Founded Shazzle LLC in 2007, keenly aware that privacy is an essential element of human liberty, and further that the World Wide Web’s very architectural design assured that it could never support privacy
Clifford Boyle
Shazzle’s mission is to allow personal smart phones and other devices to connect in a peer-to-peer network that delivers privacy to communications and transactions. The company’s first product is ShazzleChat, a private messaging service that uses the sender’s smart phone as the mail server, avoiding the Web and so frustrating surveillance by governments and tech giants. Later this year the company will add private, encrypted email to the free service. Mr. Boyle has received U.S. Patent 12/176,747 for software architecture that harnesses peer-to-peer networking to facilitate data transfer in secure and private communication. He is also listed as Co-Inventor on four additional Shazzle patents, including a patent pending on a decentralized internet, working through Shazzle’s peer-to-peer network, and another for a fraud protection product, Trusted Customer, that will be added to the Shazzle suite of products shortly.
Mr. Boyle began his business career by founding the real estate development company Simsbury Associates which has developed a wide range of residential, commercial, and historic restoration projects with a combined asset value approaching a billion dollars. He later added Landmark Senior Living, a privately held operating company for delivering services to seniors, as well as Landmark Recovery, a national company focused on addiction treatment for both the insured, and the uninsured.
Mr. Boyle began his business career by founding the real estate development company Simsbury Associates which has developed a wide range of residential, commercial, and historic restoration projects with a combined asset value approaching a billion dollars. He later added Landmark Senior Living, a privately held operating company for delivering services to seniors, as well as Landmark Recovery, a national company focused on addiction treatment for both the insured, and the uninsured.
Mr. Boyle has several publishing credits, including the book length narrative poem, THE BIRTH OF CHRISTMAS, and the novel, CYBERSCREAMS, published under a pseudonym. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Mr. Boyle has raised 5 children. He currently divides his time between Boston, MA and Nashville, TN. He is an honors graduate of Harvard College, Class of 1982.
Mr. Boyle has raised 5 children. He currently divides his time between Boston, MA and Nashville, TN. He is an honors graduate of Harvard College, Class of 1982.
— How did you find your frequency in business and why do you do what you do? I like my liberty. I like my independence.
— I don’t like being told what to do, so I started my own business right out of college. Now, looking back, I want to help preserve the liberty that has been so important in my life. I understand that we must preserve privacy to do so, or else the government knows too much about us and can control us, so I started Shazzle. The goal is to get us off the Web where we are being spied on.
— How has being an entrepreneur helped you in your businesses?
— It has given me freedom, and control. I am master of my destiny. I appreciate my independence. It allows me to move in a direction when everyone else thinks I’m crazy — like deciding 12 years ago that privacy was too important to let go of, and we needed to move people off the web.
— What issues are you try to solve with ShazzleChat?
— We want to allow our users to send messages with sealed envelopes, rather than open post cards that the mailman can read and copy. In short, we want to let them deliver their own mail, so no one else can see it, copy it, and steal it, like Web tech firms and the NSA can now.
— How bad is security on line and will we ever have ad GDPR type thing in the USA for data privacy?
— GDPR will not protect you from a lawless government. Think China. Think Russia. Think Germany not all that long ago. You can’t pass laws to protect yourself from the lawless. The spying we face is even more from the tech giants stealing our data to profit off it, than it is the government. We need a new way of communicating. We now have it. We carry a server chip around with us everywhere we go — it’s in our smart phones. Shazzle is the first application that takes advantage of this, to allow the individual user to serve their own data so no one can steal it.
— What is some advice for listeners to keep their information secure?
— Get off the Web. By this I mean the www protocol — client server. You can’t protect yourself when a tech giant or a government has your data. Security, encryption keys, laws, promises. What do they come down to if your life ever depends on it? Did you expect Covid? Look at how quickly the world unraveled. You may trust your government today. You may think you have nothing to hide. But if you ever do need privacy, it will be too late if you don’t act now.
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