Most web browsers let you increase and decrease the size of text, images, and other web page content with "zoom" features. Some browsers let you choose to zoom only the text size.

To change the zoom in most browsers, press the following two keys at the same time:

• In Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS:
  • To zoom bigger: "Ctrl" and "+" keys
  • To zoom smaller: "Ctrl" and "-" keys
• Mac OS:
  • To zoom bigger: "⌘" and "+" keys
  • To zoom smaller: "⌘" and "-" keys

Browsers provide specific guidance on different ways to change the page zoom or text-only zoom:

• Google Chrome - Change text, image, and video sizes (zoom)
• Apple Safari - Zoom in on webpages
• Mozilla Firefox - Font size and zoom
• Opera - Zoom
• Internet Explorer - Ease of access options
• Microsoft Edge - Ease of Access in Microsoft Edge
• Vivaldi - Zooming options in Vivaldi

Other Text and Color Changes

Some browsers provide functionality to set different aspects of font and color in the default view.

• Mozilla Firefox - Change the fonts and colors websites use
• Opera - Look and feel > Fonts
• Microsoft Internet Explorer - Ease of Access Options

Other text and color settings are available in Reader View.

Reader View

Most browsers offer a "Reader View" or "Reading View" that shows just the main content; it gets rid of navigation, ads, etc. Some browsers let you set the text font, text size, text color, background color, and line spacing in Reader View.

• Apple Safari - Hide ads when reading articles
• Mozilla Firefox - Reader View for clutter-free web pages
• Microsoft Edge - Change font style and size for Reading view in Microsoft Edge
• Vivaldi - Reader View

Advanced Options

There are many browser extensions and add-ons that provide additional control over how the browser displays text and other content.

While most browsers no long support user style sheets, extensions provide similar advanced user control. For example, the Stylus extension is available for several major browsers.

Note: No Endorsement

We do not endorse specific web browsers or extensions and does not recommend one over another. While some common browsers are included in this page, mention of a specific browser does not imply endorsement or recommendation.

About This Page

This page is based off the WAI customize design document.

Join the VeilidChat channel on our Discord

Join beta and install on iOS

1. Download TestFlight from the Apple AppStore
2. From your iOS device click on this link to join the beta
3. Open TestFlight and install VeilidChat
4. Open VeilidChat, acknowledge the beta notification, and follow the prompts to setup your identity

Join beta and install on Android

1. From your Android device click on this link to join the beta
2. Open VeilidChat, acknowledge the beta notification, and follow the prompts to setup your identity

Last Revised 2023 Aug 3

This privacy notice for the Veilid Foundation ("Veilid," "we," "us," or "our"), describes how and why we might collect, store, use, and/or share ("process") your information when you use our services ("Services"), such as when you:

• Download and use our mobile application (VeilidChat), or any other application of ours that links to this privacy notice in the future.

Reading this privacy notice will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use VeilidChat. If you still have any questions or concerns, please contact us at support@veilid.com.

Summary of Key Points

• VeilidChat is a messaging application built on a decentralized, distributed, and end-to-end fully encrypted framework.
• VeilidChat is a proof-of-concept application in beta-testing and you must receive an invitation to activate the application.
• VeilidChat will never ask you for contact information, personal information, or financial information.
• When you register and use VeilidChat, any information entered into the app is either stored locally on your device, or encrypted and distributed in a method that is inaccessible and irretrievable by the Veilid Foundation (the creators of the application).
• We do not collect or process any personal information, nor do we have the capability to collect or process any personal information from VeilidChat.
• We do not collect or process sensitive personal information, nor do we have the capability to collect or process any sensitive information from VeilidChat.
• We do not receive or transmit any information to or from third parties.
• The Veilid Framework processes encrypted and distributed information to provide and administer services for VeilidChat.
• We do not share personal information. Because of the encrypted and distributed nature of information entered into the VeilidChat app, we are unable to access your personal information.
• How do we keep your information safe? We have organizational and technical processes and procedures in place to protect your personal information. However, no electronic transmission over the internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information.
• VeilidChat will provide you with a recovery pass-phrase to use in the event that your app is deleted or your device is no longer available/functional for you. If you cannot access this pass-phrase, you will have to create a new account. The Veilid Foundation is unable to restore your account through any means.
• How do you exercise your rights? The easiest way to exercise your rights is to delete VeilidChat. The Veilid Foundation is a non-profit organization that does not collect, process, or use any of your information. You may contact us by visiting https://veilid.com/contact-us or by emailing support@veilid.com. We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Table of Contents

