‘Blackphone’ — Dystopian ‘loss of privacy’ memes are not new. But they seem fashionable now. And possibly commercially viable.

Watch this. It makes me want to try one out. (Except for that line about ‘the Android we’re all familiar with’— er, no not me.)

Introduction to Blackphone from BLACKPHONE on Vimeo.

But in the comments on that Blackphone promo — posted on Vimeo yesterday — there’s a link to this 4-year-old promo for Else Mobile, and positing a plagiarism (‘blatant rip-off’) thesis …

Else Mobile (The Time Has Come) from Rob Chiu on Vimeo.

What do you think? The imagery and script certainly seem similar. Could the two enterprises linked in some way?

And anyway, what do you think of the Blackphone idea? Don’t you think owning one (or having it discovered among your possessions at, say, a border control) might perhaps mark you out as a ‘person of interest’? … perhaps leading to a confiscation … which, of course, gives the state security apparatus physical possession of your device, which is (cough) all they need, isn’t it?, reportedly … (see: Oh. The NSA ‘owns’ iPhones (but only if it can get its hands on them, for now)).

Unless they become so very, very popular …

– P