????美國(guó)國(guó)家安全局的監(jiān)聽(tīng)丑聞被爆料之后，Silent Circle利用消費(fèi)者日益增長(zhǎng)的興趣出臺(tái)了全新的定價(jià)方案。每年支付120美元，用戶(hù)就能使用完整的Silent套件，包含Silent Phone、Silent Text、Silent Eyes和Silent Mail四項(xiàng)功能。公司CEO邁克?楊克是一名退役的海豹突擊隊(duì)隊(duì)員，他說(shuō)采用新定價(jià)是為了順應(yīng)“勢(shì)不可擋的需求?！?/p>

????不過(guò)即便是在泄密爆料之前，Silent Circle的表現(xiàn)也非常出色。這家公司去年10月成立時(shí)就在媒體間引起了一些轟動(dòng)。楊克表示，由于今年2月推出了功能更加完備的新產(chǎn)品，甚至在泄密新聞之前，公司的銷(xiāo)量已達(dá)到平均每月100%的增幅。5月，楊克接受《華盛頓郵報(bào)》（The Washington Post）采訪時(shí)說(shuō)：“我們正在盡快招募員工?！彼A(yù)計(jì)今年年底用戶(hù)將會(huì)達(dá)到300萬(wàn)人。

????楊克說(shuō)：“人們都在說(shuō)‘天啊，氣死我了，國(guó)家安全局竟然在偷窺我的隱私，’確實(shí)是這樣?！彼€提到人們對(duì)于商業(yè)數(shù)據(jù)收集和其他政府機(jī)構(gòu)的監(jiān)視越來(lái)越擔(dān)心。后者可能會(huì)比國(guó)家安全局更隱秘、更具侵略性?！斑€有其他71個(gè)民族國(guó)家——想想俄羅斯、中國(guó)、意大利、法國(guó)——他們也有類(lèi)似美國(guó)國(guó)家安全局的機(jī)構(gòu)，他們也可以獲得各種個(gè)人數(shù)據(jù)?！?/p>

????當(dāng)然，類(lèi)似Silent Circle這樣的服務(wù)也有其陰暗面。沒(méi)錯(cuò)，它們是記者和政治異議人士的福音，然而，它們對(duì)圖謀犯罪或炸毀大樓的人來(lái)說(shuō)也一樣是好消息。楊克意識(shí)到，盡管執(zhí)法人員對(duì)此有很大興趣（這是唯一獲得美國(guó)特種作戰(zhàn)司令部許可的商用通信產(chǎn)品），他最終還是免不了要與政府產(chǎn)生摩擦。此外，Silent Circle并不是解決所有隱私問(wèn)題的萬(wàn)能藥。安全公司BitDefender高級(jí)分析師博格丹?伯特扎圖表示，最高級(jí)別的加密服務(wù)可能會(huì)阻止數(shù)據(jù)獲取，卻對(duì)有針對(duì)性的政府竊聽(tīng)?zhēng)缀鯖](méi)有防護(hù)作用。Silent Circle也警告說(shuō)，通過(guò)用戶(hù)的手機(jī)服務(wù)提供商仍然可能跟蹤到通話時(shí)的GPS數(shù)據(jù)，它也不能保護(hù)用戶(hù)免遭惡意軟件侵襲。

????如果Silent Circle不能滿足需求，還有許多其他程序和應(yīng)用可供選擇。Tor和Orweb能讓用戶(hù)匿名瀏覽網(wǎng)頁(yè)。還有不計(jì)其數(shù)的其他設(shè)備和應(yīng)用能打亂、隱藏和刪除用戶(hù)數(shù)據(jù)。接下來(lái)還可能涌現(xiàn)出更多的同類(lèi)產(chǎn)品。

????比起這些號(hào)稱(chēng)是軍用級(jí)別的產(chǎn)品，iPhone的優(yōu)秀應(yīng)用Snapchat看起來(lái)不但對(duì)一般顧客更有吸引力，安全性的色彩也更淡一些。不過(guò)驅(qū)使用戶(hù)們使用這類(lèi)程序的因素卻是相似的——都是對(duì)于后隱私時(shí)代的深深憂慮。由于國(guó)家安全局的泄密事件，以及谷歌（Google）和Facebook等公司掌握的數(shù)據(jù)曝光，害怕遭到窺視已經(jīng)不再只是瘋子的想法了。臆想已經(jīng)成為主流——甚至還有可能催生一門(mén)龐大的生意。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：嚴(yán)匡正

????In the wake of the NSA surveillance news, Silent Circle introduced a new pricing scheme to capitalize on the increased interest. It will now cost $120 per year to use the full Silent Suite, which includes Silent?Phone, Silent Text, Silent Eyes, and Silent Mail. CEO Mike Janke, a retired Navy SEAL commando, said the new pricing is in response to "overwhelming demand."

????But even before the story broke, Silent Circle was doing pretty well. The company launched in October of last year, and made some waves in the press. Following a more complete product launch in February, Janke says sales growth was averaging 100% month-over-month, even before the NSA news. In May, Janke told The Washington Post, "we're hiring as fast as we can." He predicts the company will have about 3 million users by year-end.

????"People are saying, 'Oh my God, I'm so pissed off that the NSA was looking at my stuff,' and rightfully so," Janke says. But he also notes that people are increasingly worried about commercial data gathering, plus surveillance from other government agencies, which may be even more secretive or invasive than the NSA. "There are 71 other nation states -- think Russia, China, Italy, France -- out there with NSA-type organizations of their own. They can get access to this data, too."

????Of course, there's a dark side to services like Silent Circle. Yes, they may be good news for journalists and political dissidents, but they're also good news for people planning to commit crimes or blow up buildings. Janke recognizes that despite the high interest from law enforcement officials (it is the only commercial communications product approved by U.S. Special Operations Command), he may eventually run into friction with the government. Furthermore, Silent Circle isn't the end-all solution to every privacy woe. The highest-level encryption service might prevent data harvesting, says Bogdan Botezatu, senior analyst at security firm BitDefender, but offers little protection from targeted government snooping. Silent Circle also warns that GPS data on calls may still be tracked by a user's cell phone service provider, and that it does not protect against malware.

????But if Silent Circle isn't enough, there are plenty of other programs and apps to choose from. Torand Orweb enable anonymous browsing. And there's a seemingly countless number of other devices and applications that scramble, hide or delete user data. Plenty more are likely to follow.

????In comparison to these products touting themselves as military-grade, iPhone phenom Snapchat looks both more appealing to the average customer, and comparably light on security. But the forces that drive users to the programs are similar -- a deep angst over the post-privacy era. Thanks to the NSA, and the troves of now data owned by the likes of Google (GOOG) and Facebook, fear of being watched isn't just for kooks anymore. Paranoia has become mainstream -- and it could be big business.