Want To Keep Your Messages Private? There's An App For That

It sounds like something out of a spy movie: A new app called Silent Circle allows users to "burn" sensitive messages sent on their phones.

Jon Callas, one of the people who developed the app, says the idea is pretty simple.

"It's a timer. So you can say, one hour; seven minutes. Whatever," Callas tells Jacki Lyden, host of weekends on All Things Considered.

It's called a "burn notice." When the time's up, the text is erased from both the sender and receiver's phones.

Callas and his business partners got the idea after hearing an all-too-familiar story: A friend of theirs inadvertently read a text meant for someone else.

"The person who told us this said it made them think that this colleague of theirs was careless with the things that they were talking about in private, and said couldn't you just make it so that when I send someone something, it only lasts for 10 or 15 minutes?" Callas says.

Well, they did it, and for $20 a month, anyone with an iPhone or Android device can subscribe.

The app will also encrypt your calls and texts so they can't be hacked, tapped or otherwise tampered with. It also works on video chats and documents.

Phones hold very personal data, Callas says.

"We do use texts, we use phone calls for very intimate things that we don't want to have to justify later," he says.

But what if the bad guys get the app? Some users may use the app to skirt the authorities, but Callas says that's not a reason to keep the technology from the rest of us.

He says there are too many cases of law-abiding citizens being spied on.

"It happens all the time," he says. "We've seen what went on with the News of the World scandals in the U.K. We've seen things nearly every few weeks where there's some privacy scandal."

Callas says law enforcement authorities are keeping an eye on the app.

"Well, we have gotten phone calls from the FBI, and they said, 'Oh, this is very interesting, how much is it? We'd like to think about subscribing.'"

But outside of doing business, Silent Circle's leadership has emphatically said the company won't turn over any information to law enforcement. Some people think agencies such as the FBI won't ignore this app for long.

"It's the future of communication, so they really have to respond somehow," says Ryan Gallagher, who writes about surveillance and privacy issues for Slate.

He says he thinks governments will view apps like this as a security threat and possibly try to regulate them.

"I do think there will be some sort of backlash against this kind of technology because it's a kind of power struggle," Gallagher says. "And it's about control. And Governments always seem to want more control; they don't want less control."

Right now, the customers are in control. As long as both parties have the app, any data sent between them will be secure. Silent Circle doesn't even have the keys that unlock the communications. Callas says that's by design.

"We are kind of like a department that takes sealed envelopes and delivers them from one to another," he says. "We've made it so that we can't open up the envelopes, only you and your partner can do that."

Silent Circle set up its servers in Canada, a country with more privacy-friendly laws than the U.S. So, for now at least, as long as you're "in the circle," your information is safe.

By the way, if you want to check out Silentcircle.com, their visitor log is burned every seven days. No one will ever know you were there.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Transcript

JACKI LYDEN, HOST:

On this show, we've been asking filmmakers about the movies they never get tired of watching, the ones that they could watch again and again, including this one from the star of "Friday Night Lights."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "READY TO TAKE A CHANCE AGAIN")

BARRY MANILOW: (Singing) You remind me I live in a shell...

CONNIE BRITTON: I'm Connie Britton. I'm an actress. And a movie I've seen a million times is "Foul Play," which was directed by Colin Higgins and stars Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "READY TO TAKE A CHANCE AGAIN")

MANILOW: (Singing) No jokes, no surprises...

BRITTON: I kind of grew up watching these great romantic comedies that I feel we don't make them the way we used to. I just loved Goldie Hawn, huge fan of Goldie Hawn. And, in fact, Goldie Hawn-Chevy Chase dynamic was just - I could watch it over and over again. And I did.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "FOUL PLAY")

CHEVY CHASE: (as Tony Carlson) Listen, it's Gloria, right? You're a really nice girl, and I'm a nice guy. And you're very pretty - with or without cleavage - and what do you say? Would you like to take a shower?

GOLDIE HAWN: (as Gloria Mundy) I don't pick up strange men.

CHASE: (as Tony Carlson) Well, that's your problem.

HAWN: (as Gloria Mundy) So why don't you try it?

BRITTON: The thing with Goldie Hawn is she was funny but sexy and gorgeous. And she seemed accessible, you know? She seemed like somebody you could be.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "FOUL PLAY")

MARILYN SOKOL: (as Stella) So what's going on tonight?

HAWN: (as Gloria Mundy) Oh, nothing special. I'm going to go to a movie.

SOKOL: (as Stella) By yourself?

HAWN: (as Gloria Mundy) Yes.

BRITTON: A girl moves to San Francisco, and she's sort of feeling like she doesn't take chances in her life and sort of trips into this crazy - it's not even a murder mystery. It's sort of - it's a plot. That's right. It's a plot by the Catholic Church.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "FOUL PLAY")

HAWN: (as Gloria Mundy) A man tried to kill me here tonight.

BRIAN DENNEHY: (as Fergie) The albino?

HAWN: (as Gloria Mundy) No, no.

CHASE: (as Tony Carlson) The man with the scar?

HAWN: (as Gloria Mundy) Yes. See, the albino tried to kill me earlier, but I smashed him with my umbrella.

BRITTON: And because of that ends up falling for this cop. And Chevy Chase plays the cop.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE "FOUL PLAY")

HAWN: (as Gloria Mundy) Well, when I first met you, I thought you were a bore.

CHASE: (as Tony Carlson) Yeah? What about before that?

HAWN: (as Gloria Mundy) Before that?

CHASE: (as Tony Carlson) Yeah, when you first saw me.

HAWN: (as Gloria Mundy) I thought you were a klutz.

BRITTON: And the background music is Barry Manilow's "Ready to Take a Chance Again."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "READY TO TAKE A CHANCE AGAIN")

MANILOW: (Singing) And I'm ready to take a chance again, ready to put my love on the line with you.

BRITTON: One scene that really stands out is when Goldie Hawn is trying to run away from the crazy albino. She says to Dudley Moore: Take me home.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "FOUL PLAY")

HAWN: (as Gloria Mundy) Take me home, please.

DUDLEY MOORE: (as Stanley Tibbets) Ah, sure. My place or yours?

BRITTON: And he thinks he's really scored and got it made, and so he takes her up to his love den apartment.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "FOUL PLAY")

MOORE: (as Stanley Tibbets) Here it is, my own little beaver trap.

BRITTON: And he sings...

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STAYIN' ALIVE")

BEE GEES: (Singing) Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.

BRITTON: As he's doing a striptease, and, like, the bed falls out of the wall and this crazy, like, life-size, blow-up doll comes down.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "FOUL PLAY")

HAWN: (as Gloria Mundy) Oh, my God.

MOORE: (as Stanley Tibbets) What's the matter, baby?

HAWN: (as Gloria Mundy) Well, what is this? What are you doing? Why are you undressed?

BRITTON: From watching a movie like "Foul Play," I've always said that I want to play a full-fledged character that has drama and sense of humor. And I think that was because I was so heavily influenced by funny ladies such as Goldie Hawn.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "READY TO TAKE A CHANCE AGAIN")

MANILOW: (Ringing) And I'm ready to take a chance again...

LYDEN: That's actress Connie Britton, talking about the movie that she could watch a million times, "Foul Play." Britton currently stars in the hit ABC TV show, "Nashville." Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.