When the Blackphone, the security focused handset was released back in June, it had lots of limitations, especially when it comes to third party apps. These apps kept crashing due to the extreme security measures built into the phone. This will all change, though, starting next January, when the Blackphone company plans to launch its own app store.
The Switzerland-based company plans to monitor each app made available through its app store to make sure these don’t gather information about their users. According to Blackphone’s CEO Tony Weir-Jones, the company has found inspiration in Apple’s model – it intends to validate that all apps will do what they are intended to do, and nothing more. “If you have an app to manage your social media accounts and it wanted access to your microphone and your camera we might ask why and get on a first screening,” Weir-Jones told The Guardian.
Several smartphone apps, including Android’s Torch app, were caught accessing unconnected features. The best example is an innocent-looking torch app for Android which was caught last year silently sending its users’ location to advertisers, triggering a massive investigation in the US. These actions are possible through the “leaky permission systems” of the current mobile phone operating systems.
Blackphone users can currently acquire their apps through Amazon’s App Store – the Blackphone OS does not have access to Google’s Play Store. The company does not plan to replicate a mass-market app store, Weir-Jones said. It won’t have games or social media apps, it will offer quality apps through a private marketplace instead, that have broad alignment with the company’s privacy and security focus.
Through its intention to launch its own app marketplace and a recent new app called Spaces, which allows Blackphone users to split their private and corporate use into separate containers, Blackphone targets security and privacy sensitive corporate users. The handset has a convincing configuration – a 2GHz nVidia Tegra 4i CPU, 1GB of DDR3, 16GB of storage, a 4.7″ IPS LCD screen, a 8MP back camera with LED flash and is available through the Blackphone.ch website for $629.