# vuvuzela/vuvuzela

Private messaging system that hides metadata

Repository: https://github.com/vuvuzela/vuvuzela
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/vuvuzela
Homepage: https://vuvuzela.io
Language: Go
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: vuvuzela, metadata, privacy, messaging, chat, cryptography, golang, research
Last push: 2019-09-12T15:41:22+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4013, "days_push": 2547, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2485, forks 184 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:55.510665+00:00)

## What it is
Vuvuzela is a metadata-private messaging system written in Go that hides who is talking to whom, even against nation-state adversaries, using NaCl cryptography and differential-privacy noise. It is a research system from an SOSP 2015 paper with a client and server implementation.

## Use cases
- send private messages without revealing who you talk to
- protect messaging metadata from traffic analysis
- run a metadata-private chat server
- research differential privacy for communication systems
- avoid Tor-based messaging weaknesses like those in Pond

## When to choose
- you need strong metadata privacy against powerful adversaries
- you want a scalable alternative to DC-net or PIR-based systems
- you are studying metadata-private communication research systems

## When to avoid
- you need low-latency chat - expect 20-40 second message delays
- you want a production messaging app with active development - last release was 2019
- you need feature-rich chat like group messaging or media sharing

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: maintenance
- function: chatbot, cryptography, privacy, networking, http-server
- domain: privacy, messaging-platforms, security, censorship-circumvention
- platform: go, cross-platform
- tags: metadata-privacy, anonymous-messaging, differential-privacy, research-project, secure-messaging, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- vuvuzela/vuvuzela (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:55.510665+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:28:04.942542+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/vuvuzela/vuvuzela (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:55.510665+00:00, sha e3e9e19ecd7f)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.