Over the past year, the United States government has been in the news a lot for its efforts to undermine the Internet\u2019s basic privacy and security protocols.<\/p>\n
There were the Edward Snowden revelations about the National Security Agency sweeping up metadata, paying contractors to embed backdoors into their security technologies, hacking various private accounts of network administrators and developing malware to infect computers.<\/p>\n
There was the Washington Post story about the NSA\u2019s \u201ccollect it all\u201d ideology.<\/p>\n
There was the CNET story detailing the government\u2019s efforts \u201cto obtain the master encryption keys that Internet companies use to shield millions of users\u2019 private Web communications from eavesdropping.\u201d<\/p>\n
And there was the ProPublica story detailing how \u201cThe National Security Agency is winning its long-running secret war on encryption, using supercomputers, technical trickery, court orders and behind-the-scenes persuasion to undermine the major tools protecting the privacy of everyday communications.\u201d<\/p>\n
So with all that in mind, it seems more than a bit hilarious that the U.S. government has just posted its latest annual announcement about \u201cfunding for programs that support Internet freedom.\u201d In that dispatch, the U.S. State Department says it is looking to support \u201ctechnologies that enhance the privacy and security of digital communications\u201d and that are \u201cless susceptible to intrusion or infection.\u201d<\/p>\n