As much as I'd like to see some sort of "dark net" come to fruition, this guy is nutty and I would not be surprised at all if this is just fluff. Look for a book to be released soon.
Oh, no doubt. Still, I think it would be interesting to see how far this goes. If it's not all "just fluff", will it start a back and forth between privacy companies and the government, or anything at all? Anyway, the NSA programs are a huge expenditure of resources and personnel and at the end of the day, are we better for it? I'm not saying that McAffee will answer that question, but it may lead the American public to think more about what is and is not an acceptable allocation of resources. It'll be interesting to see how privacy affects elections at any rate.
I'll grant that there is some non-zero chance that his involvement will bring the darknet more into the mainstream conversation. But the conversation has been going on for along time before the Snowden releases began. By no means do I intend to communicate any sort of approval of the NSA and its tactics. But I have to wonder if having a person like McAfee involved with darknet tech will only serve to discredit.
I definitely see your point, but I think that targeting college students is a good marketing tactic. Yes, there has been a lot of discussion and talk of using VPNs and Tor and whatever, but to market something to a specific portion of the public that can be used with minimal knowledge of technology might be cause for worry. McAfee is a shit-starter and maybe he's just shit-talking, but who knows? He might actually be out to start some shit this time. All of this is in the realm of the unlikely but if it isn't all shit, then it stands to reason that someone will want to get in on the action and produce a competing product, no?