Americans worried about National Security Agency surveillance are flocking to alternative technology providers and apps that will actually encrypt their phone calls, according to a Fox News report. “Sales of online apps to encrypt cell calls are soaring,” reports Fox News correspondent David Lee Miller. “For as little as a few dollars a month there are now at least half a dozen companies such as Silent Circle and Seecrypt selling apps, making it difficult if not impossible for the government or anyone else to monitor your private communication.” Miller notes both the sending and receiving cell phones need the app for the call to remain secure. Michael Janke, CEO of Silent Circle boasted to Fox News that the encryption service his company runs would take “all of the world’s supercomputers put together 44 years to break the encryption of 1 message.” Harvey Boulter, chairman of Seecrypt, revealed his company is following another trend: alternative technology providers locating overseas to avoid the reach of the NSA. “All of our developers are based in South Africa,” Boulter said, “so we aren’t subject to the laws of the United States or the Patriot Act.” The push for privacy has been enflamed by interviews and documents produced by whistleblower Edward Snowden, a former information technology specialist contracted to work for the NSA, who claimed the intelligence agency has the ability to “wiretap anyone from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president.” Boulter told Fox Business in a separate interview that subscribers to his company’s app doubled in 24 hours after news of the NSA surveillance broke. The cost of his app: after an introductory free trial period, three dollars per month.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 03:27:46 +0000
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