So Blackberry has finally gone whole hog and produced an Android phone (apparently built by TCL in China, the owners of Alcatel) which they touting as the world’s most secure Android device.
Having seen the device in action a week ago, I must say, it was the first time in a long time, I have sat in a product roadmap presentation of Blackberry’s and gone: “Now that’s something I would buy!”.
With the RRP going to be around the R4500 mark and around R200+ per month on a contract, the Blackberry DTEK 50, is a very affordable mid range Android device that packs a nice little feature set.
A 5.2” screen, 13MP camera (8MP selfie cam), Qualcomm Quad Core chip, 3GB ram and 16GB onboard expandable up-to 2TB with an SD card… the phone is more than capable and should definitely, through its features alone, be one to consider if you shopping in the Android stable.
What should push you over the edge is however Blackberry’s DTEK software! In a world where phone hacks and celebrity leaks have made people (think Taylor Swift), a little more concerned about their privacy and phones security their are very few affordable, available options.
If you ever bother to read the User Agreement when you download and install an app, you will be shocked to see what you allowing the APP owner’s access to. Most apps will request permission to access:
- Your Contacts
- Your photos
- Your camera
- Your location
- Your microphone
That can be a little disconcerting for example when you download the ABSA banking app and they request access to everything? Why would a banking app require access to your microphone, maybe for voice recognition / verification at some later stage, either way you need to be a little more conscious about what Apps are doing in the background. A recent photo of Mark Zuckerberg and his Mac book with the camera taped over (to ensure know one could hack his cam and spy on him) went viral, so even the tech savvy are concerned over privacy.
So enter the DTEK software from Blackberry, in a nutshell it allows you to individually grant an app access to items on your phone as well as alert you and ask your permission when an app wants to access for example your camera and then allow or deny access. Essentially giving you control of what an app shares in the background. Seeing it in action I was impressed! There is also a phone “security” dash board which will highlight how secure your phone is, and what apps you need to manage to increase your security.
So with the new DTEK 50 from Blackberry, you can take control back of your privacy. Nice!
