Community Privacy Residency (2025)

A 2-4 week residency focused on researching, co-designing, prototyping, and building open-source applications for community privacy, with emphasis on Applications for Vulnerable Communities, Community Co-Design, and Privacy Infrastructure. Applications are currently closed; decisions will be sent out by 17 Jan, 2025.

As cryptographic and privacy-preserving applications mature beyond the infrastructure layer to reach end-users, it is crucial to anchor their design in the needs of real-world communities. This residency brings together researchers, builders, and community members to explore human-centric methodologies, such as participatory co-design and participatory threat modeling, in conversation with the privacy needs of marginalised groups.

We invite community builders, engineers, designers, cryptographers, researchers, technologists, labor organizers, journalists, policymakers, members of vulnerable communities, and advocates for digital safety, bodily autonomy, privacy, and more to join us.

Residency Info

  • Residency Dates: 2/22/2025 - 3/22/2025
  • Location: Taipei, Taiwan

This residency offers:

  • Registration for RightsCon, Feb 24 - 27
  • Travel stipend and accommodations for non-local residents
  • Dedicated environment for learning and collaboration
  • Community building with local privacy and governance groups

We encourage residents to attend RightsCon, participate in community events, open-source project outputs, document processes, share learnings, and demo work with the broader community.

Project Tracks

The theme of the residency will be “community privacy,” i.e. privacy and cryptography tools that protect and empower communities from the ground up. Community privacy means creating safe spaces for vulnerable communities to live, share, organize, and interact with those outside their community.

Below are proposed project tracks and example project ideas. We also expect flexibility and potential for new tracks relevant to these themes to emerge throughout the residency. Feel free to propose your own project!

» Applications for Vulnerable Communities

  • building privacy-preserving coordination tools, such as using multi-party computation or multi-party fully homomorphic encryption for whistleblowing, labor strikes, reporting abuse, or mutual aid
  • compiling a privacy guide for vulnerable communities, with specific tools and use cases
  • analyzing data using multi-party statistics libraries for a specific community with privacy needs
  • updating Callisto Vault with zkEmail, MP-FHE

» Community Co-Design

  • facilitating a participatory co-design session with a specific community or topic, e.g. non-consensual media abuse, privacy needs for labor organizing or journalism, data autonomy for intimate digital media, data strikes
  • conducting UX research, user interviews, or creating mockups for consent interfaces
  • gathering feedback on existing privacy tools, social media platforms, or applications and identifying gaps in safety features and privacy needs
  • documenting threat models, e.g.: Invariant-Centric Threat Modelling; “On Privacy Notions in Secure Communication”

» Privacy Infrastructure

  • publishing a project boilerplate, writing a tutorial, or adding technical documentation for an existing cryptographic framework, e.g. zero-knowledge, multi-party computation, fully homomorphic encryption, trusted executive environments, proof-carrying data
  • integrating verifiable ID into community governance platforms, e.g. Polis, for private messaging boards, private majority reports, hierarchy of opinions (e.g. concept of expert analyses)
  • testing or auditing existing data provenance tools

Expected Outcomes

In addition to building relationships and community, as well as organizing events for privacy, cryptography, and community organizing, we anticipate the creation of:

  • Open-source technical prototypes and proofs-of-concept of privacy-preserving tools and community-focused applications
  • Original research and writing, e.g. blog posts, whitepapers, reports, policy briefs
  • Development of educational resources and guides, e.g. publications or public-facing workshops
  • Participatory co-design workshops, including write-ups of learnings and takeaways, and process documentation

We will facilitate sharing public outputs such as:

  • Community workshops and workshares from residents and local Taipei communities
  • Demo day on the last day
  • Written publication collating outputs: progress reports, new projects, publications, documentation, etc.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to be a cryptography expert to apply?

No, we are seeking domain experts in many areas, including design, governance, community organizing, journalism, labor, policy, and many more! If you are a member of a vulnerable community or a community with privacy needs, we would love to hear from you.

When can I expect to hear back?

We will be reviewing the days following the deadline and aim send out decisions by 1/17. We understand it takes time to make arrangements, including visa considerations.

Will my travel and housing be covered?

We will cover travel and accommodations, and/or provide full or partial stipends, with priority for those with financial need.

Can I work full-time and still do the residency?

We would prefer residents be able to show up with presence and to spend dedicated time and energy with our residency cohort. If you need to take time off to make this work, we will have a limited number of 2-week residency options available.

Do I have to physically be present for the duration of the residency?

Yes, we value having residents share physical space for building community. We may find other ways for remote participation, such as through streaming talks or facilitating an online community, to be announced.

What kinds of projects are you looking for?

We list a few example project ideas under each project track for inspiration, as well as a bit of application guidance. We anticipate project proposals to evolve or emerge as residents meet one another, attend RightsCon, and find opportunities for collaboration. While proposals are non-committal, we’re interested in seeing demonstrated vision, impact, execution, and potential for longer-term collaboration.

Some guiding questions may include: How is privacy and/or cryptography inherent to the project and its success? How does your project center community needs, and is there a specific community in mind?

Take a look at our Resources page.

How can I co-organize an event, collaborate with, or sponsor Community Privacy efforts?

Consider contributing to our OpenCollective, Giveth, or otherwise get in touch about sponsoring or collaborating with us!