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The Edward Snowden leaks revealing a US mass surveillance programme have helped kick-start a new privacy industry as companies rush to fulfil a rising demand for products that protect privacy.

From messaging apps to a smartphone, via tools to control just what social networks know about you, start-ups and large companies are offering ways to keep what is secret, secret – but not necessarily promising to prevent National Security Agency snooping.

Next week, the “Blackphone” will be unveiled, promising to give users back control of their communications. Developed by Silent Circle, an encryption company, and Geeksphone, a Spanish smartphone maker, the company has added extra security features to Android and is advertising the device as useful whether talking to your family or, for corporate users, about your latest acquisition.

Wickr, a secure messaging app that keeps no data whatsoever, started before Mr Snowden leaked documents last summer. But Nico Sell, co-founder of Wickr, said interest in privacy had soared, whether it was keeping information away from the NSA or from companies making money from personal data.

“There has been a tremendous increase in demand in privacy products since the summer of Snowden,” she said. “Over the next 10 years those who will thrive will be companies that offer privacy and security and treat customer data well who have features just as good as Google, Facebook and Microsoft.”

AVG, the antivirus software maker, is one cybersecurity company that is now moving into privacy products. It offers a “privacy fix” tool that customers can use to see exactly what companies like Google and Facebook know about them, and helps them adjust what can be quite confusing settings. It can also protect against retailers tracking someone’s mobile phone around a mall.

Jim Brock, VP of Privacy Product at AVG, said demand for this product had risen after the reports of a mass surveillance campaign by the NSA. People have begun to realise the value of their data and search for a sense of control, he said.

“People are still figuring out this value exchange. I use a free service like Facebook, what is in it for them?” he said, adding the product estimates how much someone’s data are worth to an internet company.

ReputationDefender helps individuals and companies suppress Google results that may contain untruths about them and keeps personal data from prying eyes. Michael Fertik, chief executive said it offers a premium product for executives, which is becoming very popular with HR departments.

“The internet has accidentally become a panopticon, where a small number of people can watch everyone else and they don’t know they are being discussed,” he said.

But completely private products remain hard to make. Utimaco, a German company, creates hardware designed not to have any backdoors to the NSA or anyone else. Malte Pollmann, chief executive, warned that some privacy software relies on hardware to generate random numbers, which can be not that random at all.

Mr Pollmann said it can be “fairly easy” to attack a cloud based privacy product if it is not based on the right hardware.

For a long time, a desire for privacy in Europe had been rooted in the public mindset but in the US, privacy had been simply about complying with regulations, for example, in the payments industry, he said.

Original article: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/916c76aa-9a6b-11e3-8e06-00144feab7de.html

How do you bring a vision to life?  Michael Fertik talks innovation and entrepreneurship at the 2012 Blouin Leadership Summit.

How do you bring a vision to life?  Michael Fertik talks innovation and entrepreneurship at the 2012 Blouin Leadership Summit.

How do you bring a vision to life?  Michael Fertik talks innovation and entrepreneurship at the 2012 Blouin Leadership Summit.

How do you bring a vision to life?  Michael Fertik talks innovation and entrepreneurship at the 2012 Blouin Leadership Summit.

How do you bring a vision to life?  Michael Fertik talks innovation and entrepreneurship at the 2012 Blouin Leadership Summit.

How do you bring a vision to life?  Michael Fertik talks innovation and entrepreneurship at the 2012 Blouin Leadership Summit.

How do you bring a vision to life?  Michael Fertik talks innovation and entrepreneurship at the 2012 Blouin Leadership Summit.

Fighting online data fraudsters is almost impossible as their ability to hack into new technology often outpaces companies efforts to protect it, senior businessmen and bankers gathering for the World Economic Forum (WEF) said.

The mammoth data breach at U.S. No. 3 retailer Target (TGT.N) has made executives even more aware of the need to improve safety standards, but the cost is often prohibitive.

"It's next to impossible to stop data leakage. It's a constant battle. You can't beat it completely," IT company Wipro (WIPR.NS) Chief Executive TK Kurien told Reuters, calling the hunt for increasingly valuable information "modern piracy".

While losses on complex derivatives transactions could punch a big hole in a banks' balance sheet or even compromise its stability, the potential losses resulting from the theft of retail customers' data are often minimal.

"Secure networks like clean pipes are expensive. You can use them for intellectual property but not for everything," Wipro's Kurien said.

With the rapid uptake of technology and hyperconnectivity both for personal and business reasons, people put privacy as their biggest concern with security ranking second, according to an international survey conducted for Microsoft (MSFT.O) and made public in Davos on Friday.

The more personal information is shared online, the more difficult the battle against fraud becomes, an issue that was already live following the NSA surveillance scandal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waded into the debate at Davos by championing the know-how of Israeli technology companies. With the government investing heavily in the area, Israel intended to become one of the top three countries for cyber-security, he said.

The WEF's annual global risks report, released this week, focussed on the worst-case scenario of a chronic breakdown of security, or so-called "cybergeddon", where hackers would gain the upper hand on legitimate users and major disruptions would become commonplace.

That eventuality is viewed by the WEF as a distant risk but there is no doubt that confidence is eroding following episodes like Target, which resulted in the theft which included about 40 million credit card and debit card records.

"Trust in the Internet is declining as a result of data misuse, hacking and privacy intrusion," said Axel Lehmann, Chief Risk Officer at Zurich Insurance Group (ZURN.VX).

The Target data breach, a major talking point in the Swiss Alps, triggered a flurry of customer inquiries, reputation.com CEO Michael Fertik, a U.S. digital pioneer who helps 1.6 million customers to protect their digital identities.

"We had lots of sign-up after the Target scandal," he said.

The incident has also put a spotlight on America's card system, which does not rely on the sort of chip and PIN technology that has been in place in Europe for years.

"Putting a chip in a card would make it much more secure. It's an organisational problem," a senior executive at a technology multinational said. "There is always going to be something more technologically advanced, but we could do things a lot better."

Bankers and businessmen say the historically low fraud rate in the United States has not encouraged banks and other financial operators to engage in what would be an expensive upgrade of the U.S. card system.

"It's a trade-off of what it is worth," a senior American banker said.

(Additional reporting by Ben Hirschler and Paul Taylor; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Original article: http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/01/24/davos-banks-security-datatheft-idINDEEA0N0BY20140124

Photo credit: Rick Wilking, Reuters 

How do you bring a vision to life?  Michael Fertik talks innovation and entrepreneurship at the 2012 Blouin Leadership Summit.