Pirate Bay founder Peter Sunde is working on a new messaging platform that will be impossible to spy on, even by the people who operate the network. Using end-to-end encryption in combination with a user-friendly interface, Heml.is hopes to cater to the demands of millions of privacy-concerned Internet users. "In this day and age we can't do without encryption," Sunde tells TorrentFreak.

Over the past month the PRISM scandal has dominated the news, with many people calling for stronger privacy protections as a result.

While it may not come as a complete surprise that nearly all communication on the Internet is monitored and stored, the revelations have brought talks about encrypted communication to the mainstream.

One new startup that hopes to lead the way in the next generation of encrypted communication tools comes from Pirate Bay founder Peter Sunde. The former Pirate Bay spokesman is no newcomer when it comes to encrypting traffic as he is also connected to the privacy-focused VPN service iPredator. However, with his latest project he hopes to take things to the next level.

Sunde and two friends are currently working hard on Heml.is (“secret” in Swedish), a spy-proof messaging App for both iOS and Android. Aside from its pretty looks, all messages will be encrypted so no one except the sender and recipient will be able to read their contents.

TorrentFreak caught up with Sunde who told us that a secure and private messaging system is needed for people to talk freely.

“People act differently if they think someone is listening in to their conversation. That’s what Stasi taught us for instance. It’s one of many reasons why privacy is so vital,” Sunde says.

While encrypted messaging is not a new phenomenon, Heml.is hopes to beat the competition by building apps that look pretty, but perhaps more importantly are completely open about the people running them.

“The big difference with heml.is compared to other solutions is that we’re not just focusing on tech. So many people talk about open source, floss and so on, but that’s only a small part. There are more important questions,” Sunde tells us.

“Who runs the infrastructure? How do you know the intentions of those people? Which jurisdiction has which rules? “We know these things just as well as the technology. Today’s internet is more and more politicized so it needs to be dealt with that way as well.”

Heml.is

Helm.is is currently working on messenger apps for the iOS and Android platforms and is raising money to complete the development. In the future the startup is looking to expand to other platforms as well as other forms of communication.

“In today’s day and age we can’t do without encryption. We need to have it for all sorts of communication, something we from The Pirate Bay have said for almost a decade now,” Sunde tells us.

“But it’s not just encryption, it’s everything surrounding it. The cloud services are the big problem. Doesn’t matter if you communicate encrypted, if the end result is stored with a master-key or otherwise accessible by an unwanted party,” he adds.

Sunde is best known for his role as Pirate Bay founder, and notes that aside from messaging Heml.is may also add file-sharing capabilities in the future.

“We’re of course looking at possibilities of doing any type of communication private,” Sunde says.

People who are interested can help out by funding the project in return for unlock codes. No release date has yet been promised – Sunde says that they’re not going to release anything until they’re completely happy with it.