1. What Information Do We Collect?
2. How Do We Process Your Information?
3. What Legal Bases Do We Rely On To Process Your Personal Information?
4. When And With Whom Do We Share Your Personal Information?
5. How Long Do We Keep Your Information?
6. How Do We Keep Your Information Safe?
7. Do We Collect Information From Minors?
8. What Are Your Privacy Rights?
9. Controls For Do-not-track Features
10. US State-specific Privacy Rights
11. Do We Make Updates To This Notice?
12. How Can You Contact Us About This Notice?
13. How Can You Review, Update, Or Delete The Data We Collect From You?
14. Cookie And Data Analytics Disclosures

1. What information do we collect?

VeilidChat collects no information from you. VeilidChat is designed to not collect your information and to operate in an encrypted, distributed manner, which means we cannot access your information even if we wanted to (which we don’t). Any information you enter into VeilidChat on your device is inaccessible to us.

The Veilid Foundation only collects personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you request an invitation to the beta version of the application. This will only be the contact information necessary for us to send you an invitation. This process is managed by the Apple App Store and the Veilid Foundation only retains this information long enough to provide it to the Apple App Store to generate an invitation.

2. How do we process your information?

We don’t. VeilidChat does not collect your information, nor are we able to collect it. Administration of, improvements to, and changes to the VeilidChat application will be made without any processing of personal information. The Veilid Foundation will never ask you for personal, sensitive, or financial information.

If you provide any information to us at support@veilid.com, though our Discord server, through our website at https://veilid.com/contact-us or directly via postal mail to our foundation, we will only process that information to answer your questions or attempt to support your issues, with two major exceptions:

• Legal Obligations. We may process information sent to us via email, our website, or via postal mail where we believe it is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations, such as to cooperate with a law enforcement body or regulatory agency, exercise or defend our legal rights, or disclose your information as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.
• Vital Interests. We may process information sent to us via email, our website, or via postal mail where we believe it is necessary to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of a third party, such as situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person.

3. What legal bases do we rely on to process your information?

VeilidChat does not process any personal information. Because the Veilid Foundation cannot access information entered into VeilidChat in any way, shape, or form, the Veilid Foundation does not process your information.

As for information sent to the Veilid Foundation via email, Discord server, postal mail, or through our website, we only process your personal information when we believe it is necessary and we have a valid legal reason (i.e.,legal obligations) to do so under applicable law, to comply with laws, to protect your rights, or to fulfill our legitimate business interests.

If you are located in the EU or UK, this section applies to you.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and UK GDPR require us to explain the valid legal bases we rely on in order to process your personal information. VeilidChat does not collect or process personal information. For any information that is sent directly to the Veilid Foundation, we may rely on the following legal bases to process your personal information:

• Consent. The Veilid Foundation may process your information if you have given us specific permission (i.e. consent) to use your personal information for a specific purpose. This is generally limited to contacting us and requesting an invite code to the beta version of the application, however, the Veilid Foundation does not store this information. Apple, through the App Store, will manage the invitation process. Your contact information cannot be linked to your VeilidChat account by the Veilid Foundation. You can withdraw your consent to Apple at any time.
• Legal Obligations. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations, such as to cooperate with a law enforcement body or regulatory agency, exercise or defend our legal rights, or disclose your information as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.
• Vital Interests. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of a third party, such as situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person.

