Korean designer develops ‘surveillance-proof‘ font: report

Mun Sang-hyun, a South Korean graphic designer, has allegedly developed a typeface called ”ZXX“ that aims to block the probing eye of the U.S. government, CNN reported.

After releasing the font (www.z-x-x.org), Mun said the font, though eligible for human eyes, could confuse “optical character recognition” or OCR scanners. But the purpose of the typeface is not perfect protection from such surveillance but an alert of the danger of digital data collection, Mun said. 

Mun worked with the U.S. National Security Agency during his time in the Korean military,

The font sparked interest as the public has become wary of data-collection efforts by governments. In June this year, Edward Snowden, who worked for the NSA as a defense contractor, rocked the world by revealing a massive U.S. government-classified global surveillance program.

Mun graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and developed the surveillance-proof font for his graduation project in May 2012.


By Sung Jin-woo, Intern reporter
(jinwoo0120@heraldcorp.com)