http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIWHMb3JxmE
No, really — there's nothing else I can say in a conversation where we're supposed to discuss proprietary software not only as secure, but as "military-grade" and "government-proof". NK On 2013-06-08, at 2:22 PM, Yosem Companys <compa...@stanford.edu> wrote: > http://www.siliconbeat.com/2013/06/07/want-to-shield-text-photos-from-government-wickr-says-it-has-an-app-for-that/ > > The U.S. government has acknowledged — with President Obama saying this > morning in San Jose that it’s all in the name of security — that its agencies > are spying on Americans’ phone calls and Internet communications in some > fashion. There are tech tools that claim they can get around such > surveillance, and one of them is Wickr, an app made by a San Francisco > startup. > > Wickr is similar to Snapchat, the popular app that allows users to destroy > messages and photos sent on mobile phones after a certain time. But the > 1-year-old company’s app is “military grade,” founder Nico Sell said in a > phone interview this morning. > > Sell says Wickr users can “send text messages, videos, documents that > self-destruct — all encrypted, and it exceeds NSA top-level encryption on the > device before it goes out on network with a key that only you have.” > > “Very few people in the world can do what we’ve done,” Sell said. She says > she has advocated for the annual Defcon hacking conference for more than a > decade. The company’s other founders include a team of privacy and security > experts, according to a spokeswoman. > > If the government comes knocking with a subpoena, Wickr could turn over its > database, but the information would be “useless,” Sell said, because the > company doesn’t collect personal information about its users. It claims to > have no call logs or location data. This also means such information is > inaccessible to wireless providers, advertisers and other companies that > usually collect it. > > Sell touts Wickr as an alternative to messaging offered by Whatsapp and > Skype. Skype, the service owned by Microsoft, has long been thought as > secure. But experts quoted by CNNMoney and others have warned that no tech > tool is immune to tracking, and Skype looks to be no exception. Ars Technica > recently reported that Microsoft regularly scans messages. > > Could Wickr do something similar? “This is a big thing with us. It was a huge > requirement that we never collected private information, period,” Sell said. > > The app is free for iOS users only for now. Sell said an Android version, and > voice calling, are due out this summer. > > -- > Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by > emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu or changing your settings at > https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech -- Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
