Purism is happy to announce the new, made in USA Librem Key

What does “Made in USA” mean?

We would never use the words “Made in USA” lightly. We had to meet very strict requirements before being allowed to use that label. It’s well-known that other firms have been fined for mislabeling their Made in China products as Made in USA, for instance because “screwdriver assembly” only (getting electronics made elsewhere and doing final case-assembly in the USA) is not enough to qualify for “Made in USA”. A company can source specific, individual electronics components from around the world (we source chips like the OpenPGP smart card from a European supplier, for example) but must actually make–as in fabricate–the product here, in the US, to be able to label it as “Made in USA.”

Protecting the digital supply chain matters

We are investing in improvements all across our supply chain. We have written about the importance of protecting the digital supply chain before, and are now pleased to announce a major, related improvement: the new, made in USA Librem Keys!

The original Librem Keys were manufactured by Nitrokey as part of our initial partnership. We will be manufacturing the Librem Key v2 in the same US facility where we manufactured our Librem 5 devkits; it will have the same features of the original Librem Key, use the same OpenPGP smart card chips, and the inside will look almost the same–but the outside will have a new, re-branded case saying “Made in USA”.

Tight supply chain control is very important, because this device will hold your most sensitive secrets–your GPG keys, your PureBoot secrets. We oversee the complete production of the Librem Key, so they never leave our sight–from PCBA to finished product–until we send them to you. You can trust not only the keys, but also any laptops configured (at our facility) with PureBoot and protected by those same Librem Keys.

This is only the beginning

Made in USA Librem Keys are only the beginning: we have already tested the capabilities of our US facility by making Librem 5 devkits there, and as we continue to fine-tune our operations with the Librem Key, we are testing how many more of our products we can build there.

Having Made in USA, in-house fabrication ensures freedom, security, and privacy for people and enterprises. This is the second Made in the USA product by Purism, but only the beginning of what we have coming.

If you are interested in Made in USA Librem Keys, you can find more information about them here.