Tired of the NSA listening in on your private calls? Sick of people hacking into your data storage? Then the Blackphone is for you. (RELATED: ‘Blackphone’ Will Be The World’s First NSA-Proof Smartphone), and the good news is, Silent Circle’s SGP Technologies is now shipping the anti-surveillance phone to European and then to U.S. users.
The Blackphone uses a security system called PrivatOS, which protects phone calls, texts, video chat and file exchange. Silent Circle offers encrypted tools that users can install on regular smartphones, but these tools cost $99 a month. Examples of these “privacy features” are secure search and browsing and “remote swipe and protect,” which encrypts data.
In a press release by SGP Technologies, the company asserts “there is [an] overwhelming demand for the phone’s focus on user privacy and the unmatched array of integrated features for private communications, browsing, and cloud storage that make Blackphone a category-defining leader in privacy phones.”
Right now, the price for a Blackphone is $629 plus shipping and taxes, a hefty price for phone security. With the recent NSA scandal, however, smartphone users might think this investment is worth every penny, even though Silent Circle claims there is no such thing as an NSA-proof phone.
If users would rather not pay the price for a new “secure” phone, they might want to check out Deutsche Telekom, a German telecommunications service which claims to protect smartphone data from prying [government] eyes.