People worried about their apps spying on them will be happy to hear that the anti-surveillance handset Blackphone is getting its own app store that only sells apps that won't watch everything you do.
Whether apps can be trusted to be allowed into the store will be determined by what Blackphone CEO Toby Weir-Jones calls "the app Model," in which the app store will examine apps before allowing them in, according to CNET.
"We'll have a few degrees of vetting," Weir said. "If you have an app to manage your social media accounts and it wanted access to your microphone and your camera might ask why and get on a first screening."
Created by Spanish smartphone company GeeksPhone and encryption communications firm Silent Circle, Blackphone is also able to protect your data with help from tight encyrptions. The device also features subscriptions to services that keep your calls, texts and emails safe.
While the Blackphone doesn't work with the Google Play Store, which is more vulnerable to malware sneaking in since Google doesn't check apps, it does work with the Android app store, CNET reported.
Privacy-focused apps featured in the Blackphone include SpiderOak, which is responsible for the encryption storage, and Disconnect, which keeps others from spying on you, Gigaom reported. The Blackphone first became commercially available in June.
The Blackphone app store will become available in January. The Swiss-based company also announced Tuesday that it will release a new version of PrivateOS that will have a featured called "Spaces," which will let users create separate self-contained spaces for different levels of security and privacy. Different groups for apps could include work, personal use, parent-friendly and child-friendly. "Silent Space" will serve as the preloaded default space and include encrypted communications tools and other features.
The new version of PrivateOS will launch early next year.
"The addition of Spaces and the Blackphone app store is the most significant update to PrivateOS since its inception," Weir-Jones said. "We are delighted to have developed the Silent Space, alongside Graphic Software, who share our core values of privacy and security."
