X

Silent Circle: Phil Zimmermann's pretty good privacy startup (pictures)

PGP creator Phil Zimmermann, who co-founded a startup named Silent Circle, says he thinks people will pay $20 a month for secure communications. He demonstrated an early version of the iOS app to CNET.

Declan_McCullagh2.jpg
Declan_McCullagh2.jpg
Declan McCullagh
Declan McCullagh is the chief political correspondent for CNET. You can e-mail him or follow him on Twitter as declanm. Declan previously was a reporter for Time and the Washington bureau chief for Wired and wrote the Taking Liberties section and Other People's Money column for CBS News' Web site.
Declan McCullagh
1T0R6978.jpg
1 of 4 Declan McCullagh/CNET
PGP creator Phil Zimmermann showed CNET an early version of
Silent Circle's end-to-end encrypted VoIP client for iOS. "SECURE" means that the device on the other end of the conversation is also running the Silent Circle software. The words "newborn passenger" are randomly generated and can be read aloud for higher-security authentication if needed.
1T0R6964.jpg
2 of 4 Declan McCullagh/CNET
Silent Circle's app will securely scramble conversations -- using end-to-end encryption and the ZRTP protocol -- between two people using its software. If only one person has the app, as this photo shows, the connection will be scrambled only to Silent Circle's servers. That could still be valuable for overseas users worried less about the FBI and more about their own governments.
1T0R6957.jpg
3 of 4 Declan McCullagh/CNET
Phil Zimmermann's new Silent Circle startup will test whether Internet users will pay for privacy. They tell pollsters they will. Yet only 0.04 percent of Facebook users bothered to vote last week in a poll about privacy policy changes; a Firefox extension to block behavioral advertising has seen its daily users decline slightly over the last year; and even an election year wasn't enough to convince politicians to convene a single hearing on a "Do Not Track" bill introduced in February 2011.
1T0R6980.jpg
4 of 4 Declan McCullagh/CNET
Silent Circle looks a little silly running on an iPad, but an early version of the software that CNET previewed does work.

More Galleries

17 Hidden iOS 17 Features and Settings on Your iPhone
Invitation for the Apple September iPhone 15 event

17 Hidden iOS 17 Features and Settings on Your iPhone

18 Photos
I Took 600+ Photos With the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Look at My Favorites
img-0368.jpg

I Took 600+ Photos With the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Look at My Favorites

34 Photos
Go Inside the Apple iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro: See How the New iPhones Look and Work
iphone 15 in different color from an angled view

Go Inside the Apple iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro: See How the New iPhones Look and Work

21 Photos
AI or Not AI: Can You Spot the Real Photos?
img-1599-2.jpg

AI or Not AI: Can You Spot the Real Photos?

17 Photos
Yamaha motorcycle and instrument designers trade jobs (pictures)
yamaha01.jpg

Yamaha motorcycle and instrument designers trade jobs (pictures)

16 Photos
CNET's 'Day of the Dead Devices' altar (pictures)
dia-de-los-muertos-3318-001.jpg

CNET's 'Day of the Dead Devices' altar (pictures)

9 Photos
2007 Los Angeles Auto Show: concept cars
conceptss01_440.jpg

2007 Los Angeles Auto Show: concept cars

14 Photos