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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Alex Bellos

Can a new form of cryptography solve the internet’s privacy problem?

Illustration by Getty Images.
Illustration by Getty Images. Photograph: Getty Images

Rachel is a student at a US university who was sexually assaulted on campus. She decided against reporting it (fewer than 10% of survivors do). What she did, however, was register the assault on a website that is using novel ideas from cryptography to help catch serial sexual predators.

The organisation Callisto lets a survivor enter their name in a database, together with identifying details of their assailant, such as social media handle or phone number. These details are encrypted, meaning that the identities of the survivor and the perpetrator are anonymous. If you hacked into the database, there is no way to identify either party.

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