A free app that promises to help you send surveillance-proof, self-destructing, encrypted messages has just secured $30m (£17m) in funding.

Wickr, launched in 2012, was developed by Wired 2014 speaker Nico Sell, the organiser behind the world's largest hacker get together, Def Con. The company's motto is Leave No Trace, and that's exactly what Sell plans to teach the public, having already


publicly rebuffed the FBI's requests for her to create a backdoor into the app for them.

Unlike Snapchat, which proved earlier in the year to be neither self-destructing, nor all that secure, Wickr promises "military-grade encryption" it does not have the keys to, it erases unwanted files completely and requires no personal information from a user. It's also obviously something the public wants, given one million messages are sent using the app everyday.

Read next These Chrome extensions protect you against creepy web tracking These Chrome extensions protect you against creepy web tracking

Sell has found some new supporters in venture capitalist Jim Breyer, options and futures exchange CME Group Inc and online games developers Wargaming. Sell told Wired.co.uk the new partners "support Wickr's mission to bring secure, private communications to everyone and new platforms for the financial services and gaming industries".

Many would question the validity of a totally secure communications system, with Tor Project contributor Runa Sandvik commenting this week that the public should not blindly trust so-called "privacy" apps streaming onto the market post-Snowden. However, Sell maintains that Wickr's security is different -- specifically, it exceeds the compliancy the NSA demands of its own secret communications. "Our solution is different because we made encryption and security easy to use and transparent to the masses," Sell tells us. "We don't save any of your information to a server; we don't know who you are, who you're talking to or what you're saying; it's all encrypted and we don't have the keys. We are a zero knowledge system and we considered security first when developing our application."


Like Tor, any organisation that promises to give its users total privacy and protection is the bane in law enforcement's side.

In documentation acquired by Edward Snowden, sections entitled "Tor Stinks" spoke of potential avenues round it. When Wired.co.uk asks Sell if she has any concerns at all, presumably as the FBI and NSA do, that her technology will be used for nefarious, illegal activity, she responded simply: "All good tools are guaranteed to be used by good people and bad people. Screwdrivers, money, shoes and tires are used in most crimes, but we are still better off as a society having these tools. Private communications is a universal human right that is extremely important to a free society."

In spite of this, the public continues, in their millions and billions, to use free or cheap services that offer none of the safeguards Wickr does. Sell's service is free, for now. But what will it take for the public to sacrifice their easy access free email or storage services?

Read next The best VPN services tested for speed, reliability and privacy The best VPN services tested for speed, reliability and privacy

Sell explains -- well, it's about the sell. "The public needs privacy tools that are cooler and more full featured for people to switch. We just won best overall messaging app beating WhatsApp, Snapchat and Google in PC Magazine.

We have more fun than Snapchat -- with stickers and filters.

Privacy is not why people download, but it is why users stick around, just good customer service."


The public may not have quite yet thrown its digital tools out of the pram in protest at all the privacy violations revealed over the past year -- perhaps the outcome of being so accustomed to trading personal data for free services, for so many years. But Sell believes this will change -- ultimately, so brands can keep their custom, and their money. "We need new business models that do not make money off personal information. You can trust those companies more than the 1,000 data brokers that currently rule the social media world."

﻿The free app will apparently soon start charging customers for added extras, such as video calling and stickers, and there is potential to monetise the project by licensing out the robust technology behind it to other programs that need to offer their customers assurances. "Wickr's mission is to become the go-to communications platform for text, email, calling

and video conferencing," says Sell. "We are taking Skype head on and aim to scale quickly."