Boston telecom services company MobileSphere is launching a new product it hopes will change the way people use messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook messenger.
The company’s new SLYGuard product is an “over the top” privacy protection app which funnels users' communications through a VPN to protect their metadata and offers encryption and decryption services.
It also gives users a new anonymous phone number to use on messaging apps instead of their personal numbers.
The premise of the new product is that apps like WhatsApp are free because they collect and sell or share your data, said MobileSphere president Toufic Mobarak in an interview.
“There is a market for protecting the twin sisters, privacy and security,” he said.
Mobarak used the analogy of shipping a ton of gold between two cities. “You put it in a truck, in a safe. Would you put the key with the driver transporting it? We are the key,” he said. “One company does the transport, the other does the encryption, or the holding of the key.”
The company’s early success with the SLYGuard app, which was soft-launched earlier this year, has been overseas, in countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan.
“It’s no surprise that this is where the most people are looking for security and privacy,” said Mobarak, who was born in Lebanon. “In some countries it’s needed more than others. Especially in areas where human rights and freedom are at risk.”
The app so far has more than 200,000 downloads and 75,000 active users, although payment has been an issue in some countries that have restrictions in the app stores, Mobarak said. SLYGuard costs $4 or $6 a month for its two tiers, and the company is offering a three-day free trial to new users.
Mobarak said he thinks the messaging apps that SLYGuard is compatible with — which also include Line, Signal, Telegram, Vibre, and Wicker — will see it as a benefit.
“We’re not competing with them, we’re just adding security to their app,” he said. “It’s expanding the use of their app in some aspects.”
MobileSphere’s other apps include products to send texts to phone numbers from the web, connect calls or send voice memos directly to a voicemail box, and get a new phone number to use with global messaging apps.
