SGP Technologies, a joint venture based in Switzerland announced a rather novel smartphone. It was formed between Silent Circle, an American company which provides secure communications apps, and a Spanish smartphone startup called Geeksphone. Their main aim is to create a phone that emphasizes on privacy and security. After the revelation of NSA's spying, the Blackphone could not have been announced at a more appropriate time.
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| PrivatOS: A tweaked version of Android for extra security. |
Blackphone runs on a custom Android called PrivatOS. According to Silent Circle CEO Mike Janke, the Blackphone encrypts your calls and messages and protects your wireless transmissions (e.g. Wi-Fi) from being logged. It encrypts the device such that data that lands on 3rd parties or the government are useless.
Users of the Blackphone could also control permissions for every app. It comes pre-loaded with all Silent Circle encrypted communications apps (2-year subscription), 5GB of encrypted cloud storage by SpiderOak, anonymous browsing and Virtual Private Network (VPN) from Disconnect.me.
Unfortunately, the Blackphone is not completely "NSA-proof" for all the technology it packs. Mike Janke said:
"There is no such device that is NSA-proof. If you are on a terrorist wanted list or a criminal, intelligence services will get into your device. There is no such thing as 100% secure phone."
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| Blackphone: Highly secure but is still not NSA-proof. |
On the internals, the Blackphone features a 4.7-inch IPS display with 720x1280 (HD) resolution, 2GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and 4G LTE connectivity. It has a 8-megapixel camera on the back and 1.3-megapixel camera in front.
According to SGP Technologies, the Blackphone will start to sell in June. Pre-orders are available now for $629, including shipping to any country.
It remains to be seen if anyone is willing to pay a premium for mediocre specs and extra security. A phone for vigilant people, I would say.
Written by: Kheng Wei Ang
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