NSA-resistant Android App 'Burns' Sensitive Messages

angry tapir writes "Phil Zimmermann's Silent Circle, which halted its secure mail service shortly after Lavabit, has released a messaging application for Android devices that encrypts and securely erases messages and files. The application, called Silent Text, lets users specify a time period for which the receiver can view a message before it is erased. It also keeps the keys used to encrypt and decrypt content on the user's device, which protects the company from law enforcement requests for the keys." Seems similar to pieces of the Guardian Project.

Comments

Re:Very little utility here

[wbr1]

Well, after writing that based on the fairly poor TFS, I broke /. canon and scanned TFA. It seems the messages are sent encrypted with a temporary key. Not being an encryption expert, I would presume that you would have to transmit the temporary key to the recipient though, and that would be subject to attack. Not to mention the fact that you are sending encrypted message bringing more attention to you.