Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET

MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom wants to give a financial boost to privacy-minded startup companies.

On Tuesday, Dotcom tweeted that he's planning a venture capital fund for privacy startups and is looking for partners and fund managers. No further details were revealed. But the quest for privacy certainly has gained renewed interest following the recent revelations about the National Security Agency's PRISM program.

Dotcom also has had an increasing eye on privacy in light of his battles with the U.S. government over his MegaUpload site. Last year, the government accused Dotcom of using MegaUpload as a "criminal enterprise" to illegally house copyright-protected files.

In connection with that case, New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) spied on Dotcom to gather information about him prior to an arrest. But the GCSB isn't allowed to spy on its citizens and conducted surveillance on Dotcom under the false impression that he was not yet a New Zealand citizen.

Dotcom eventually was forced to hand over all the data files from MegaUpload's servers. Backups of those files were stored on hosting site LeaseWeb until they were deleted this past month, prompting a slew of angry tweets from its founder.

In January, Dotcom kicked off a new site called Mega, which offers cloud-based storage that promises to protect the privacy of its users.

(Via GigaOm)