Russians perfect the paranoia phone
InfoWatch Group, a Russian security company, has introduced a smartphone that prevents apps from collecting data, Bloomberg reported.
The Taiga phone is intended to keep apps from tracking any user activity, especially any work-related emails, documents, and photos, but broadly prevents any app from collecting or sending usage data. While apps like Gmail -- which is known for scanning email text to power ads -- can be used on the Taiga phone, they'll be unable to collect or report data on their use.
While the phone runs Android, it's a forked version designed to run in tandem with InfoWatch-created firmware. The first 50,000 Taiga phones are being delivered to employees of Russian companies co-owned by the state. (It's not yet a phone consumers can buy.)
The Taiga, which which gets its name from the boreal snow forest terrain of Siberia and Canada, is just the latest example of the technological cold war that has emerged between the U.S. and Russia. Just over two weeks ago, the U.S. government banned software from the Moscow-based security firm Kaspersky Lab, citing alleged ties to the Russian government. Natalya Kaspersky, co-founder and previous CEO of the Kaspersky Lab, is now President of InfoWatch Group.
And last November, the Kremlin backed a plan to replace all Microsoft software in government offices with Russian equivalents, which was followed by a ban on the Microsoft-owned LinkedIn.
InfoWatch recently opened offices in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, so the Taiga may appear in these countries soon.
Topics Cybersecurity
Monica wrote for Mashable's Tech section with a focus on retail, internet of things, and the intersections of technology and social justice. She holds a degree in creative writing from Brown University, and has previously written for Dow Jones Media, the New York Post, Yahoo Finance, and others. In her free time, she can be found attempting to cook Asian food, buying board games, and looking for new hobbies.
