Signal, the encrypted chat app preferred by the US Senate, has finally launched profiles -- but only as part of its latest beta release. You can now add a photo and a display name to make group chats less confusing. But since this is Signal we're tal...
Bittorrent just launched a new and alluring chat client, “Bleep,” and it just might be what the doctor ordered for those fleeing Facebook.
When Facebook bought Whatsapp, it had 450 million monthly active users. It just recently passwed the 600 million MAU mark, and Mark Zuckerberg says it might hit the 1 billion mark faster than Facebook did.
Despite this rapid growth, many people are not excited about Facebook managed chat services, especially after the social giant started forcing users to download a separate chat app with a sketchy user agreement.
As a result, many have started looking for secure alternatives to chat options from giants like Facebook and Google. That’s where Bittorrent’s Bleep comes in. Bleep is a peer-to-peer chat client for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. Since it’s peer-to-peer, there is no server broadcasting your messages. All chats are a direct connection between each participant, and the connection is also end to end encrypted, meaning the sender and receiver and the only eyes involved in teh conversation. All chat logs are also locally stored, so there is no cloud to even hack. Clearing your chat history eliminates all traces of the conversation.
It may sound like that’s all a little unecessary unless you’re taking part in some shady conversations, but with the recent privacy backlash, many people just want to know that their conversations aren’t being eavesdropped. It’s not only privacy against the likes of the NSA, but Bleep doesn’t collect any metadata, meaning the contents of your conversation aren’t analyzed for any topics for marketers.
The biggest drawback to something like Bleep is that it’s yet another account that needs to be opened, and you can only chat with other registered users that have added you to their address book. That might not seem like a big deal, but part of the appeal of the likes of Whatsapp and Facebook chat is the large user base. Many people are unwilling to go through the inconvenience of setting up a new account just for privacy’s sake.
The app itself (although still in an open alpha) is fairly innovative. Once an account is created, you can activate additional devices under your account simply by scanning a QR code in the settings menu, making it extremely difficult for a third party to gain access to your account. C
ontacts can also add each other through the same QR code scanning method, meaning you don’t have to give out your actual contact infromation to anyone, adding a layer of anonymity. It would be even slicker if this step could also be completed through NFC tapping, but the service is still new, so that very well may happen down the road.
At the end of the day, Bleep might not be for everyone, but for anyone who places a high value on privacy (and has friends who place a similar value on privacy), Bleep can provide the secure Facebook alternative you’ve been looking for.
Source: PCWorld
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Have you ever sent a message that you wished you could take back a few hours or days later? Wickr won’t exactly let you do that (I think few, if any, apps actually allow you to delete a message before it’s been read), but it will allow you to send encrypted messages that expire within a certain time period once they’ve been opened.
Aside from text messages, you’ll be able to send pictures, videos, PDFs, and voice messages with an extra layer of security so that only the message’s intended recipient will be able to read or access it.
Wickr flips messaging on its head, giving control to the sender instead of the receiver (or servers in between). Wickr uses AES256 to protect data and ECDH521 for the key exchange. RSA4096 is also used as a backup and for legacy app versions. Wickr also uses multiple rounds of SHA256 for hashing and Transport Layer Security (TLS).
With Wickr, messages are controlled (with the sender deciding who sees the contents of the message, for how long), private, encrypted, and anonymous. The only requirement is that the recipient has the app installed, too.
Wickr can be downloaded for iOS here and for Android here.
VIA [ Laughing Squid ]
If you need to send someone a message but have to be discrete about it, then you might want to give Crypstagram a shot. It’s an image sharing site does more than just provide you with a means to share images with other people.
That’s because the image has to go through their system first before it’s ready for sharing.
What Crypstagram is encrypt your image by embedding a message into it. When I say “embed,” I do mean embed because it doesn’t just add text onto your image as an overlay or caption. It actually incorporates your message into the image and distorts it in the process.
Just select the image you want to use, upload it to the site, and add your message. Once it’s encrypted, you’ll end up with a surreal, glitched out image. You can then choose to share it or download it to your computer so you can email it to the recipient for decryption – which can only be achieved if you have the proper password.
Try it out for yourself here.
Oh, bureaucracies, the fun in dealing with them is that you're told exactly what they want you to know -- or at least, believe. That's the name of the game in India, where -- as you're surely aware -- the government has been at odds with RIM for years over its insistence that the Waterloo firm provide the means to monitor encrypted emails and BBM messages. In a revelation that may relate to those BlackBerry servers in Mumbai, R. Chandrasekhar of India's Department of Information Technology has asserted, "The issue is heading towards a resolution." While it's difficult to know whether monitoring is already in place, Chandrasekhar added that, "Law enforcement agencies will get what they need." Another unknown is whether RIM played a role in these developments. For its part, the company claims, "RIM maintains a consistent global standard for lawful access requirements that does not include special deals for specific countries." So, if everything is now clear as mud for you, just remember: that's how those in charge like it.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless
Indian official claims BlackBerry eavesdropping standoff is 'heading towards a resolution' originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Aug 2012 21:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Wouldn't it be nice if we were free to surf the web free from fear of having our traffic monitored and emails scraped by the NSA? Well, if Nicholas Merrill has his way, we won't have to rely on anonymous browsers or proxy servers -- we'll have a new ISP built from the ground up to protect customer privacy. A non-profit, the Calyx Institute, will run the ISP that'll employ end-to-end encryption on web traffic, plus encrypted emails to prevent anyone other than the user, including the ISP itself, from seeing people's internet activity. Because of this structure, Calyx, quite literally, won't be able to comply with governmental requests to obtain customer traffic data under the Patriot or Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Acts. The best part is, such online privacy may cost as little as $20 a month, and Merrill has hopes to provide a similarly secure VoIP service at some point as well. Of course, the venture will only be possible if Merrill can raise the $2 million needed to get it going -- which is why he's pitching the idea to venture capitalists in Silicon Valley and the general public through crowd-sourced funding site IndieGogo. Want to help out? Hit the source below to make a donation.Calyx Institute to create ISP that keeps customer traffic private, away from prying governmental eyes originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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