There’s been quite a lot of talk lately with regard to our privacy, and here at our forum we have featured some interesting stories on this subject in the past, such as non-US Based email providers you can trust your privacy on, privacy tips for iOS 7 and also Android apps that can help protect your privacy. Now, we’re hearing reports of a new smartphone that wants to put privacy and control first – Blackphone.
The upcoming handset is to be unveiled at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain on February 24th and we will be there to cover the news as it happens. Blackphone is a joint project between Silent Circle and Geeksphone and is touted as the world’s first smartphone that puts privacy and control directly in the hands of the user. Phil Zimmermann is the brain behind the Silent Circle company; he rose to fame as the creator of PGP, an early email encryption standard. He is a specialist in encryption and one of the best cryptographers in the world.
Phil Zimmermann said the following, referring to the Blackphone project
I have spent my whole career working towards the launch of secure telephony products. Blackphone provides users with everything they need to ensure privacy and control of their communications, along with all the other high-end smartphone features they have come to expect.
If you follow closely mobile news, then maybe you have heard about Geeksphone, a Spanish start-up that has become popular for its Firefox OS phones, such as the GeeksPhone Peak+. The Blackphone smartphone will run a “security-oriented” version of Android named PrivatOS, which will let users securely place and receive phone calls, text messages, video chat, transfer and store files, and “anonymize their activity” through a VPN.
We don’t have too many details about its specs, but we know that it’s going to have a “top performing” processor and a cellular module that will be unlocked, free of geographical restrictions and compatible with any GSM network. Also, there’ll be no carrier bloatware installed, whatsoever.
