Meet the Blackphone, the Smartphone that Protects you from Google and the Likes

BLACKPHONE: About a year ago, a smartphone that could keep you away from hackers or spies would have meant little or nothing to everyone and people would have taken the idea of protecting personal data with a pinch of salt.

Times have really changed these days, more people have come to realize that securing data is as important as securing one’s life. Privacy now seems like a dream and data breaches have almost become a norm for some companies and institutions, this has lead to a global call for people to protect and empower themselves.

The Blackphone was officially announced during the Mobile World Congress with slightly veiled rhetorics aimed at the likes of Google and other companies that gather data on users in order to sell more to them among other things.

It is a smartphone that promises two things: PRIVACY AND CONTROL. Blackphone is a product of a partnership between Geeksphone (a Spanish developer known for building open Android phones) and Silent Circle (an encrypted communications firm).

The Blackphone is a 4.7-inch 4G smartphone with an HD screen and an 8-megapixel camera on the back. It is powered by a 2GHz quad-core processor and has 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage. It’s powered by an heavily-customised and entirely customised version of Android called Privacy OS, which GeeksPhone promises will be updated very frequently. Phone calls and texts are encrypted and communicated via data, while web browsing is also promised to be completely anonymous.

The phone will give users total control over the exact level of access any app has to the phone or to the network. For example you can block a game from trying to access your contacts. Another interesting feature is the Smart Wi-Fi manager, which will ensure your Wi-Fi is only active in certain trusted areas, and that it shuts off the moment you leave that location

Phil Zimmerman of privacy service Silent Circle suggested that the device is not the result of a phone company adding privacy features, but a privacy company making a phone.

The GeeksPhone folks have also declared they won’t be joining companies like Google in collecting information but to provide quality encryption services so for privacy minded people who wish to take total control of their pricay, the Blackphone is sure the best option available