Topic: Blackphone - are you buying one? (Read 3276 times)

I'd buy this! 

Who? Hackers and government?

I should have meant that I'm more afraid of governments than hackers but I want privacy from them all.

what if they are one and the same?

Thanks for the links.

I understand why they say it's safer.

But then the question is: safer from whom?

I'm sure BB sleeps in the same bed of NSA and others so that doesn't make it safe for me.

I'm not afraid of hackers. I'm afraid of the government!

 

Oneplus One seems better

I'll keep my cheapo ass smartphone for now

seems legit

I've done some research and found stuff like this:
You could also read something about it here http://us.blackberry.com/business/enterprise-mobility/mobile-security.html
and http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/safe-smartphone-319581

Why?

I've read that more than once but never seen an explanation.

What features/apps make bb more secure than android/ios phones?

Well before asking questions you should do your own research on the topic. This caught my eye in my watchlist and I remembered something that I've read.
Here it is: http://blog.gsmarena.com/security-heavy-blackphone-gets-rooted-five-minutes/
The phone got rooted in 5 minutes, so much about it being secure. Even though it probably got already patched, this makes me doubt such a phone. Seems like blackberry is still the king of security?

The product seems a little costly.

How do these phones deal with cell tower triangulation tracking and wifi triangulation tracking?

What other alternatives exist for tower triangulation tracking and wifi tracking?

Satellite phones?  Which ones are better for privacy? Thuraya, iridium or inmarsat?

Some voip-cell configuration?


I thought of one app that may already exist but I haven't found it yet that would work like this:

Phone A dial a number a number of phone B you want to call in the app.

The app initiates a conference call between A and B from an unknown offshore location.

Nobody including the network could see that A called B. If both A and B support call encryption even better.


I thought of another feature that might help:

This has to be made with dual-sim or multi-sim phone.

The phone should switch from sim to sim (of different networks) from time to time and even in the middle of conversations. Changing sim would force it to change tower. Maintain the conversation while changing towers would be the challenge here.

Besides that the phone should be able to switch from the strongest signal tower to the second strongest.

If this exist in a consumer ready product I buy 

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this

You wouldn't be a sucker at all.   I would say that 80%+ people only buy phones when they can get an upgrades or a new contract so that they get a discount.   If you don't like being in contract and you are used to paying retail price for phones, nearly every decent phone on the market is $600+

Since when is the design important on a phone made for privacy?
So if I have a million $ and spend 630 on this, I'm a sucker?
Sure thing.

The blackphone even comes in hands free!

No. 'tis a silly phone. Pretty much I could emulate this phone by just encrypting most of my OS already using a 3rd party application on my phone. As for calls, I'm not sure any sort of phones could handle on the fly encryption (plan would be to use SMS / text for GPG verification and then call be encrypted via shared private key that was shared via GPG).

Yes. Unless they have some sort of way to bypass that but I can't imagine they have and if they did have networks would probably blacklist the device.

Seems like a cool idea, but the part that I don't get is:  Don't you basically forfeit all these privacy measures the moment you connect it using one of the major wireless carriers (i.e. ATT, Sprint, T-Mobile)?

Good concept, However I would go with one of those ghost phones from your friendly local neighborhood hacker LMAO

Well you can see how the phones feel and compare them to each other. If it squeaks and screeches, well... decide for yourself. You can also await reviews how they perform. And just try and experience or try out the operating system! I can't believe so many Android phones still have such a stuttery scrolling. Awful, it just feels bad and low quality.

This can't be very successful with those prices for something which can easily be done with other phones (look at the previous posts).

You want real privacy and value?

$5 throw away phones from dollar general. Switch your number up every month. Hell, every week. No internet access on them plus they don't even ask for your name. Plus, you can pick what area code you want.

Pay with cash. Throw away and eat the sim card. Boom.

This phone won't be a succes. Sure, here and there a few nerds will buy one, but we can already install apps that offer encrypted services to protect our privacy.

No need to buy such an expensive phone.

How I'm supposed to know which has better quality?
Wait two yeras and ask my friend how their phones have lasted and then buy best one?
Or buy most overpriced product and hope I get some qulity too?

