Silent Circle, The New Encryption App That Is Terrifying The Government
Posted by JacobSloan on February 7, 2013
The
idea is to “democratize encryption” by making it available to the
non-tech-savvy with the push of a button. Will this be used for good or
evil?
Slate‘s Ryan Gallagher explains:
The startup tech firm Silent Circle’s groundbreaking
encrypted data transfer app will enable people to send files securely
from a smartphone or tablet at the touch of a button—photographs,
videos, spreadsheets, you name it—sent scrambled from one person to
another in a matter of seconds.
The technology uses a sophisticated peer-to-peer encryption technique
that allows users to send encrypted files of up to 60 megabytes through
a “Silent Text” app. The sender of the file can set it on a timer so
that it will automatically “burn”—deleting it from both devices after a
set period of, say, seven minutes. It’s a game-changer that will almost
certainly make life easier and safer for journalists, dissidents,
diplomats, and companies trying to evade surveillance.
When a user sends a picture or document, it will be encrypted,
digitally “shredded” into thousands of pieces, and temporarily stored in
a “Secure Cloud Broker” 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 “key” to open them is held on
the users’ devices and then deleted after it has been used to open the
files.
But while Silent Circle’s revolutionary technology will assist many
people in difficult environments, maybe even saying lives, there’s 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—it has an explicit policy that it cannot and
will not comply with law enforcement eavesdropping requests.
The new Silent Circle is due to launch later this week, hitting Apple’s App Store by Feb. 8. Expect controversy to follow.
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