Verizon Offers Encrypted Calling With NSA Backdoor At No Additional Charge

from the trust-us,-we're-the-phone-company dept

As a string of whistle blowers like former AT&T employee Mark Klein have made clear abundantly clear, the line purportedly separating intelligence operations from the nation's incumbent phone companies was all-but obliterated long ago. As such, it's relatively amusing to see Verizon announce this week that the company is offering up a new encrypted wireless voice service named Voice Cypher. Voice Cypher, Verizon states, offers "end-to-end" encryption for voice calls on iOS, Android, or BlackBerry devices equipped with a special app made by Cellcrypt.

Verizon's marketing materials for the service feature young, hip, privacy-conscious users enjoying the "industry's most secure voice communication" platform:

Verizon says it's initially pitching the $45 per phone service to government agencies and corporations, but would ultimately love to offer it to consumers as a line item on your bill. Of course by "end-to-end encryption," Verizon means that the new $45 per phone service includes an embedded NSA backdoor free of charge. Apparently, in Verizon-land, "end-to-end encryption" means something entirely different than it does in the real world:

"Cellcrypt and Verizon both say that law enforcement agencies will be able to access communications that take place over Voice Cypher, so long as they're able to prove that there's a legitimate law enforcement reason for doing so. Seth Polansky, Cellcrypt's vice president for North America, disputes the idea that building technology to allow wiretapping is a security risk. "It's only creating a weakness for government agencies," he says. "Just because a government access option exists, it doesn't mean other companies can access it."

Just because we put a backdoor in a product, doesn't mean those backdoors will be abused, right guys? Right? Of course this is the same Verizon that has mocked Internet companies for "grandstanding" when it comes to their latest encryption push. But while those companies have refreshingly started competing over who can respect your privacy more, Verizon's making it clear that privacy is an afterthought, even when pitching privacy services. Perhaps someday Verizon can see fit to offer "end-to-end encryption" that actually is.

Filed Under: back doors, backdoors, encryption, end to end encryption, law enforcement, nsa, surveillance, voice cypher
Companies: cellcrypt, verizon