数据销毁大战催生新商机

    美国国家安全局的监听丑闻被爆料之后，Silent Circle利用消费者日益增长的兴趣出台了全新的定价方案。每年支付120美元，用户就能使用完整的Silent套件，包含Silent Phone、Silent Text、Silent Eyes和Silent Mail四项功能。公司CEO迈克•杨克是一名退役的海豹突击队队员，他说采用新定价是为了顺应“势不可挡的需求。”

    不过即便是在泄密爆料之前，Silent Circle的表现也非常出色。这家公司去年10月成立时就在媒体间引起了一些轰动。杨克表示，由于今年2月推出了功能更加完备的新产品，甚至在泄密新闻之前，公司的销量已达到平均每月100%的增幅。5月，杨克接受《华盛顿邮报》（The Washington Post）采访时说：“我们正在尽快招募员工。”他预计今年年底用户将会达到300万人。

    杨克说：“人们都在说‘天啊，气死我了，国家安全局竟然在偷窥我的隐私，’确实是这样。”他还提到人们对于商业数据收集和其他政府机构的监视越来越担心。后者可能会比国家安全局更隐秘、更具侵略性。“还有其他71个民族国家——想想俄罗斯、中国、意大利、法国——他们也有类似美国国家安全局的机构，他们也可以获得各种个人数据。”

    当然，类似Silent Circle这样的服务也有其阴暗面。没错，它们是记者和政治异议人士的福音，然而，它们对图谋犯罪或炸毁大楼的人来说也一样是好消息。杨克意识到，尽管执法人员对此有很大兴趣（这是唯一获得美国特种作战司令部许可的商用通信产品），他最终还是免不了要与政府产生摩擦。此外，Silent Circle并不是解决所有隐私问题的万能药。安全公司BitDefender高级分析师博格丹•伯特扎图表示，最高级别的加密服务可能会阻止数据获取，却对有针对性的政府窃听几乎没有防护作用。Silent Circle也警告说，通过用户的手机服务提供商仍然可能跟踪到通话时的GPS数据，它也不能保护用户免遭恶意软件侵袭。

    如果Silent Circle不能满足需求，还有许多其他程序和应用可供选择。Tor和Orweb能让用户匿名浏览网页。还有不计其数的其他设备和应用能打乱、隐藏和删除用户数据。接下来还可能涌现出更多的同类产品。

    比起这些号称是军用级别的产品，iPhone的优秀应用Snapchat看起来不但对一般顾客更有吸引力，安全性的色彩也更淡一些。不过驱使用户们使用这类程序的因素却是相似的——都是对于后隐私时代的深深忧虑。由于国家安全局的泄密事件，以及谷歌（Google）和Facebook等公司掌握的数据曝光，害怕遭到窥视已经不再只是疯子的想法了。臆想已经成为主流——甚至还有可能催生一门庞大的生意。（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正

    In the wake of the NSA surveillance news, Silent Circle introduced a new pricing scheme to capitalize on the increased interest. It will now cost $120 per year to use the full Silent Suite, which includes Silent Phone, Silent Text, Silent Eyes, and Silent Mail. CEO Mike Janke, a retired Navy SEAL commando, said the new pricing is in response to "overwhelming demand."

    But even before the story broke, Silent Circle was doing pretty well. The company launched in October of last year, and made some waves in the press. Following a more complete product launch in February, Janke says sales growth was averaging 100% month-over-month, even before the NSA news. In May, Janke told The Washington Post, "we're hiring as fast as we can." He predicts the company will have about 3 million users by year-end.

    "People are saying, 'Oh my God, I'm so pissed off that the NSA was looking at my stuff,' and rightfully so," Janke says. But he also notes that people are increasingly worried about commercial data gathering, plus surveillance from other government agencies, which may be even more secretive or invasive than the NSA. "There are 71 other nation states -- think Russia, China, Italy, France -- out there with NSA-type organizations of their own. They can get access to this data, too."

    Of course, there's a dark side to services like Silent Circle. Yes, they may be good news for journalists and political dissidents, but they're also good news for people planning to commit crimes or blow up buildings. Janke recognizes that despite the high interest from law enforcement officials (it is the only commercial communications product approved by U.S. Special Operations Command), he may eventually run into friction with the government. Furthermore, Silent Circle isn't the end-all solution to every privacy woe. The highest-level encryption service might prevent data harvesting, says Bogdan Botezatu, senior analyst at security firm BitDefender, but offers little protection from targeted government snooping. Silent Circle also warns that GPS data on calls may still be tracked by a user's cell phone service provider, and that it does not protect against malware.

    But if Silent Circle isn't enough, there are plenty of other programs and apps to choose from. Torand Orweb enable anonymous browsing. And there's a seemingly countless number of other devices and applications that scramble, hide or delete user data. Plenty more are likely to follow.

    In comparison to these products touting themselves as military-grade, iPhone phenom Snapchat looks both more appealing to the average customer, and comparably light on security. But the forces that drive users to the programs are similar -- a deep angst over the post-privacy era. Thanks to the NSA, and the troves of now data owned by the likes of Google (GOOG) and Facebook, fear of being watched isn't just for kooks anymore. Paranoia has become mainstream -- and it could be big business.