Posted on 02/28/2014 12:11:39 PM PST by Theoria
Mike Janke used to be a Navy SEAL sniper. These days he's taking on the government and corporate America. He's the founder of Blackphone, an Android-based smartphone with privacy as its main selling point.
It's not NSA-proof — in that everything is hackable if you try hard enough. But Janke says it's taking on the entire mobile economy that lets law enforcement and companies in way too easily.
Take apps that look free but mine your data to earn big dollars. Facebook tries to get your contacts, Google Maps tries to get your geolocation, Pandora gets your music preferences. Blackphone has a default setting: no — unless you proactively choose yes.
Blackphone also rebels against smartphone norms. Say you want to spend Sunday afternoon lost in a coffee shop or a clothing store. You might think you're off the grid, but your phone, using Wi-Fi, is talking to beacons "finding out where you've been, making offerings to you," Janke says. "What Blackphone does, it'll automatically stop that beacon activity, shut off any Wi-Fi pinging to protect you from those type of stalking things."
In addition to hiding identity, Blackphone stores user data in a secure vault in Switzerland — kind of like those no-questions-asked Swiss bank accounts. It sounds like the digital equivalent of wearing sunglasses and a trench coat everywhere. So I ask the obvious follow-up question: Is it mostly for criminals?
"No. Certainly because of the summer of [NSA whistleblower Edward] Snowden, it's about 20 to 25 percent of the world is really the people that are concerned about security, really concerned about their privacy," Janke says.
Boeing is also creating a super-secure smartphone, but it's aimed at defense customers.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
It’s certainly true that if you want to use mobile devices and expect a higher level of security, you’re going to have to seek out solutions like this on your own, and pay for it.
Standard solutions are based on openness and access to data - a concept that is at the heart of most of the successful internet business models.
In addition to hiding identity, Blackphone stores user data in a secure vault in Switzerland — kind of like those no-questions-asked Swiss bank accounts. It sounds like the digital equivalent of wearing sunglasses and a trench coat everywhere. So I ask the obvious follow-up question: Is it mostly for criminals?
"No. Certainly because of the summer of [NSA whistleblower Edward] Snowden, it's about 20 to 25 percent of the world is really the people that are concerned about security, really concerned about their privacy," Janke says.
I was never here.
Now all we have to do is trust Blackphone, Inc. - founded by a Navy SEAL, who no longer works for the government, and certainly would not be part of an Op to let particularly paranoid people self-select their own surveillance through, for example, a company that claims to be able to hide their phone activity from surveillance.
You really want privacy? Start your own privacy company. Otherwise you got a trust problem in your crypto network...
Is this the Boeing Blackphone or a competitor?
The new watchword!!
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