Blackphone to launch app store with focus on privacy
Blackphone, the smartphone company focussed on privacy, has announced plans to open an app store in January 2015 which will have a focus on security and data protection.
Currently, Blackphone users need to visit the Amazon app store to download apps.
The company has said that under its new app store, it will monitor apps to make sure that they are not being used to snoop on customers.
Speaking to the Guardian, Blackphone chief executive Toby Weir-Jones said that various levels of “vetting” will be in place. He described the app store as being a “private marketplace with quality apps with things that have a broad alignment with our privacy and security focus.”
“We’ll validate that the apps will do what they intend – call it the Apple model. 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,” he added.
Blackphone is also set to introduce software from Canadian firm Graphite Software called Spaces, which will allow users to split their phone into two ‘containers’: one for work life and the other for private life.
The two spaces are entirely separate, with apps in one space not able to see or access the apps in the other section, although users can toggle between the two without having to switch off their phone.