Category: Transparency Report

We believe in cryptography for the masses by default. We believe in zero-knowledge systems. We believe that all data or communications should have an expiration date, and we are committed to providing these free tools to our users.

This year we received a near all-star rating from the Electronic Frontier Foundation for our demonstrated commitment to protecting users’ data from government requests. We stood alongside industry leaders and collected stars for requiring a warrant for content, telling our users about government data requests, publishing transparency reports and law enforcement guidelines, and fighting for our users’ rights in Congress. Had we fought for our users’ rights in court, we would have received a perfect score, but we have not yet had standing to do so.

At the beginning of this year, Wickr’s CEO Nico Sell spoke publicly about saying no to an FBI backdoor which is why we are happy to see other companies fighting back against the government’s overreaching behavior. Our belief is that while all governments must protect their citizens, we as citizens and as companies, must stand up for one of the pillars of freedom – privacy.

Towards that end, we placed the first warrant canary into a transparency report last summer, after the revelations by Edward Snowden, and are constantly looking for ways to innovate and protect our users, with other companies like Apple and Lookout following suit.

To further innovate, we have added a red canary to our website under the Ownership and Transparency section. If the canary flies the coop, the tone of this report will change as well because things will have shifted. But we are optimistic that our canary will remain, given the unique nature of our technology and the fact that we are a zero-knowledge system.

“In light of recent events involving data-collection practices within the U.S., it is apparent that certain government organizations are eager to gain access to user information for various reasons pursuant to the PRISM Program. We at Wickr are cognizant of such practices but maintain that due to the specific architecture employed by Wickr there are no back-doors to our system.”

“Wickr was founded on the belief that your data belongs to you and is designed to protect that right. Furthermore, because of the manner in which messages on Wickr are encrypted, even with a properly issued subpoena, Wickr can only provide a snapshot of the account at a given moment which could include information regarding the date of creation of an account, the type of device on which the account is used, and the date of last use of the account.”