After having been available for preorder since the beginning of the year, the privacy-centric Blackphone will be shipping in three weeks for $629. The device is pitched as an Android smartphone that's designed around security and privacy, both areas of growing concerns with the rise of malicious software, hacks, and government surveillance .

The phone's shipping announcement was made in San Francisco, California at the MIT Technology Review Digital Summit. Blackphone is designed from a partnership between Geeksphone and security firm Silent Circle.

The device will provide end-to-end encryption for Blackphone customers who interact with each other. For messaging from a Blackphone device to a non-Blackphone, there will be a one-way encryption that occurs from the Blackphone side to Silent Circle servers.

Additionally, Blackphone can mask what information and block apps from obtaining private information. In one example, if an app requires access to the phone's address book, Blackphone can intercept that request and tell the app that the address book is empty.

Source: LightReading