If you are located in Canada, this section applies to you.

VeilidChat does not collect or process personal information. For any information that is sent directly to the Veilid Foundation, we may rely on the following legal bases to process your personal information:

We may process your information if you have given us specific permission (i.e., express consent) to use your personal information for a specific purpose, or in situations where your permission can be inferred (i.e., implied consent). This is generally limited to contacting us and requesting an invite code to the beta version of the application. Apple, through the App Store, will manage the invitation process. Your contact information cannot be linked to your VeilidChat account by the Veilid Foundation. You can withdraw your consent to Apple at any time.

• In some exceptional cases, we may be legally permitted under applicable law to process your information without your consent, including, for example:
• If collection is clearly in the interests of an individual and consent cannot be obtained in a timely way
• For investigations and fraud detection and prevention
• If it is contained in a witness statement and the collection is necessary to assess, process, or settle an insurance claim
• For identifying injured, ill, or deceased persons and communicating with next of kin
• If we have reasonable grounds to believe an individual has been, is, or may be victim of financial abuse
• If it is reasonable to expect collection and use with consent would compromise the availability or the accuracy of the information and the collection is reasonable for purposes related to investigating a breach of an agreement or a contravention of the laws of Canada or a province
• If disclosure is required to comply with a subpoena, warrant, court order, or rules of the court relating to the production of records
• If it was produced by an individual in the course of their employment, business, or profession and the collection is consistent with the purposes for which the information was produced
• If the collection is solely for journalistic, artistic, or literary purposes
• If the information is publicly available and is specified by the regulations

4. When and with whom do we share your personal information?

In no way, shape, or form do we ever share your personal information. We cannot share what we do not retain, or what we cannot access.

• Business Transfers. In the event of any merger, sale, or acquisition of any portion of the Veilid Foundation, the Veilid Foundation will provide updates on our website or through application updates for the VeilidChat application through the App Store. Because the Velid Foundation does not collect any personal information, we have no other methods to provide this information to you.

5. How long do we keep your information?

We keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this privacy notice unless otherwise required by law. However, in most cases, we are incapable of retaining information because we do not collect it.

The Veilid Foundation will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy notice, unless a longer retention period is required by law. VeilidChat will retain a local copy of your information (accessible only to your device and the people you directly share information with) for as long as you utilize the application. In future iterations of the application, there will be a “delete messages after a certain period of time” functionality, but for the beta testing proof-of-concept, this functionality has not been introduced.

6. How do we keep your information safe?

We have implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. However, despite our safeguards and efforts to secure your information, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that any unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information.

Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, transmission of personal information to and from Velid Chat is at your own risk. You should only access VeilidChat within a secure environment. If you lose access to your device, the Velid Foundation cannot access or delete information stored there.

7. Do we collect information from minors?

We do not collect information from or market to anyone. If you suspect that someone underage is violating the Apple App Store terms of service by downloading VeilidChat, please contact Apple at Support.Apple.com.

8. What are your privacy rights?

In some regions (like the EEA, UK, and Canada), you have certain rights under applicable data protection laws. These may include the right (i) to request access and obtain a copy of your personal information, (ii) to request rectification or erasure; (iii) to restrict the processing of your personal information; and (iv) if applicable, to data portability. In certain circumstances, you may also have the right to object to the processing of your personal information.

However, due to the unique nature of VeilidChat, the only information available is stored locally on the user’s device and is inaccessible by the Veilid Foundation. VeilidChat does not collect or process any personal information. If a user wishes to exercise their data rights, they may copy any data within the VeilidChat application and export it themselves, or delete the application from their device. The Veilid Foundation has no access to any user’s data.

We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

If you are located in the EEA or UK and you believe we are unlawfully processing your personal information, you also have the right to complain to your Member State data protection authority or UK data protection authority.

If you are located in Switzerland, you may contact the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.

