LONDON: A new 'snoop-resistant' smartphone that can encrypt
all calls and messages to protect them from spies and hackers is being
developed.
The Blackphone is described by its makers as "the world's first
smartphone to put privacy and control ahead of everything else." The
Blackphone is being developed by US-based company Silent Circle and Geeksphone,
a Spanish handset maker.
Using cryptography- ways of masking information and
communications, the device is able to make and receive secure phone and video
calls, as well as exchange encrypted text messages, 'The Times' reported.
"The number one priority of creating Blackphone is to
uphold the objectives of privacy," said Phil Zimmermann, president of
Silent Circle and co-founder of the Blackphone project.
"It's not to serve
some other business model of monetising customer data. What we're trying to do
is to make a smartphone whose whole purpose is to protect privacy," he
said.
However, the phone's makers have not explained key questions
raised by experts, such as whether secure calls can only be made between two
Blackphones, or exactly how its encryption technology would make it beyond the
reach of hackers. The group will give more details about the handset during
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month.
Blackphone comes as part of a growing effort among
technology companies to protect personal information of mobile phone users.
According to the latest leaks from whistleblower Edward Snowden, the US
National Security Agency (NSA) collected almost 200 million mobile phone text
messages a day from around the world that allowed it to extract contact networks
and credit card data of users.
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