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Comment by sifarat | Hacker News Reader

I would hate to say this, but people here and there, are cashing in NSA fiasco. I would have loved it more, if this was more focused on 'features' than playing with people's emotions. this is valid for everything currently cashing-in NSA issue.

As for, NSA spying how exactly can this phone ensure 100% secrecy. Given a user would have to use the same apps, and above all, the carrier that other smartphone users use.

Point is, US Govt is hellbent on spying on you. And they will no matter what. Either change the US Govt, or suck it up. Nothing else is gonna work.

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The only thing missing in the video is Julian Assange as the narrator ;-)

Basically, this seems like a lifestyle device for pseudo-"hacktivists". And I expect people to install WhatsApp and Facebook on it. There was this article a few days ago: "When I was young there were beatniks. Hippies. Punks. Gangsters. Now you're a hacktivist. Which I would probably be if I was 20. Shuttin' down MasterCard. But there's no look to that lifestyle! Besides just wearing a bad outfit with bad posture. Has WikiLeaks caused a look? No! I'm mad about that."

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230463640...

So hows that "change the US govt" (or any other world gov) going so far since the leaks?

I called bullshit from the beginning that anything will change politically, and now six months later I'm more certain nothing is going to change at the political level. They've dug in their heels for the long ride.

The only positive developments has been private companies like Google encrypting their data centers and privacy software finally finding an audience. But at the same time, not even the most die-hard cypherpunks think you can achieve 100% secrecy from a dedicated adversary. But that's not the primary goal. Countering mass-surveillance is.

It's true that you can't have privacy or security in the mass-market apps or in voice or sms over big commercial carriers. However, if a device solved the problems indicated by (username) revelation and following posts on this page, you could then run secure applications - e.g. something with public-key encryption and PFS for the data, and a p2p or tor-style network to obscure the metadata.

It still wouldn't be perfect, but would succeed in many scenarios and would greatly increase adversary costs.

The NSA is only one fear - there are other actors you'd expect to be doing similar things. e.g. Chinese, mafia.

Using things like Blackphone can potentially increase the cost of anyone doing this kind of spying, to vastly reduce who will do it for what reasons.

This talk by Dymaxion is good on economics and usability of this stuff: http://dymaxion.org/talks/EaPitLW.html

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