John McAfee unveils his new "truly private" smartphone

midian182

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Anti-virus pioneer and the most entertaining man in tech, John McAfee, has revealed plans to create the most secure smartphone ever manufactured. The device’s $1100 price will exceed that of the iPhone 8, but McAfee says it’ll offer an unparalleled level of protection.

The "world's first truly private smartphone" will be released through MGT Capital Investments Inc. The firm made McAfee its CEO last year, and it now deals in cybersecurity and cryptocurrency matters.

MGT signed a non-binding letter of intent with Nordic IT Sourcing Association last month to develop the phone.

"We have given the keys to the kingdom, blindly and willingly, to the world's hackers,” McAfee wrote in a blog post. "Pleas from the cybersecurity community to smartphone manufacturers to fix this horrific problem by returning to the less 'cool' air gapped physical switches have fallen on deaf ears. In desperation, I decided to do it myself.”

The phone is primarily aimed at enterprise users, but McAfee believes it could appeal to everyday consumers who are concerned about growing reports of government and corporate spying.

The exact specifications of the phone won’t be released publicly until the week before its launch. McAfee says version one won’t be hack proof, but will still be light years ahead of other handsets that claim to be secure. Version two, available in early 2018, will be “as hack-proof as humanly possible.”

“Enormous investment in hardware costs have gone into this,” he told Newsweek. "The [smartphone has] switches on the back cover that allow the user to physically disconnect the battery, the antennas for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and geolocation, the camera and microphone, etc. It also will not allow the phone to connect to a Stingray or any other IMSI catcher."

Speaking about the fact his handset “partly” runs the Android OS, Mcafee tweeted that "Hardware has everything to do with security. Software has everything to do with insecurity."

The phone is scheduled for release sometime during early fall of this year. It may be welcomed by privacy-conscious companies, but it’ll be interesting to see how popular it becomes with consumers, many of whom value features and design over security.

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John McAfee is one guy I would love to hangout with after work for happy hour and discuss IT in general for about 4-5 beers.
 
You can be sure that most governments will ask for the decryption keys or they won't allow it to be sold. Remember the Blackberry. It was so secure that the organized crime and terrorists were using it. Now BB is almost dead because it was forced to be decryptable.
 
You can be sure that most governments will ask for the decryption keys or they won't allow it to be sold. Remember the Blackberry. It was so secure that the organized crime and terrorists were using it. Now BB is almost dead because it was forced to be decryptable.
BB is dead because they make shitty and very expensive phones compared to the competition. just like Nokia and Kodak, they could not adapt.
 
Umm are we all forgetting this guy makes and does drugs, was wanted for murder, and likes to post on drug-related Russian forums? http://gizmodo.com/5959812/john-mcafee-wanted-for-murder
All you favorite musicians did drugs. Going to stop listening to music?
I am very happy to see someone has finally taken consumer privacy into consideration. After everyone found out the NSA loves your info, the manufacturers put iris scanners and fingerprint scanners in them so they could sell even more info.
Now mcafee is making a semi modular phone, love it. Would be cool if they just sold a phone without all the cameras n sensors. No frills phone.
$1100 though..that's why it won't sell..hopefully gen2 is a lot cheaper.
 
I've seen specs for the gen 2 "as hack-proof as humanly possible" phone. The key is that they have not included wifi, bluetooth, IR, USB, HDMI, removable storage, nor any cellular service antennae. As long as you have no need to call, text, chat surf the web or connect to other devices, it'll be the last phone you ever need!
 
All you favorite musicians did drugs. Going to stop listening to music?
I am very happy to see someone has finally taken consumer privacy into consideration.

You seem to have ignored the murder aspect. You'd trust your privacy to a guy wanted for murder who fled the country to avoid conviction? He sounds like a swell guy. I'm interested to hear your points for trusting him to make a truly private phone. There's lots of antivirus creators out there, that doesn't mean this guy knows everything about privacy.
 
"Most secure phone ever"
*runs Chrome*
So, secure unless Google wants to monitor you? Sure, but if I wanted to pay that much for security I'd probably not want Google spying on me too...
 
You seem to have ignored the murder aspect. You'd trust your privacy to a guy wanted for murder who fled the country to avoid conviction? He sounds like a swell guy. I'm interested to hear your points for trusting him to make a truly private phone. There's lots of antivirus creators out there, that doesn't mean this guy knows everything about privacy.
Well lets see. Would you rather have the FCC chairman make your phone or an alleged murderer on the run from the law trying to hide their every step. Hmmm thats pretty ****in easy. I'll take an arse covering murderer over information sellers.
 
Well lets see. Would you rather have the FCC chairman make your phone or an alleged murderer on the run from the law trying to hide their every step.

Hmm, lets see.

Would I rather get my phone from a rule bending privacy invading FCC fatty pillow hugger with unlimited power and political sway; or from a anti-virus entrepreneur looking to uphold human rights and bypass unnecessary laws?
Your right, that is pretty f'ing easy. :D
 
haha you're saying you'd definitely trust a murderer to design your privacy and you want me to rethink my position?
And you don't know that he is a murderer. I don't know that he is a murderer, yet you want me to assume he is. I will tell you what I assume. I assume if the authorities thought he was a murderer, he wouldn't be walking around freely.
 
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