Account Information

If you would at any time like to review or change the information in your account or terminate your account, you can:

• Log in to your account settings and update your user account.
• Delete the application from your device.

Upon your decision to delete the application from your device, it will no longer be able to be accessed by anyone, including the creators of the application. Any data still in existence will be encrypted, distributed, and inaccessible by any party.

However, we may retain some information that is sent directly to the Veilid Foundation via email, our website, our Discord server, or via post mail in our files to prevent fraud, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforce our legal terms and/or comply with applicable legal requirements.

If you have questions or comments about your privacy rights, you may email us at support@veilid.com.

9. Controls for Do-Not-track Features

Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems and mobile applications include a Do-Not-Track ("DNT") feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. VeilidChat is compliant with this technology because we do not monitor, track, collect, or process any information.

10. US State-Specific Privacy Rights

• California (knows how to party):
  • We do not sell, rent, or share information with anyone, including third parties who engage in direct marketing activities. We do not collect or share your information with anyone, for any reason. No marketing, no third party sharing, nothing.
  • VeilidChat has no ability to post public information. If you are under 18 years of age, reside in California, and have a registered account with VeilidChat, you can delete the application on your device and that will serve to exercise your rights to deletion.
  • Please note that the Veilid Foundation and the VeilidChat application HAVE NOT collected, rented, shared, or sold any personal information from any individual, and especially not within the past 12 months.
• De-identified Data Disclosure (CA, CO, CT, UT, VA and soon to be more)
  • We may use de-identified data in certain circumstances. In those circumstances, not only do we never attempt to re-identify that data, but we are completely unable to re-identify any data because of our encryption and distributed data frameworks.
• Profiling Disclosure (Hi Colorado!)
  • We do not engage in profiling of consumers in any way, shape, or form. We especially don’t do it in a way that supports automated decisions that might have a legal or significant effect on anyone.

11. Do we make updates to this notice?

We will update this notice as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws and as it relates to new features or products available.

The updated version will be indicated by an updated "Revised" date and the updated version will be effective as soon as it is accessible. If we make material changes to this privacy notice, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes on the Veilid Foundation’s website, or by providing an updated policy through the Apple App Store as part of any version updates. Because we do not collect your information, we are unable to directly contact you. We encourage you to review this privacy notice frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.

12. How can you contact us about this notice?

If you have questions or comments about this notice, you may email us at support@veilid.com or contact us by post at:

Veilid Foundation
P.O. Box 1917
Leesburg, VA 20177

13. How can you review, update, or delete the data we collect from you?

The only effective method to review, update, or delete any of your data is locally on the VeilidChat application on your device. The Veilid Foundation is unable to collect or access your information through the VeilidChat application and thus does not have the ability to review, update, or delete information that we do not possess.

14. Cookie and Data Analytics Disclosure

We don’t use cookies. We don’t use data analytics. You can check on our website.

Questions, comments, or concerns about the code of conduct may be sent to security@veilid.org.

Our Pledge

We as members, contributors, and leaders pledge to make participation in our community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.

We pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy community.

Our Standards

Examples of behavior that contributes to a positive environment for our community include:

• Demonstrating empathy and kindness toward other people
• Being respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences
• Giving and gracefully accepting constructive feedback
• Accepting responsibility and apologizing to those affected by our mistakes, and learning from the experience
• Focusing on what is best not just for us as individuals, but for the overall community

Examples of unacceptable behavior include:

• The use of sexualized language or imagery, and sexual attention or advances of any kind
• Trolling, insulting or derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks
• Public or private harassment
• Publishing others' private information, such as a physical or email address, without their explicit permission
• Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting

Enforcement Responsibilities

Community leaders are responsible for clarifying and enforcing our standards of acceptable behavior and will take appropriate and fair corrective action in response to any behavior that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful.

Community leaders have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions that are not aligned to this Code of Conduct, and will communicate reasons for moderation decisions when appropriate.

