http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2012/08/internet-security The Economist Babbage Aug 5th, 2012 ASK Nico Sell who makes use of her and Robert Statica's Wickr secure-communication app and she can honestly say, "We don't know who our users are." The free iPhone and iPad app uses well-tested strong-encryption techniques to prevent anyone snooping on text messages, images and video, or voicemail exchanged between its users. Accounts are created on the device and checked with a central registry to prevent duplicate names, but no passwords or other identifying information passes to Wickr's servers. Only Wickr users may send messages to other Wickr users, and the software can be set to allow communications only from a preset white list. Ms Sell says that adopters are particularly fond of Wickr's self-destruct timer, which irretrievably scrambles the transmission after a period, from seconds to days, set by the sender, and which cannot be overridden once transmitted. A sender may delete a message at any time after sending, too, removing it from the recipient's account. Wickr is part of a growing backlash against the culture of constant sharing and permanent archiving that Facebook, Twitter and other social networks encourage—and often expand without consulting with users. Another app, called Path, limits one's social circle to no more than 150 people, matching "Dunbar's number", as evolutionary anthropologists call the limit to the how many people one can maintain stable social relationships with (which may explain why the Path's original limit of 50 did not stand the test of time). The Pair app is aimed at love birds and does not automatically self-destruct when a relationship breaks up, though its creators will destroy the exchanged messages and pictures on request. The Snapchat app sends pictures, which are automatically deleted no later than ten seconds after receipt, as set by the sender. Snapchat, however, is still vulnerable to a screen capture by the recipient (he need only hold down the "home" button and press and release the "standby" button on an iOS device). With Wickr, if the device's built-in accelerometer detects it is in motion while viewing a photo or video, the screen goes black. Ms Sell says that her firm designed the app to make it easy to use, even for her septuagenarian mother with whom she exchanges texts via the app. The hardest part of using Wickr is picking and remembering a password. [...]Received on Tue Aug 07 2012 - 02:51:41 PDT
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