Dances with Bytes: abusing common file formats for improved privacy

Why should an abused woman have to learn about encryption to send a help request to a friend?

Why should  you store passwords in a Password Manager program that is now specifically targeted by criminals?

Why can't privacy be fun?

These were just some of the questions we asked ourselves before we sat down to write "message envelopes" that either look nothing like a message or text, or put the message somewhere where is is not designed to go.
We took some "common" file formats and wrote Project CuttleFish, re-purposing these formats to improve the privacy of communications on the web.

The result:

• An XML document that is empty, but it contains a text message.

• An audio file that plays "rain sounds" in an audio player, but it contains a text message.

• A movie that shows dancing stars, or pacman, or bouncing balls, but it contains a text message. Example courtesy of an early user: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcRm3X3qA1A

• A cascading stylesheet (CSS) meant for styling a web page, but it contains a text message.

The CuttleFish source code is also available
CuttleFish can benefit from extra eyes and from contributions to enhance the output formats. For instance, the cascading stylesheet (CSS) implementation is rudimentary, so make it better.

Put CuttleFish on a USB stick for improved security, remove the stick when you are done using CuttleFish for the day.