Blackphone Spearheads Privacy-Minded Telephony

Silent Circle and GeeksPhone kick
started pre-orders for the cutting-edge Blackphone, a
smartphone that “puts privacy and security ahead of everything
else.” The handy device is not quite immune to National Security
Agency (NSA) snooping, but founders think it’s in the cards.

The specs are decent, but privacy is the device’s main selling
point. TechCrunch gives
a run-down of the apps:

The privacy tools include Silent Circle’s apps, which include
Silent Phone, Silent Text and Silent Contact for secure, private
handling of each of those features via encryption so that only you
and someone receiving said communications with a compatible device
can access the contents. There’s also a Wi-Fi connection manager
for greater security on public networks, and a software that makes
it possible to securely remote-wipe your device, and facilitate its
recovery.

The base price is $629. It’s unclear whether consumers will be
willing to pay such high premiums for these features. 

Blackphone lets users choose their level of privacy. But it
isn’t NSA-proof. Blackphone Mike Janke co-founder
told CBS, “There’s nothing in the world today that’s NSA proof,
other than taking a phone and throwing it in the Potomac.”

But they’re working on it. “The Blackphone is just the beginning
of the conversation,” Blackphone president Philip Zimmermann

told ExtremeTech. Zimmermann is creator of Pretty Good
Privacy (PGP), the email encryption software, and is a
well-respected privacy advocate. Secure telephony is merely
Zimmermann’s latest undertaking.

Janke
says, “What we’re doing is absolutely shaking up this system.”
Journalists, human rights activists, whistle-blowers, and
privacy-minded individuals have all benefited from privacy tools
like Internet Relay Chat (IRC), PGP, and Tor. Blackphone extends
privacy’s reach to phones.

With the ushering in of an international surveillance state and
data-gathering technologies like the Internet of Things (the
Internet will be embedded in objects like automobiles, kitchen
equipment, biochips in animals) on the horizon, privacy-driven
technologies deserve a spot in the future communications
market.