Scope

This Code of Conduct applies within all community spaces, and also applies when an individual is officially representing the community in public spaces. Examples of representing our community include using an official e-mail address, posting via an official social media account, or acting as an appointed representative at an online or offline event.

Enforcement

Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported to the community leaders responsible for enforcement at security@veilid.org. All complaints will be reviewed and investigated promptly and fairly.

All community leaders are obligated to respect the privacy and security of the reporter of any incident.

Enforcement Guidelines

Community leaders will follow these Community Impact Guidelines in determining the consequences for any action they deem in violation of this Code of Conduct:

1. Correction

Community Impact: Use of inappropriate language or other behavior deemed unprofessional or unwelcome in the community.

Consequence: A private, written warning from community leaders, providing clarity around the nature of the violation and an explanation of why the behavior was inappropriate. A public apology may be requested.

2. Warning

Community Impact: A violation through a single incident or series of actions.

Consequence: A warning with consequences for continued behavior. No interaction with the people involved, including unsolicited interaction with those enforcing the Code of Conduct, for a specified period of time. This includes avoiding interactions in community spaces as well as external channels like social media. Violating these terms may lead to a temporary or permanent ban.

3. Temporary Ban

Community Impact: A serious violation of community standards, including sustained inappropriate behavior.

Consequence: A temporary ban from any sort of interaction or public communication with the community for a specified period of time. No public or private interaction with the people involved, including unsolicited interaction with those enforcing the Code of Conduct, is allowed during this period. Violating these terms may lead to a permanent ban.

4. Permanent Ban

Community Impact: Demonstrating a pattern of violation of community standards, including sustained inappropriate behavior, harassment of an individual, or aggression toward or disparagement of classes of individuals.

Consequence: A permanent ban from any sort of public interaction within the community.

Attribution

This Code of Conduct is adapted from the Contributor Covenant, version 2.1, available at https://www.contributor-covenant.org/version/2/1/code_of_conduct.html.

Community Impact Guidelines were inspired by Mozilla's code of conduct enforcement ladder.

For answers to common questions about this code of conduct, see the FAQ at https://www.contributor-covenant.org/faq. Translations are available at https://www.contributor-covenant.org/translations.

We want to bring together folks to help build great applications using the Veilid framework.

Code of Conduct

Please take a moment to review our Code of Conduct

Join Us on Discord

Why Discord?

We're doing what we can with what we have. Since we're not trying to become a tech circlejerk, we have to meet people on their level. So come on in and help us build something better!

Social Media Accounts

• cDc on Twitter
• Veilid on Twitter
• cDc on BlueSky
• Veilid on BlueSky
• Veilid on Fedi

Please take a moment to review our Code of Conduct

Running a Node

To install the Veilid node software, please follow the instructions available in the repository.

Starting Development

Please recursively check out the project using this command

git clone git@gitlab.com:veilid/veilid.git

Then read the development guide to get started.

There is also a Veilid Book.

About the Code Repositories

The main repository is located at https://gitlab.com/veilid/veilid and includes several components

• veilid-core - the main Veilid crate: https://crates.io/crates/veilid-core
• veilid-tools - misc functions for veilid and friends: https://crates.io/crates/veilid-tools
• veilid-wasm - Veilid bindings for webassembly: https://crates.io/crates/veilid-wasm
• veilid-flutter - Veilid bindings for Flutter/Dart. Comes with an example program: https://crates.io/crates/veilid-flutter
• Also veilid-server and veilid-cli source are also in this repo for building headless nodes

Veilid provides applications guarantees about how data is handled on the wire and at rest.

Cryptosystems were chosen that work well together and provide a balance of speed and cryptographic hardness.

Current Cryptography Systems

• Authentication is Ed25519

  Elliptic curve25519 was chosen to provide public/private key authentication and signing capabilities

• Key Exchange is x25519

  Curve25519 has a DH function that allows nodes to generate a symmetric key to communicate privately.

