Edward Snowden to Help Develop Safer Phone for Journalists
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden said that he planned to help develop a modified version of Apple’s iPhone for journalists who are concerned that they may be the target of government surveillance.
The announcement was made during a one-day conference on “Forbidden Research” held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab on Thursday, New York Times reported.
Snowden, who spoke via a video connection from Russia, where he is living in exile, said he was working with Andrew Huang, a computer hacker known as Bunnie who studied electrical engineering at M.I.T., to see if it would be possible to modify a smartphone to alert journalists working in dangerous environments to electronic surveillance.
He further expressed concerns that cellphones and smartphones serve as tracking devices that automatically create electronic dossiers that give third parties, including governments, detailed information on location.
Huang said the project was still experimental, but he hoped it would provide journalists with modified phones that would come in a special case with a separate display that would provide an alert when the phone was active and transmitting data at improper times.
The conference focused on issues raised by computer hacking, as well as controversial scientific research in areas such as genetic engineering and geoengineering.