Encrypted communications company Silent Circle has developed an app to prevent surveillance on smartphones and tablets, which the company says will “revolutionize privacy and freak out the feds”.
The ‘Silent Text’ app allows the user to send encrypted files of up to 60 megabytes through a sophisticated peer-to-peer encryption technique.
Once the sender has confirmed delivery he can delete the message from both devices by setting a timer that automatically initiates the process.
The difference between this app and others in the market is that it does not require any knowledge of how to install professional ‘specialist’ software, an element that had left many users of smartphones exposed.
The app particularly targets journalists, activists, diplomats, companies and people involved in the information business, protecting them from corporate espionage and state surveillance.
According to the company’s Chief Executive Mike Janke, the app has already been used by activists in countries with strict government surveillance and has shown a lot of potential.
“A few weeks ago, it was used in South Sudan to transmit a video of brutality that took place at a vehicle checkpoint. Once the recording was made, it was sent encrypted to Europe using Silent Text, and within a few minutes, it was burned off of the sender’s device,” he says.
“Even if authorities had arrested and searched the person who transmitted it, they would never have found the footage on the phone.”
The company will keep data from users safe by making sure it is retained for short periods of time with dates and numbers the information is sent to not captured at all by the system.
“This has never been done before. It’s going to revolutionize the ease of privacy and security,” said Janke.