• Encryption is XChaCha20-Poly1305

  ChaCha20 with a 192-bit extended nonce is a fast authenticated stream cipher with associated data (AEAD).

• Message Digest is BLAKE3

  BLAKE3 is a extremely fast cryptographic hash that is highly parallelizable and as strong as SHA3-256 and over 17 times faster.

• Key Derivation is Argon2

  Password hash generation should be slow and resistant to GPU attacks Argon2 was the winner of the 2015 Password Hashing Competition.

Upgrading Cryptography Systems

Nothing lasts forever and cryptography is no exception. As computing power improves and cryptographic attacks evolve, weaknesses in cryptosystems are inevitable.

Veilid has ensured that upgrading to newer cryptosystems is streamlined and minimally invasive to app developers, and handled transparently at the node level.

• Multiple Routing Tables

  Because changing cryptosystems changes node ids, there will be different distance measurements between nodes, necessitating a separate routing table per cryptosystem. We support this today.

• Typed Keys

  Cryptographic keys, signatures, and hashes are all tagged with their cryptosystem to ensure that we know exactly how they were generated and how they should be used and persisted.

• Migration Support

  Reading persisted data will automatically use the correct cryptosystem and will default to always writing it back using the newest/best cryptosystem. This allows for data to be easily migrated just by reading it and writing it back to storage.

• Simultaneous Cryptosystems

  While transitioning cryptosystems, nodes can respond to other nodes using either the old system or the new one, or both.

Secure Storage

• Device-level secret storage APIs are available for all platforms
• Encrypted table store APIs are exposed to applications to make safe data storage easy
• Device data keys can also be password protected
• Apps never need to write anything to disk unencrypted

On The Wire

• All Protocols Same Encryption

  Each low-level protocol uses the same message and receipt encapsulation. No protocol is special and all protocols offer the same safety guarantees.

• Encrypted And Signed

  Messages between nodes are signed by the sender and encrypted for only the receiver. Messages can be relayed without decryption and authentication covers the entire contents including headers.

• Everything Is Timestamped

  Envelopes include timestamps and unique nonces and reject old or replayed messages.

• Node Information Is Signed

  When a node publishes routing table entries they are signed. No node can lie about another node's dial info, capabilities, availability, or replay old node info when newer info is available.

All devices are welcome and treated equally

You can use the public Veilid Network or build your own

Nodes help each other like mutual aid for connectivity

All Veilid applications running veilid-core are 'nodes', and they are all equal in the eyes of the network. No nodes are 'special'.

Nodes are only limited by the resources they bring and the configuration of the network they are on.

DNS is only used one time during ‘bootstrap'; it is not required though.

SSL is optional and only for HTTPS Websockets for Veilid Webapps.

Protocols

Veilid uses UDP, TCP, and Websockets.

Low level protocols supported by Veilid are kept simple, to minimize complications. Everything uses framed RPC operations up to 64KB in size. Protocol support is extensible and may add WebRTC and other specialized protocols in the future.

Network Topology

To zoom in on the details, view the full size image directly.

Bootstrapping

Bootstrap nodes not 'special' nodes. Any node can bootstrap a Veilid network. Networks can be 'keyed' to keep nodes off that don't have the key. You can join the ‘big Veilid network' or make your own isolated network.

• Ask Bootstraps To ‘Find Self'

  A single initial DNS TXT record request returns some bootstrap nodes that are known to exist. Those are asked to return nodes that are ‘close' to your own node.

• Public Address Detection

  Nodes are often behind various forms of NAT. Validating one's own public ‘Dial Info' is essential for publishing one's Node Info and answering Find Node requests.

• Relay Configuration

  Low-capability network classes may require the use of Inbound or Outbound relays in order to achieve reachability Nodes help each other out to the best of their ability and incur no penalty for not being able to assist other nodes.

• Peer Minimum Refresh

  Nodes in your routing table are asked to return nodes that are near you as well. Finding nodes close to your own is always harder than finding nodes far away, so we focus on that with our requests.

