Famed whistleblower Edward Snowden made a surprise appearance via live satellite at San Diego Comic Con 2016. Snowden fielded questions at the invitation-only event, which was put up to promote an upcoming movie on his life and starred by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Snowden is currently exiled in Russia after leaking classified information from the National Security Agency in 2013. The disclosure revealed global surveillance programs run by NSA as well as the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance, which operates in cooperation with telecommunication companies and European governments. At the secret screening, Snowden quipped, "The FBI gets a copy of this talk because it's through Google Hangouts," The Guardian quoted. "Anybody basically who asks nicely gets a court order."
To solve the problem on unwarranted surveillance, he co-designed a new iPhone case that would indicate when the device is transmitting information without the user's consent. The case was co-designed by MIT alum Andrew "Bunnie" Huang, who holds a PhD in electrical engineering.
According to Inc.com, Snowden and Huang presented their proposal at the MIT Media Lab. The intention of the design is to help journalist and the general public to keep tabs on their phones and inform them of whether their Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections are being used to send and receive data.
The initial mock up of the device looks similar to battery cases, but with an added display which shows whether that device is "dark" is or is transmitting information. Effectively, the device also features an alarm if it detects unusual activity.
The case doesn't necessarily block signals or transmissions. What it does is that it warns the user when transmissions are being sent without consent. Snowden and Huang are planning to add a kill switch to the device, which would essentially terminate transmissions.
Even with the "airplane mode," such as those in the iPhone, information can still be transmitted as the system can be hacked. Snowden and Huang, through their proposed case, hope to private stronger privacy to smartphone owners from advanced hacking and surveillance methods used by governments and other entities. It could also provide protection to journalists who travel to hostile territories and want to conceal their exact whereabouts.
The iPhone case is still an academic project and far from commercial production. Snowden and Huang are planning to develop a prototype next year.
Watch "Snowden" trailer below:
