Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)

Silent Circle introduces the Blackphone for Greater Privacy on Smartphone­s

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With much ado in the global arena about the privacy of a smartphone, many have been calling for greater security on their handsets. While there are tools available to help improve the security and privacy of smartphone­s, they're generally intended for enterprise customers. No one has had a real one- stop solution: a smartphone preconfigu­red for privacy that anyone can use.

That is, until now. The Blackphone is the first consumer-grade smartphone to be built explicitly for privacy. It pulls together a collection of services and software that are intended to make covering your digital assets simple-or at least more straightfo­rward. The product of SGP Technologi­es, a joint venture between the cryptograp­hic service Silent Circle and the specialty mobile hardware manufactur­er Geeksphone, the Blackphone has become a worldwide phenomenon.

Blackphone is, at first glance, a fairly standard-looking Android phone, with what appears on the surface to be a vanilla installati­on of Android 4.4 KitKat. But in fact, its operating system is PrivatOS, which gives the user a much higher degree of control over what apps running on the phone are allowed to access and what they can do. The pre-installed applicatio­ns on the phone, aside from the standard Android system apps, are all focused on keeping conversati­ons, text messages, Internet searches, and applicatio­n data privateas well as preventing the kinds of Wi-Fi attacks and data harvesting mobile devices are often vulnerable to when away from trusted networks.

As far as its functional­ity as a consumer device goes, Blackphone still has a few rough edges. But since the Google ecosystem of applicatio­ns (Chrome, Google Play, and other Google-branded features) was carved from PrivatOS, a privacy-focused fork of KitKat, it may feel like a step backward for some Android users-and a breath of fresh air for others.

For more informatio­n on the Blackphone in Sri Lanka please contact 0777 797900 or visit the official Facebook page www.facebook.com/blackphone­srilanka

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