Guardian Project (software)
Guardian Project is a global collective of software developers, designers, advocates, activists and trainers who develop open-source mobile security software and operating system enhancements. They also create customized mobile devices to help individuals communicate more freely and protect themselves from intrusion and monitoring. The effort specifically focuses on users who live or work in high-risk situations and who often face constant surveillance and intrusion attempts into their mobile devices and communication streams. History. Guardian Project was founded by Nathan Freitas in 2009 in Brooklyn, NY. Since it was founded, Guardian Project has developed more than  a dozen mobile applications for Android and iOS with over two million downloads and hundreds of thousands of active users. It has also partnered with prominent open source software projects, activists groups, NGOs, commercial partners and news organizations to support their mobile security software capabilities. In November 2014, "ChatSecure + Orbot" received a top score on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's secure messaging scorecard, along with Cryptocat, TextSecure, "Signal / RedPhone", Silent Phone, and Silent Text. "Jitsi + Ostel" scored 6 out of 7 points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's secure messaging scorecard. They lost a point because there has  not been a recent independent code audit. In March 2016, Guardian Project announced a partnership with F-Droid and CopperheadOS with the goal of creating "a solution that can be verifiably trusted from the operating system, through the network and network services, all the way up to the app stores and apps themselves". Funding. Guardian Project has received funding from Google, UC Berkeley with the MacArthur Foundation, Avaaz, Internews, Open Technology Fund, WITNESS, the Knight Foundation, Benetech, ISC Project and Free Press Unlimited. Through work on partner projects like the Tor Project, Commotion mesh and StoryMaker, the Project has received  indirect funding both from the US State Department (through the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Internet Freedom program) and from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (through HIVOS). Distribution. Guardian Project offers downloads of its apps from Google Play, Amazon Appstore, Aptoide, directly from their website, and through an F-Droid-compatible repository. Direct downloads are signed and can be verified with the developer's key.