides mobile Internet access as a benefit. This was recommended in September 2016 by Cory Doctorow in an article in Boing Boing entitled "I have found a secret tunnel that runs underneath the phone companies and emerges in paradise",{{cite web |author=Cory Doctorow |url=https://boingboing.net/2016/09/22/i-have-found-a-secret-tunnel-t.html | title=I have found a secret tunnel that runs underneath the phone companies and emerges in paradise | work=Boing Boing | date=September 22, 2016 | access-date=July 5, 2021}} and in January 2017 by Jake Swearingen in New York Magazine.{{Cite web|last=Swearingen|first=Jake|title=Intelligencer: True Unlimited Phone Data Plans Are Dead|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/01/true-unlimited-phone-data-plans-are-dead.html | date=January 12, 2017 |access-date=2021-08-05|website=New York Magazine}}

Since 2013, the Calyx Institute has been cited as an example of Internet users' being interested in protecting their privacy and related to Merrill's successful challenge of a national security letter.{{Cite book|last=Stanger|first=Allison|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z3msDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Calyx+Institute%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA116|title=Whistleblowers: Honesty in America from Washington to Trump|date=2019-09-24|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-18956-8 |page=116}}{{Cite book|last=Klein|first=Joshua|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sdVWAAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Calyx+Institute%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA77|title=Reputation Economics: Why Who You Know Is Worth More Than What You Have|year=2013|publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-137-38701-1|pages=77–78}} Its Internet offerings have been called "an exception not the norm".{{Cite web|author=Open Technology Institute|date=November 2013|title=Virtually Unused, Virtual Private Networks and Public Internet Users|url=https://static.newamerica.org/attachments/3971-virtually-unused/VirtuallyUnused-2013-Release.2ae9d0eccce7478c8657f3fbc9582434.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210805163601/https://static.newamerica.org/attachments/3971-virtually-unused/VirtuallyUnused-2013-Release.2ae9d0eccce7478c8657f3fbc9582434.pdf |archive-date=August 5, 2021 }}

In 2019, several Calyx Institute servers were included in a study of the oldest, longest-running Tor exit nodes.{{Cite journal|last=Akmut|first=Camille|date=June 12, 2019|title=Lustrum, the oldest relays of the Tor network and their ISP's|url=https://files.osf.io/v1/resources/hevqr/providers/osfstorage/5d00facd2a575b00189fc056?format=pdf&action=download&direct&version=1|journal=Open Science Framework}}{{Cite journal|last=Akmut|first=Camille|date=June 11, 2019|title=Fearless, 1000 days and still running: the 'most resilient' exit nodes of the Tor network and their ISP's – a quantitative approach |journal=Humanities Commons |url=https://hcommons.org/deposits/objects/hc:24762/datastreams/CONTENT/content|url-status=live|access-date=2021-08-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210805155849/https://hcommons.org/deposits/objects/hc:24762/datastreams/CONTENT/content|archive-date=2021-08-05}}

In a 2021 review of CalyxVPN, TechRadar called Calyx Institute a "long established non-profit" and said it was unusual in being "powered by donations" without ads and using open-source software.{{Cite web|last=Williams|first=Mike|date=2021-07-30|title=Calyx: is this free and unlimited VPN worth downloading?|url=https://www.techradar.com/news/calyx-is-this-free-and-unlimited-vpn-worth-downloading|url-status=live|access-date=2021-08-05|website=TechRadar|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210730164920/https://www.techradar.com/news/calyx-is-this-free-and-unlimited-vpn-worth-downloading |archive-date=July 30, 2021 }}

{{reflist}}

• {{Official website}}
• {{ProPublicaNonprofitExplorer|272800937}}
• [https://canarywatch.org Canary Watch website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150623072149/https://www.canarywatch.org/ |date=June 23, 2015 }}
• [https://calyxos.org CalyxOS website]

Category:Computer security organizations

Category:Internet privacy organizations

Category:501(c)(3) organizations

Category:2010 establishments in New York City

Category:Non-profit organizations based in Brooklyn