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Phreeli, pronounced “freely”, only requires a ZIP code for sign-up, aiming to entice privacy-conscious customers
This month saw the commercial launch of Phreeli, a company its founders describe as the world’s first privacy-by-design mobile carrier.
The company, which operates as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) on T‑Mobile’s network, is seeking to differentiate itself by minimising personal data collection and pledging never to sell call or location data. This ethos extends to customer sign-up, requring only a customer ZIP code to activate services.
At the centre of Phreeli’s offering is a proprietary encryption architecture the company calls Double‑Blind Armadillo, which uses zero‑knowledge cryptography to separate identity information, payment details and phone numbers into isolated systems so that no single database can link a user’s identity to their communications.
Payments, which can be made in conventional means but also via some cryptocurrency, are also isolated from phone number assignment through cryptographic tokens, so that the billing system itself does not know which number it is paying for.
Phreeli was fouded by 2019 by Nicholas Merrill, a man for whom consumer privacy is a deeply personal issue. While working at an internet service provider name Calyx in 2004, Merrill was presented with anFBI National Security Letter (NSL) under the USA Patriot Act, demanding the handover of user data and an accompanying gag order. Merrill refused to comply, challenging the legality of the order. The gag order was only fully lifted in 2015.
Following this experience, Merrill has advocated for consumers handing less of their private data to corporations, suggesting that the solution can be tackled “at the front end”.
“If you don’t provide data, it can’t be lost or sold,” he said.
Merrill and the company acknowledge the risk of abuse that any anonymity tool can bring, and say Phreeli will use rate limiting, fraud detection, and account suspension to combat spam, scams, and other malicious uses of the company’s service, without resortng to mass surveillance.
“We should not allow society to be monitored for 0.1% of criminal acts,” Merrill told Wired in an interview, likening the situation to that of using a typical pay phone. “We’re not looking to cater to people doing bad things. We’re trying to help people feel more comfortable living their normal lives.”
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