New FreedomPop Phone Promises to Preserve Your Privacy
FreedomPop gives you freedom to call friends and family without the worry of possible eavesdropping.
With all the talk of government spying here and government spying there, it seems ideal to just sell everything and live in a stone cave. Luckily, FreedomPop has our backs when it comes to privacy and calling friends and family, offering what the company calls the "Snowden Phone." The real name is the Privacy Phone, and that's what the company has set out to do; protect your privacy.
"In light of recent violations in consumer's privacy across social networks and mobile devices, privacy is becoming increasingly important to many Americans and we all have a right to communicate anonymously," said Steven Sesar, COO at FreedomPop.
FreedomPop claims that the Privacy Phone, which is a Samsung Galaxy S II, is the only smartphone and mobile service that enables encrypted communications. The device uses the company's VoIP network, which enables encrypted communication for voice calls and text messages. The phone also uses 128-bit encryption.
According to the company, the phone sends application and Internet data through a virtual private network, or VPN, meaning users will be completely anonymous online. Thanks to this feature, online marketers will be unable to track the user's web activity. There will also be no data monitoring or eavesdropping by third parties. Take that, snoops.
The phone's security features include blocking unsolicited incoming calls and text messages. The device will also block malicious websites, and will temporarily make contacts and all related call history and SMS correspondence confidential when needed.
"Large carriers don't have the flexibility, desire or creativity to invest in privacy. We don't agree with this approach and felt it was up to us to create a truly private mobile phone service at an affordable price," added Sesar.
The Samsung Galaxy S II features a 4.3-inch screen with an 800 x 480 resolution. Powering this screen is a dual core Samsung Exynos 4210 clocked at 1.2 GHz, 1 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of internal storage. There's also an 8MP camera on the back and a 2MP camera on the front. Normally, this phone retails for $299 USD, so the $189 price tag is a steal given there's no contract.
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The phone comes with unlimited voice and text, plus 500 MB of data for three months, then costs $10 a month after that. Payment can be made via Bitcoin to further ensure anonymity.
To see if this new service is available in your area, head here.
Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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koga73 Its already been stated that the NSA has cracked VPN tunnels so this phone isnt completely secure.Reply -
winningsince1337 Reply
For $850, you might as well get a Surface Pro 2 with full Windows 8 with FULL applications. Plus, a lot of Android apps won't even come close to utilizing the hardware that this has... But, keep ranting about the $850 android tablet that you'll never buy...$750 for an Android tablet.... talk about insanity. I'll spend a little more for a Surface Pro 2 and get a tablet running a real OS and real software.
You are the resident apple troll who bashes anything not american! You go on and on about how heavy such and such a tablet is and here you are bashing Samsung again and saying how you would buy a surface 2 tablet which is huge thick and heavy and not to mention it gets real hot!This destroys ANY Apple tablet and you know it therefore you mention microsoft who can barely sell their huge heavy tablets that drain batteries in the blink of an eye.Android is a REAL OS unlike IOS which is just a glorified app launcher. On android you have real multitask and with IOS you can only run one window at a time!AS ALWAYS...SAMSUNG FTW !!! HOOAH!