PGP Encryption Creator Phil Zimmermann Joins Startpage.com

Startpage.com is a resident at the HSD Campus and Network Partner of HSD. A few years ago, Alex van Eesteren and Phil Zimmermann coincidentally met at the HSD Campus, and established a collaboration. Now, a few years later, Zimmermann decided to join Startpage.com.

Alex van Eesteren, Director Business Development at StartPage.com: “We are established at the HSD Campus since September 2016. The appeal that the HSD Campus has to us are the networking possibilities. A meeting at the HSD Campus resulted that, amongst others, renowned privacy expert Phil Zimmermann started working for us.”

Zimmermann is best known as the creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), encryption software he designed in the 1990’s to fight government surveillance. PGP scrambles data, making it unreadable without the right credentials or “key”. Zimmermann has joined the company to spearhead its product innovation and crypto-development. Moreover, Zimmermann will advise the company on its current search engine product, but his main focus will be development of the company’s next-generation PGP-encrypted email service. In addition to his work at Startpage.com, Zimmermann currently teaches cryptography at Delft University of Technology's Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science in the Netherlands.

 “I decided to join Startpage.com because they are ideologically aligned on privacy issues. They really care. And they make products everyone can use,” Zimmermann said. “A few years back I stopped using PGP on Apple Mail because it was never compatible with current MacOS versions. Creating a web-based PGP-compatible product that I can use on my laptop and mobile devices solves that problem.”

“It is an honor to have Phil Zimmermann, an encryption legend, work with us,” said Startpage.com CEO Robert Beens. “Not only is he one of the brightest minds in security and cryptography today. He truly cares about human rights and privacy.”