The developers of a new mobile app may have just caught a break — and found a new group of potential customers — with the revelation that government is secretly snooping on Verizon cell phone users.
Developers in South Africa have developed an app called Seecrypt, which they say protects cell phone users from having their calls and texts tracked.
It was revealed Wednesday that the National Security Agency has forced Verizon to turn over phone records of customers inside the United States in the name of fighting terrorism.
But the developers of Seecrypt say you can get around the NSA with their app.
Users, according to the developers, don’t have to worry about the government knowing who they are talking with.
For the app to work, both people wanting to text or call each other must have the application. But when the application is used, the phone company will not know the identity or phone number of the other person on the line. It will only know that the caller used Seecrypt.
Once the communication begins, it becomes encrypted and private.
According to a release at the company’s launch last month, the app is available for Apple and Android smartphones.
“Creating a scalable encrypted voice-over-data application that can operate with minimal latency anywhere in the world is not easy,” said Mornay Walters, the CEO and co-founder of Seecrypt, at the company’s launch. “Seecrypt met and surpassed this challenge by using a set of proprietary protocols and a carrier grade back-end infrastructure that operates on a privately controlled and globally deployed network.”