Is the US State Dept Making a Secret Pro-Democracy App for the Middle East?

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Want to wipe your mobile device clean of any incriminating data while simultaneously sending messages to your allies in the struggle for emerging democracies? Turns out, there’ll soon be an app for that.

According to the British Daily Mail newspaper, the US State Department is working on a special app for use in developing democracies that will empower pro-democracy activists to access social media and the Internet, while also including a “panic button” that will send a text message to everyone on the phone’s address book even as it deletes the information stored on the phone, in case of seizure by the authorities.

The paper quotes Asst. US Secretary of State for Human Rights and Labor, Michael Posner, as saying

We’ve been trying to keep below the radar on this, because a lot of people we are working with are operating in very sensitive environments… We’re operating like venture capitalists, giving small grants. We are looking for the most innovative people who are going to tailor their technology and their expertize to the particular community of people we’re trying to protect.

One could wonder how below the radar a news story in a major British tabloid really is, but instead, let’s pause for a moment and appreciate how wonderfully Mission: Impossible-ish this new technology sounds.

Now if only it could make your iPhone release a puff of smoke at the end of its life, as well.

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