In a move that many are struggling to understand, Twitter has announced that they’ve purchased a mobile software company called Whisper Systems. They focus on making Android more secure by offering several services such as RedPhone, which encrypts phone calls, and Flashback, which creates an encrypted backup of your Android device that’s then sent to the cloud. Now to call Whisper Systems a company is a bit misleading since it’s just two guys in a metaphorical garage: Moxie Marlinspike (pictured above) and Stuart Anderson. According to The Wall Street Journal, Moxie and Stuart are security wizards and Twitter wants them more for their brains than for the applications and services they developed for Android. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, of course.
Fans of Whisper Systems, such as privacy advocate Christopher Soghoian, say they hope Twitter doesn’t screw things up since the software these two guys have created is essential for “internet freedom” and that it’s pretty much the first thing you tell an activist to put on their phone just in case they’re being monitored by the government or get caught up in a sticky situation. Do we think Twitter cares that much about a user’s privacy? Not in the slightest bit. They caved to the US Justice Department when they asked for the private messages of Birgitta Jonsdottir, an Icelandic MP and former WikiLeaks volunteer.
That being said, it’s good to know that Twitter is at least trying to make themselves a bit more secure. Now they just have to tweak their privacy agreement, grow a pair of balls and tell governments that they’re not going to surrender data, and then maybe, just maybe, the folks behind Whisper Systems will be able to actually help out activists all around the world.
Remember kids, if you’re going to overthrow a government, use Skype. It’s peer to peer, encrypted, and even terrorists use it because they know it’s practically impossible to crack.