Wickr: Private Social Networking
Back in 2007 I wrote about how I distrusted Facebook. Now there is a new startup building a social sharing service with strong privacy guarantees. Their name is Wickr and their app is available now at the app store.
Two things would make me feel more comfortable about them thou. First, What’s their business model? We know Facebook’s business model and even if you think it’s evil, it’s a known evil. Their website claims they will offer add-on services later on. But if enough people start using it, the demands on the servers will still cost money.
Second, what is their “patent-pending Digital Security Bubble” algorithm. They clam it uses AES-256 and RSA-4096. But how does it work exactly? I’m a bit surprised they used RSA-4096, the only secure way to generate the keys is on the iPhone itself, but generating a good RSA-4096 key is sloooow… although it only needs to be done once.
The one bit of criticism I have is this: “RED UI??? Really?”.
I also know about Glassboard, who everybody raves about but my main concern is not protecting myself from my friends, it’s protecting myself from the companies that run the services. Glassboard has access to your information and even thou their privacy policy isn’t bad, they could be acquired by Facebook (see Instagram).
At any rate, I really hope they succeed and get a good UI guy.