{"id":25478,"date":"2013-02-11T12:00:24","date_gmt":"2013-02-11T12:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=25478"},"modified":"2015-03-09T16:10:23","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T16:10:23","slug":"silent-circle-the-new-encryption-app-that-is-terrifying-the-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2013\/02\/silent-circle-the-new-encryption-app-that-is-terrifying-the-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Silent Circle, the New Encryption App That Is Terrifying the Government"},"content":{"rendered":"

The idea is to \u201cdemocratize encryption\u201d by making it available to the non-tech-savvy with the push of a button. Will this be used for good or evil? Slate<\/a>\u2018s Ryan Gallagher explains:<\/p>\n

The startup tech firm Silent Circle\u2019s groundbreaking encrypted data transfer app will enable people to send files securely from a smartphone or tablet at the touch of a button\u2014photographs, videos, spreadsheets, you name it\u2014sent scrambled from one person to another in a matter of seconds.<\/p>\n

The technology uses a sophisticated peer-to-peer encryption technique that allows users to send encrypted files of up to 60 megabytes through a \u201cSilent Text\u201d app. The sender of the file can set it on a timer so that it will automatically \u201cburn\u201d\u2014deleting it from both devices after a set period of, say, seven minutes. It\u2019s a game-changer that will almost certainly make life easier and safer for journalists, dissidents, diplomats, and companies trying to evade surveillance.<\/p>\n

When a user sends a picture or document, it will be encrypted, digitally \u201cshredded\u201d into thousands of pieces, and temporarily stored in a \u201cSecure Cloud Broker\u201d until it is transmitted to the recipient. Silent Circle, which charges $20 a month for its service, has no way of accessing the encrypted files because the \u201ckey\u201d to open them is held on the users\u2019 devices and then deleted after it has been used to open the files.<\/p>\n

But while Silent Circle\u2019s revolutionary technology will assist many people in difficult environments, maybe even saying lives, there\u2019s also a dark side. Law enforcement agencies will almost certainly be seriously concerned about how it could be used to aid criminals. The FBI, for instance, wants all communications providers to build in backdoors so it can secretly spy on suspects. Silent Circle is pushing hard in the exact opposite direction\u2014it has an explicit policy that it cannot and will not comply with law enforcement eavesdropping requests.<\/p>\n

The new Silent Circle is due to launch later this week, hitting Apple\u2019s App Store by Feb. 8. Expect controversy to follow.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 disinfo.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The idea is to \u201cdemocratize encryption\u201d by making it available to the non-tech-savvy with the push of a button. It\u2019s a game-changer that will almost certainly make life easier and safer for journalists, dissidents, diplomats, and companies trying to evade surveillance. Silent Circle has an explicit policy that it cannot and will not comply with law enforcement eavesdropping requests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-whistleblowing-surveillance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}