WikiLeaks whistleblower Chelsea Manning battles AI surveillance with NSA-proof VPN

In an exclusive interview from Web Summit, Chelsea Manning and Harry Halpin explain why traditional privacy tools like VPNs are failing in an era of AI surveillance and how NymVPN’s mixnet technology could be the solution for true digital anonymity.

There are typically two approaches to protecting your privacy online. If your motto is that just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you, then VPNs and Tor will be your go-to solution. The more lackadaisical might shrug their shoulders and repeat the mantra: if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.

At this year's Web Summit in Lisbon, Harry Halpin, CEO of Nym Technologies SA, and security consultant and former intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning warned that both approaches are naive and foolish in a world where censorship-minded nation-states or prying authorities are watching your every move online.

From whistleblower and government surveillance to privacy advocates

Chelsea Manning, a former US Army intelligence analyst, knows all about the digital threats against society. After leaking military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, her disclosures sparked debates on government transparency and accountability.

Arrested in 2010, she was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013. Manning spent nearly seven years behind bars. Despite her controversial past, her role in exposing systemic abuses continues to influence discussions on privacy, digital rights, and the ethics of surveillance.

Nym Technology CEO Harry Halpin's former life as a climate activist led to him becoming a person of interest, which also led to a personal experience with government surveillance. These two origin stories highlight what drives their passion for building better privacy tools.

We kill people based on metadata

Halpin immediately grabbed the attention of journalists in a press briefing when he began his presentation with a quote from the former head of the National Security Agency, "We kill people based on metadata."

"As we enter a more unstable geopolitical era, with increasing state control and surveillance, the need for tools that resist censorship and protect digital privacy has never been more urgent."

A study of Amazon cloud databases found that exposed metadata showed a clear link between account IDs and the companies owning them. In some cases, the exposed data even included employee names, which could be cross-referenced with their employers on LinkedIn.

Metadata is a goldmine of information about you and can generate a picture of who you are with astonishing detail. As a result, metadata is increasingly being used in surveillance.

"Metadata isn't just the contents of a message. It's everything around it. The time, place, who sent it, who received it. It's the patterns of life that AI can detect, even when the content is encrypted."

Why AI, metadata, and the splinternet are a threat to privacy

With the changing geopolitical landscape and chip wars, we are already beginning to see the rise of splinternets. If we also look beyond the hype of AI, it's quietly transforming surveillance, making it more efficient by analyzing patterns rather than relying solely on human intuition.

"VPNs and encrypted messengers like Signal protect your data but leak metadata. And in an era of AI, that metadata is a treasure trove that can be analyzed to reveal patterns and behaviors."

Halpin highlighted how even when attempting to protect our online activity, we unwittingly create an audit trail of noise that reveals more about us than we realize. For example, when paying for a traditional VPN, they not only know what you're doing on the internet but can also link it to your credit card information used for the payment, which can be incredibly dangerous.

"AI doesn't just analyze your data; it finds signals in the noise. That's why we've designed NymVPN to add noise – to scramble the patterns AI looks for, making it much harder for surveillance tools to work."

WikiLeaks whistleblower Chelsea Manning says censorship is still ‘a dominant threat’

undefined...Manning said that one way to ensure online privacy could be “decentralized identification,” which gives individuals the ability to control their own data.#OurDatahttps://t.co/QEChTWzwlA pic.twitter.com/bgKHHVaFzB

undefined Paul Stewart (@pt_stewart) November 14, 2024

Mixnets and noise

In my podcast interview with Harry Halpin and Chelsea Manning, they shared how NymVPN is a decentralized privacy solution built on blockchain technology that they claim enhances anonymity in ways traditional VPNs cannot compete.

NymVPN uses Mixnet architecture to route traffic through multiple nodes, a method Halpin likened to shuffling a deck of cards. When data passes through a mixnet, it is broken up into smaller packets, and each packet is shuffled with others. This process changes the order and flow of the packets, making it much harder for anyone watching the traffic to determine where a message came from, where it's going, or who is communicating with whom.

A mixnet adds noise of fake or decoy data to the traffic. This noise creates additional confusion, masking the actual data and making it indistinguishable from the background traffic. It's similar to playing loud static over a conversation to prevent anyone from eavesdropping and understanding what is being said. This technique directly counters AI surveillance methods, which rely on detecting patterns in data.

Mixnets obscure these patterns by introducing noise, making it much harder for AI to sift through and find meaningful signals.

How a mixnet differs from a VPN or Tor

VPNs encrypt your data but send it through a single server. While outsiders may not see the content, the VPN provider can see everything, and metadata like the timing and size of the data packets remains visible. This metadata can be analyzed to reveal user behavior.

Tor routes your data through a series of decentralized nodes, which provides better anonymity than a VPN. However, Tor does not add noise, and its design can still leak metadata patterns, especially if an observer controls several nodes.

Unlike VPNs and Tor, a mixnet shuffles data packets across multiple independent servers and adds noise, breaking the link between the sender and receiver. This means that even if someone tries to track your traffic, they encounter a chaotic mix of real and fake data, making it nearly impossible to analyze patterns effectively.

"Digital privacy today requires more than encryption. It requires innovation that obscures our online behaviors altogether."

The goal? True anonymity

A mixnet like NymVPN aims to achieve a level of privacy that is resilient against advanced AI-driven surveillance techniques. In a world where AI can analyze vast amounts of metadata and find patterns in real time, simply encrypting your data is no longer enough. A mixnet disrupts the very patterns that AI relies on, providing a stronger shield for online privacy.

Chelsea Manning told me that this technology is particularly vital in regions with heavy censorship and authoritarian regimes. A mixnet's decentralized, noise-generating approach can help journalists, activists, and everyday users bypass surveillance and protect their digital communications from prying eyes.

It's a step beyond traditional privacy tools, designed to meet the growing challenges of a world where AI-driven data collection is becoming the norm. There is nothing like NymVPN currently on the market. It has over 600 Mixnet servers scattered around the world and is the only scalable real-world solution that uses the mix networks concept.

Billed as the world's most private VPN, it's currently free during its public beta phase, so users can get hands-on with the solution before the official release, which is currently unknown. Will you be giving it a try?