So people are still comparing phones or anything in terms of the pure performance specs. This has always been pretty stupid. It says very little about the actual quality of the components, the quality of the surrounding hardware and the actual performance and experience provided by the operating system!

Blackphone seems shitty and oveerpriced compared to Oneplusone:

Blackphone is powered by a >2 GHz quad-core SoC and features a full set of premium features, such as a 4.7" HD IPS screen, LTE, HSPA+, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 16GB of storage, >8MP primary camera with flash and 1.3MP front camera, Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11n WiFi, GPS, and more. Certain specifications are subject to change and may be adjusted prior to shipping the first phones later this year.

Oneplusone has a full 1080px HD 5.5-inch screen, 2.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor coupled with an Adreno 330 GPU, 3GB RAM, 64GB of internal memory, CyanogenMod 11s Custom OS, 13 megapixel (rear) and 5 megapixel (front) camera – Sony Exmor sensor, Dual LED and 4K video support.

Blackphone is 629$
Oneplusone is 350$

I think you know which one I'm going to take...

I think they idea is great. Needs some trustworthy third party auditing though.

The most important target right now is to get people to actually use their available security options. Even some easy and free tools like GPG.. (which is actually not 100% secure in terms of tracking depending on usage, but it's a start) just spreading the awareness.

^ Is just too true.

Phew... The website alone is puzzling me. I keep on scrolling and - apart from the lag - it's a tad mezmerizing what happens. In light of recent events concerning privacy etc. this seems like a good idea, but I doubt that a lot of people care enough for their privacy to even consider getting such a phone. Everyone's complaining, yet they're all posting their private lives willingly on Facebook 

Supposed to offer privacy.

whats the point of this phone?

Wait this seems like a waste of time since all the phone networks are bugging you anyway and the hardware isn't to impressive for the money.

I don't think you can find comparable specs on a $50 phone:


A $50 phone would probably have a sub-3.5" screen, 800MHz single core processor, 2 MP camera, no front camera, and run Gingerbread.

Im paranoid at heart, so it sounds like a set up. Kinda like the obama phone.

hmm not bad but i see chinese copie better than this :p

It looks interesting , but the price is a bit steep. Waiting for a full review

I'm really close to buying one but I'm one of these rooted android fans, same as:


Still have time to think about it, though, as it doesn't come to the US till late July.
Need to find a discount code.


Can't resist this deal - very attractive:

What you get

$829 in extra value

Blackphone

2 years of Silent Circle Mobile

3, 1 year "Friend and Family" Silent Circle Subscriptions

2 years of Disconnect, 1GB/month

2 years of SpiderOak, 5GB/month

International Power Adapter Kit

Headset

Since you are sending encrypted packets as data (over ATT or whoever) all they see are encrypted
data packets going to Switzerland.

is this phone even worth mentioning I feel like its another apple iphone overpriced.

Compatible With Any GSM Carrier
No contract obligations so your Blackphone is yours to use, configure, and modify to your own desire.


From this, I'm assuming one needs the additional monthly service of a carrier?
How secure can that be?

How it works:
With your phone you get a phone # that goes through Switzerland.
Any secure calls you make are routed through the servers there.
any calls you receive to this number are routed through the Swisserver.
Anyone attempting to eavesdrop only see encrypted data going to a server
beyond their reach. No way to link a caller to a recipient or view the communication.
No decryption on the server - only end to end - so no one can access the server and get anything useful.

What you get - and an estimated value.
A Smartphone (your buying it upfront - price not buried in a 2 year contract) worth maybe $350+-.
2 years of Silent Circle (you can get this for any android/iphone for $10/mo - 100 per year. $200-$240+-
Android PrivateOS - gives deep control over what apps access what phone features (address book, wifi, etc...) $20+
3 1 year "Friends & Family" SilentCircle subscriptions. $300+-
Plus more...

Blackphone is not for those who want to believe they can get privacy on the cheap.
It is for those for whom privacy/security is not an option.

The team that developed Blackphone includes Phil Zimmerman creator of PGP encryption the standard in email encryption.
Anyone who thinks PZ would be involved in a project that rips people off, doesn't know Phil.
Anyone who thinks PZ would be involved with Blackphone if it wasn't secure, doesn't know Phil.

