FreedomPop ‘Snowden Phone’: 10 Facts About This Secure Handset

By Don Reisinger

Customers hoping to get their hands on an exotic or advanced smartphone from FreedomPop will be quite disappointed by what they find in the “Snowden Phone.” The device is a modified Samsung Galaxy S2, which effectively means it’s a three-year-old device. Why FreedomPop couldn’t offer something newer is unknown.

One of the important things to understand about FreedomPop is that the company focuses almost entirely on security as its business model. Behind the “Snowden Phone” is the company’s secure mobile network. It is focused entirely on customer privacy with an eye to governments around the world that it believes, are violating users’ data privacy.

So, why is the handset known as the “Snowden Phone”? In one sense, it might be an attempt on FreedomPop’s part to use the Snowden name as a PR ploy to attract more attention. In addition, it seems to be using the name as a rallying cry for those seeking more security and worried about unwarranted government access to their personal data. As FreedomPop pointed out in its press release announcing the device, the “Snowden Phone is a response to the growing frustrations and concerns around privacy infringement, call monitoring and Internet tracking.” Those are all issues Snowden revealed in his leaks.

So, what is FreedomPop’s technology all about? According to the company, it’s operating a secured voice over IP network that allegedly safeguards users from the prying eyes of hackers or government surveillance. That the handset will work over VOIP, however, means that users are reliant upon an Internet connection to place calls. That’s an important distinction from FreedomPop’s competitors.

According to FreedomPop, the “Snowden Phone” takes full advantage of the company’s secured network by ensuring calls and text messages are encrypted as they pass through the company’s network. Whether those calls and texts can actually be intercepted and then perhaps decrypted, however, is up for debate.

Why is there such a debate over interception? Blame it on the type of encryption FreedomPop employs. The company says that it uses 128-bit encryption across its network and justifies that by saying that banks and government agencies are using the same. However, there are much stronger encryption methods, including those that rely on 256-bit encryption, which could make the service more appealing to privacy-seekers.

Since the Galaxy S2 is designed to surf the Web, FreedomPop attempts to keep all browsing anonymous. The company claims it can achieve that by routing all of its data through a virtual private network. VPNs are highly secure and provide for more-secure browsing, but it’s tough to say just how “anonymous” the Web browsing truly is over FreedomPop’s network.

Here’s something that sets FreedomPop apart from the vast majority of other carriers in the world: The company allows its customers to change their phone numbers at any time, no matter how often they’ve done it. It’s an interesting option that perhaps does more to protect a person’s privacy than anything else FreedomPop does.

One of the nice things about the “Snowden Phone” is that it’s actually quite affordable. FreedomPop customers can get their hands on the device for just $189. That deal is offered without requiring a long-term contract. Best of all, for privacy-seekers, customers can use Bitcoin to purchase the device and maintain anonymity across the buying experience.

While the “Snowden Phone” might be cheap, the amount of data the company offers out of the box might not be enough. According to FreedomPop, it’ll offer 500MB of free data for three months, plus voice and text. After that, the service costs $10 per month. But considering the market for the device, data charges could very quickly rise as people aim to surf the Web anonymously from their mobile devices. As most mobile users know, 500MB of data isn’t much. So don’t expect to pay $10 per month indefinitely.