• Network Class Detection

  Determining NAT type and what mechanisms can be used to achieve connectivity. Direct connection techniques like reverse connections and UDP hole punching may be inappropriate for some network classes.

• Ping Validation

  Nodes come and go, change address, and are unreliable. Checking routing table nodes for proof-of-life is done with exponential backoff. Nodes are removed from the routing table on a LIFO basis.

Compiled Routes

Secure Envelopes

Toward The Future

• Per-Hop Payload Keying

  Ensuring that there is nothing common between packets at each hop will reduce the risk of mass data collection being able to deanonymize routes.

• Simplify Directionality

  Routes are currently bidirectional, but are allocated directionally. We may be able to simplify our allocation mechanism by enforcing bidirectionality. Bidirectional routes are faster, but directional routes could provide more anonymity.

• Elimination of Hop Counting

  Currently the protocol keeps an internal hop count that is not necessary. Efforts should be made to ensure that individual nodes don’t know how far along in a route they are.

• Hop Caching

  Route hop NodeInfo could be cached to save on-the-wire size as well as speed things up.

• Increasing Hop Count

  Currently the default is one hop chosen by the Safety Route, and one hop chosen by the Private Route, which leads to three hops total once compiled.

  It may be important to increase hop count to 2 for users with critical safety needs and to protect from nation-state-level deanonymization where appropriate.

  Existing research (on Tor) suggests that our existing hop count should be sufficient and provide comparable anonymity, but this should be revisited.

• Schema Language is Cap'n Proto

  Cap’n Proto is designed for deserialization speed and schema evolution. Flexible and well supported in Rust.

• RPC is fully in-schema and documented

  Both ‘Question/Answer’ and ‘Statement’ RPC modes are supported. All schema fields are documented.

• RPC fully supports Private Routing

  All private routing structures are expressed in the RPC schema itself, no magic encrypted blobs.

• Schema Evolution is built-in

  Fields can be added and removed with full backward and forward compatibility. New features won’t break older Veilid nodes.

• RPC Schema is cryptography-independent

  As cryptosystems change, the language spoken by Veilid nodes remains the same.

Distributed Hash Table

Distributed Hash Tables are a way of storing data in records that have keys that are close to nodes in the network.

DHT Is Just ‘Search’

It may look complicated, but all the DHT algorithms out there are just ‘search’ algorithms. Finding data that is stored on some node somewhere out there.

Improving Search

We built a better DHT by making both search and data locality more relevant. Veilid synchronizes popular data when nodes come and go from the network.

Locating a node by its ID. Here the node with the prefix 0011 finds the node with the prefix 1110 by successively learning of and querying closer and closer nodes. The line segment on top represents the space of 160-bit IDs, and shows how the lookups coverge to the target node. Below we illustrate RPC messages made by 1110. The first RPC is to node 101, already known to 1110. Subsequent RPCs are to nodes returned by the previous RPC.

DHT Schema

Veilid DHT is built using GetValue and SetValue RPC operations. Nodes can opt out of DHT storage if they do not want to participate.

Veilid DHT records have schemas that define subkeys that are individually addressable and can have multiple writers.

DHT record subkeys have sequence numbers and are eventually consistent across multiple writes and background synchronizations.

