Out of all of January’s device promises, I don’t think anything’s made me more excited than the announcement of the Blackphone.
The joint venture between Geeksphone and Silent Circle promises an Android-powered smartphone that uses encrypted VPN to secure all communications to another encryption-enabled device.
We’d never though we’d be here, at a stage where the NSA revelations have reached as far as trawling through personal SMS metadata; another massive chip in our utopian dream-induced armour of technological comunications. Nothing, it would seem, is private anymore, and Blackphone will put the power of privacy into the users hands as networks, or should I say, the governments of the world, have simply lost their right to be trusted with our communications data.
The Blackphone will use PrivatOS, which the companies say will allow users to securely place and receive phone calls, text messages, video chat, transfer and store files, and "anonymize your activity" through a VPN.
Now, it’s going to be up to the consumers to rid their apathy and take charge of securing their communications. Will it happen? No one can say yet, but the public need to get motivated and mobilised.
Stand by for more Blackphone intel an the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
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