issues . please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . february 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message the neutrality of this article is disputed . please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met . february 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message zero knowledge systems industry privacy technology founded 1998 headquarters montreal quebec canada key people austin hill ceo and hamnett hill coo products freedom network freedom pseudonymous mail system number of employees 300 website zero knowledge.com zero knowledge systems also known as zks was a canadian privacy technology software and services company best known for the freedom network its privacy network . it was founded by brothers austin hill & hamnett hill and their father hamnett hill sr. aka hammie hill in 1997 . its headquarters were in montreal quebec . early investors and board members were mike santer and alex hern co founder inktomi . the company still exists under the new name radial point though is no longer a developer of privacy enhancing technologies . 1 zero knowledge systems was one of the first large scale commercial attempts to combine cypherpunk principles with a for profit technology . during its heyday zks captured the media s imagination and successfully drew attention to the privacy risks of unsuspecting internet users . being based in canada allowed it to circumvent us ban on strong cryptography considered munitions at the time . zks was featured in wired magazine as early as 1999 2 the zks freedom network was a pioneer of anonymous networking technology predating the tor network . some of the enterprise privacy research was also inherited by the ibm tivoli digital rights management suite . 3 several of the company s employees were from an academic privacy enhanced technology background dr stefan brands senior cryptographer and cypherpunk background dr ian goldberg chief scientist and dr adam back architect & cryptographer . other employees included mike shaver chief software officer adam shostack anton stiglic jonathan wilkins and ulf moller . 4 stephanie perrin served as chief privacy officer for the firm before she became director of research and policy at the office of the privacy commissioner of canada and helped to draft pipeda the canadian privacy law . 5 references edit a new kind of mafia in montreal how a culture of startup ceos are playing the angel game betakit . september 3 2013 . retrieved august 2 2014 http archive.wired.com science discoveries news 1999 02 17820 http xml.coverpages.org epal.html dr. stefan brands joins zero knowledge systems . canadian corporate news . february 23 2000 . retrieved february 4 2014 . http www.intgovforum.org cms wks2013 view resource person.php id 172 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title zero knowledge systems & oldid 740479548 categories 1998 establishments in quebecsoftware companies of canadacanadian companies established in 1998hidden categories articles needing additional references from february 2014all articles needing additional referencesnpov disputes from february 2014all npov disputes navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 21 september 2016 at 09 33 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view