PDF press summary: Veilid Framework Press Kit, 20.6 kB

Press Contact

Press and media inquiries should be sent to press@veilid.org

In The News

• “America’s Original Hacking Supergroup Creates a Free Framework to Improve App Security.” Engadget, https://www.engadget.com/americas-original-hacking-supergroup-creates-a-free-framework-to-improve-app-security-190043865.html. Accessed 11 Aug. 2023.
• “Cult of the Dead Cow Launches Encryption Protocol to Save Your Privacy.” Gizmodo, 2 Aug. 2023, https://gizmodo.com/cult-of-the-dead-cow-launches-veilid-encryption-project-1850699803.
• “Cult of the Dead Cow Wants to Save Internet Privacy with a New Encryption Protocol.” Yahoo News, 2 Aug. 2023, https://news.yahoo.com/cult-dead-cow-wants-save-203200064.html.
• Goodwins, Rupert. Last Rites for UK’s Ridiculous Online Safety Bill. https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/21/opinion_column_monday/. Accessed 21 Aug. 2023.
• Hemant, Kumar. “Hacktivist Group CDc to Unveil Veilid Encryption for Privacy-First Apps.” Candid.Technology, 2 Aug. 2023, https://candid.technology/veilid-encryption-cdc-cult-of-dead-cow/.
• Johnson, Donovan. “Cult of the Dead Cow Develops Coding Framework for Privacy-Focused Apps.” Fagen Wasanni Technologies, 2 Aug. 2023, https://fagenwasanni.com/ai/cult-of-the-dead-cow-develops-coding-framework-for-privacy-focused-apps/106537/.
• Long, Heinrich. “Prominent Hacktivists to Launch Secure Messaging Framework Veilid.” CyberInsider, 5 Aug. 2023, https://cyberinsider.com/prominent-hacktivists-to-launch-secure-messaging-framework-veilid/.
• Menn, Joseph. “Hacking Group Plans System to Encrypt Social Media and Other Apps.” Washington Post, 2 Aug. 2023. www.washingtonpost.com, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/08/02/encryption-dead-cow-cult-apps-def-con/.
• RHC, Redazione. “Cult of the dead Cow presenta il protocollo Veilid. Una nuova alternativa al ‘capitalismo della sorveglianza.’” Red Hot Cyber, 3 Aug. 2023, https://www.redhotcyber.com/post/cult-of-the-dead-cow-presenta-il-protocollo-veilid-una-nuova-alternativa-al-capitalismo-della-sorveglianza/.
• Veilid Unveiled by Cult of the Dead Cow - Security - ITnews. https://www.itnews.com.au/news/veilid-unveiled-by-cult-of-the-dead-cow-599475. Accessed 22 Aug. 2023.

Veilid Foundation Members

Contributors

Veilid contributors include coders, admins, writers, legal, and more.

• TC Johnson
• Jun34u, cDc
• DethVeggie, cDc
• Beka Valentine
• signal9
• Obscure, cDc
• Kirk 'Teknique' Strauser
• Alice 'c0debabe' Rhodes
• Abbie 'antijingoist' Gonzalez
• snowchyld, NsF
• John 'Wrewdison' Whelan
• Robert 'LambdaCalculus' Menes
• Glenn Kurtzrock
• Daniel Meyerson
• CylentKnight
• Robert 'Slugnoodle' Notarfrancesco
• Rebecah Miller
• Ray Watson
• Rob "Bourbon" Curtis
• Brandon Vandegrift

Special Thanks

A heart-felt thank you to our families and friends for putting up with supporting us.

We built Veilid because when the Internet was young and new, we viewed it as an endless and open realm of possibility.

Instead, the Internet we know now has been heavily commercialized, with users and their data being the most sought-after commodity. The only ways to opt-out of becoming the product for billionaires to exploit are either too technical for the average user, or to simply not go online.

We don't believe that is fair; we still haven't given up our dream for the entire Internet to be free and accessible without trading privacy to use it.

We believe that everyone should be able to forge relationships, learn, create, and build online — without being monetized.

With Veilid, the user is in control, in a way that is approachable and friendly, regardless of technical ability. We want to give the world the Internet we should have had all along. )

Join Our Community

Veilid For Developers

Veilid allows developers to build a distributed, private app. Veilid gives users the privacy to opt out of data collection and online tracking. Veilid is being built with user experience, privacy, and safety as our top priorities. It is open source and available to everyone to use and build upon.

Veilid goes above and beyond existing privacy technologies and has the potential to completely change the way people use the Internet. Veilid has no profit motive, which puts us in a unique position to promote ideals without the compromise of capitalism.

Code Repositories