Wickr: The Covert App Used By Politicians For Secret Discussions

Fancy yourself as a secret agent or need to discuss sensitive topics without any evidence? Reportedly used by our very own communications minister Malcolm Turnbull, Wickr is billed as a kind of grown up version of SnapChat –- letting you send and receive information with no permanent record.

[credit provider=”Getty Images” url=”http://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/mnister-for-communications-malcolm-turnbull-at-parliament-news-photo/459907838″]

Available for Android and iOS smartphones (sorry Windows Phone), Wickr promises an exchange with no metadata and no digital paper trail. In other words, it’s totally anonymous and can’t be tracked or monitored. It sounds like it could be complex but Wickr is dead easy to use –- you can download the app, sign up an account and get connecting in under a minute. It’s free, there are no ads and no personal information is needed. The system uses peer-to-peer AES256 encryption so your unencrypted messages are not stored on a server where they could be hacked. Make sure you think up a totally new username though, so there is no way to trace it back to you.



Using Wikr you can send messages, videos, audio and files and set a time frame before the content self-destructs and disappears form the recipient’s phone. You can also run a shredder mode that cleans your phone of any deleted files. Wickr lets you find other friends automatically without uploading your contacts and supports chat in groups of up to 10. It’s also got a fun element, where you can add graffiti or other graphics to images before you send them. Desktop users are not left out in the cold either – Wickr has a Windows, OS X and Linux version.

Want to get your secret chat on? Check out Wickr.


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