Skip to content

Blackphone, a Smartphone for the Snowden Era

In response to the data-harvesting practices of the NSA, a new smartphone has been unveiled “whose whole purpose is to protect users’ privacy.”
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

“Technology was supposed to make our lives better,” says the narrator in the promotional video for Blackphone below. “Instead, we have lost our privacy. We have become enslaved.”

In response to the data-harvesting practices of the NSA, encrypted smartphones are now hitting the market. For instance, the encrypted communications service company Silent Circle has partnered with the Spanish company Geeksphone to produce Blackphone, a smartphone “whose whole purpose is to protect users’ privacy,” according to the video below.

According to an accompanying press release, Blackphone, “powered by a security-oriented Android™ build named PrivatOS, is a carrier- and vendor-independent smartphone giving individuals and organizations the ability to make and receive secure phone calls, exchange secure texts, transfer and store files, and video chat without compromising user privacy on the device.”

The smartphone will be officially be unveiled in February in Spain. 

Watch the video here:

Introduction to Blackphone from BLACKPHONE on Vimeo.

Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.
Related
A bearded man wearing glasses and a plaid shirt speaks with a microphone clipped to his collar in front of a purple background with white dots.
The Well
How Rainn Wilson discovered sacredness
The hospital where Rainn Wilson’s wife and son nearly died became his own personal holy site. There, he discovered that the sacred can exist in places we least expect it. During his talk at A Night of Awe and Wonder, he explained how the awe we feel in moments of courage and love is moral beauty — and following it might be the start of our spiritual revolution.
▸
13 min
—
with
Rainn Wilson
Up Next
What a School Eye Exam Won’t Reveal
Susan Barry: It’s a good idea to see a developmental optometrist and determine whether or not binocular vision issues are impacting your child’s ability to read.