'Tis the Season -- again.

[Robert J. Hansen]

Every December I write one of these emails to the list, about how the end of the year makes a good time to reflect on what's happened this year, how much good luck we've had, how much fraternity and community we've enjoyed, and what might happen next year.

I feel we've been fortunate to have GnuPG.  Just reading the newspapers is enough to give you the willies nowadays: there's all this sensationalism about our constantly eroding privacy, about how governments want ever-extending powers to surveil, how Facebook is luring people into giving up all kinds of personal information just for some virtual currency in Farmville and Mafia Wars, how...

Reading this mailing list is a good restorative after reading all of that.  It's beautiful to know that people care about privacy, that people care enough to write privacy software and share it freely with the world as their gift to human knowledge.  It's beautiful to know we do not have to settle for the world which we are given.  It's beautiful to know the outcome of all this is not and never has been preordained.  Privacy is one hell of a social battle to be fought, but it can be fought and it can even be won.  As disheartening as it might be to realize that privacy is losing, it is also immensely cheering to know it has not lost, and the outcome is still in doubt.

This year, as with previous years, I'm donating money to the EFF in honor of GnuPG, the developers, the community, and the privacy fight.  I wish I could donate to GnuPG directly, but that's infeasible for a whole lot of reasons and I suspect the EFF is as good a proxy as any.

Thank you all.  Keep up the good work.  :)