"Nicholas Merrill has spent his career fighting government surveillance. But he would really rather you didn't call what he's selling now a "burner phone." Yes, he dreams of a future where anyone in the US can get a working smartphone-complete with cellular coverage and data-without revealing their identity, even to the phone company. But to call such anonymous phones "burners" suggests that they're for something illegal, shady, or at least subversive. The term calls to mind drug dealers or deep-throat confidential sources in parking garages."
"Phreeli, as in, "speak freely," aims to give its user a different sort of privacy from the kind that can be had with end-to-end encrypted texting and calling tools like Signal or WhatsApp. Those apps hide the content of conversations, or even, in Signal's case, metadata like the identities of who is talking to whom. Phreeli instead wants to offer actual anonymity. It can't help government agencies or data brokers obtain users' identifying information because it has almost none to share."
Nicholas Merrill spent a decade fighting an FBI surveillance order and founded Phreeli to offer near-total mobile anonymity. Phreeli provides cellular service for existing smartphones while collecting almost no identifying user data. The service aims to make persistent, ordinary mobile privacy a default rather than a niche tool. Phreeli differs from end-to-end encrypted apps by seeking actual anonymity instead of only hiding content or metadata. The company cannot hand over identifying information to government agencies or data brokers because it retains almost none. The offering targets everyday users who want to avoid surveillance, not illicit activity.
Read at WIRED
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