Who might see value in the Smartphone?
Obviously the need changes depending on whether you are in Iran, Russia or the US.
Journalists, CEOs, Business Travelers, Protest organizers, Gov Contractors,
Employees (working on new product development) etc...
state medical marijuana growers concerned with overzealous FEDs. etc...

I was afraid someone was going to mention this.

It still looks like a good product, nonetheless.

Yeah this is what I assumed off the bat.  Just seems to good to be true so I think it is a safe bet to assume that is just the case.  I'll gladly eat my words if the phone is a game changer but not for what seems to be a repackaging of standard high end smartphones and a big price tag. 

I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and say that anyone who spends 630 dollars one of these phones is a sucker.

Some issues i have here:

looks like an 50 dollar att go phone generic android. logic says, i can just pirate a copy of their "privatOS" and rip it to my smartphone. same level of protection offered by their product.

you use it with your normal gsm provider. of course you're still being monitored. duh! the only advantage is the software doesn't have the the hidden recording and monitoring functions that log everything you do to a reserved section of your devices storage.


TLDR;they appear to be charging you 500 dollars for their custom operating system, plus the cost of the hardware. seems like a rip off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OKRckJ4YhA

Interesting concept but how much more secure & private is it really? The site doesnt seem to give much detail on the fancy-named features.

Also, who manufacturers the hardware?

No i don't, but i know someone who have it and this phone is huuge. And i mean big as hell.I have big hands but quite difficult to hold it in one.
More like galaxy note that phone.

I have galaxy s5 at this moment.

If price would be right, this blackphone could be good choice.

Probably not, I have my trusty old Galaxy s2

No worries about hijacking - we're all here to learn.

Do you have one of these N1s?

I always liked phones which was custom made. Like : https://cyngn.com/products/n1/ sorry for hijacking thread with this. Just 2 cents from me.

Blackphone looks cool. price is a bit to much. First this is custom made phone so we dont know about quality.Second even if quality is good how really this handset is safe when others "listen"?

I'm waiting for some reviews before I plunk down the $650.

Hope to hear some good feedback on this.

At this time most likely will not buying one.  I don't know what plans there will be for apps to compete with competitors.  Pricing and issues with the potential of this phone to have a lot gimmick like features instead of real ease of use features that make the overall experience using the phone enjoyable.  Thank for sharing this, I do support a step in the direction with mobile devices but I'm going to reverser judgement until it's has been vetted by the professionals.

https://www.blackphone.ch/


Blackphone includes a unique combination of operating system and application tools which offer unparalleled security and privacy to information workers, executives, public figures, and anyone else unwilling to cede ownership of their privacy to other authorities. Blackphone's PrivatOS, built on Android™, and combined with a full suite of privacy-enabled applications, allows users to regain control over their communications activities. No longer will the use of a smartphone demand acceptance of unauthorized surveillance, commercial exploitation of activity data, and the loss of privacy, security and fundamental human rights.

Blackphone is powered by a >2 GHz quad-core SoC and features a full set of premium features, such as a 4.7" HD IPS screen, LTE, HSPA+, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 16GB of storage, >8MP primary camera with flash and 1.3MP front camera, Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11n WiFi, GPS, and more. Certain specifications are subject to change and may be adjusted prior to shipping the first phones later this year.

Selling for US$629 (plus shipping and any local taxes or duties for the destination address), Blackphone is a real no-excuses solution for traveling executives looking to BYOD, families concerned about personal security, and anyone else who understands the value of maintaining personal privacy rather than giving it away for free.

Blackphone comes unlocked and features several pre-installed privacy tools, all of which are fully enabled for at least two years of usage. These tools include the Silent Circle suite of apps, including Silent Phone, Silent Text, and Silent Contacts; anonymous search, private browsing, and VPN from Disconnect; and secure cloud file storage from SpiderOak. In addition, Blackphone ships with the Smart WiFi Manager from Mike Kershaw, Chief Architect for SGP Technologies, and a powerful remote-wipe and device recovery tool


I WANT - discuss pros, cons.