Open Conversations: Privacy Can't Ask Permission (Roger Dingledine, Tor Project)
Mon, Mar 2, 2026, 12:00 AM
Privacy infrastructure can't be conditional on institutional approval. It has to work for anyone, no permission required. This is the vision Roger Dingledine, co-founder of Tor Project, has been building toward for over two decades. His technology has helped hundreds of thousands of people institutions failed to protect—activists under authoritarian regimes, journalists exposing corruption, people seeking healthcare their governments criminalized. In this conversation, Roger argues that metadata protection—who you talk to, where you go online, the patterns you leave behind—should be infrastructure, not a privilege, that protects people institutions don't. Filmed at Funding the Commons Buenos Aires, November 19, 2025. Learn more at https://www.fundingthecommons.io Relevant Projects Tor Project: https://www.torproject.org Thank You to Our Sponsors Protocol Labs: https://protocol.ai NEAR Foundation: https://near.foundation Stellar Development Foundation: https://stellar.org human.tech by Holonym Foundation: https://human.tech/ Ethereum Ecosystem Support Program: https://esp.ethereum.foundation/ Drips: https://drips.network Octant: https://octant.app Logos: https://logos.co GoodDollar: https://gooddollar.org launchnodes: https://launchnodes.com
Speakers
Roger is co-founder and original developer of the Tor Project, a nonprofit that develops free and open source software to protect people from tracking, censorship, and surveillance online. Roger works with journalists and activists on many continents to help them understand and defend against the threats they face, and he is a prominent researcher in the online anonymity field. EFF picked him for a Pioneer Award, and Foreign Policy magazine chose him as one of its top 100 global thinkers.