An App That Encrypts, Shreds, Hashes and Salts

When it comes to mobile apps and social networks, the devil, increasingly, is in the default settings. Companies have little, if any, incentive to let users opt out of services that siphon their personal data back to the advertisers who pay their bills. Nor do companies have any legal mandate to secure users’ personal information with hacker-proof encryption. The responsibility is very much on the user to opt out of services and read through the fine print in privacy policies to understand how their personal data is used, secured and sold. A group of computer security experts want to turn that model on its head with Wickr, a new mobile app that they hope will set a new standard for how personal data is disseminated. Wickr’s motto: The Internet is forever. Your private conversations don’t need to be. The app, which became available in Apple’s iTunes store, lets users transmit texts, photos and videos through secure and anonymous means previously reserved for the likes of the military and intelligence operatives.