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AT&T ’s recentmega client data break — 74 million accounts affected — laid bare how much data carriers have on their users , and also that the information is there for the hacking . On Thursday , a startup calledCape — establish out of Washington , D.C. , and establish by a former executive director from Palantir — is announcing$61 millionin funding to build up what it claims will be a much more secure approach : It wo n’t be able to leak your name , destination , Social Security turn or location because it never asks for these in the first spot .
“ You ca n’t leak out or betray what you do n’t have , ” fit in tothe troupe ’s website . “ We ask for the minimum amount of personal information and lay in tender credentials topically on your gadget , not on our electronic connection . That ’s privateness by blueprint . ”
The funding is celebrated in part because Cape ’s ingathering to user is not yet prove . The companionship only hail out of stealth four calendar month ago , and it has yet to launch a commercial Robert William Service for consumers . That ’s due to get along in June , CEO and founder John Doyle state in an interview . It has one airplane pilot undertaking in functioning , deploying some of its technical school with the U.S. government , batten down communications on Guam .
The $ 61 million it announced Thursday is an accumulation across three rounds : a seminal fluid and Series A of $ 21 million ( raisedwhen it was still in stealth mode as a company calledPrivate Tech ) and a Series B of $ 40 million . The in vogue round is being co - led by A - Star and a16z , with XYZ Ventures , x / ante , Costanoa Ventures , Point72 Ventures , Forward Deployed VC and Karman Ventures also participating . ness is not disclosing its valuation .
Doyle attracted that investor attention in part because his past part have included well-nigh nine geezerhood of work out for Palantir as the head of its national security business enterprise . Prior to that , he was a peculiar forces sergeant in the U.S. Army .
Those job exposed him to users ( like regime departments ) who treated the security of personal information and privacy around data usage as substantive . But , more entrepreneurially , they also got him thinking about consumer .
With the big focal point that data privacy and security have today in the public cognisance — typically because of the many bad - news tale we get a line about data breaches , the encroaching activities of societal networks and many questions about internal security department and digital networks — there is a exonerated chance to ramp up pecker like these for ordinary people , too , even if it feels like that might be impossible these day .
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“ It ’s actually one of the reasons I startle the company , ” he tell TechCrunch . “ It feel like the trouble is too with child , right-hand ? It feels like our data point is already out there and all these different way and there ’s really nothing to be done about it . We ’ve all take up a learned impuissance around the ability to be connected , but have some sort of secret , some sort of control over our own data , but that ’s not necessarily true . ”
Cape ’s first endeavour will be focused on providingeSIMs to users , which Doyle allege would be sold essentially on a postpaid format to forfend the information that a contract might fee-tail . Cape on Thursday also harbinger a partnership with UScellular , which itself provide an MNVO covering 12 cellular networks ; Doyle said that Cape is talking with other phone company , too . ab initio , it ’s unlikely to clump that eSIM with any mobile equipment , although that also is not off the table for the future , Doyle said . Nor will the company put up encoding Robert William Service around apps , part yell and mobile data point , at least not initially .
“ We ’re not focalise on secure the substance of communicating . There ’s a whole host of app - based solutions out there , apps out there like Proton Mail and Signal , and WhatsApp and other encrypted messaging platforms that do a good business , to varying degrees , depending on who you desire for secure the contents of your communication , ” he state . “ We are focussed on your location and your identity data , in fussy , as it relates to connecting to commercial cellular infrastructure , which is a related to but disjoined set of problems . ”
Cape ’s not the only company in the market that is try ( or has tried , past - tense ) to address secrecy in the mobile sphere , but none of them has really made a bull’s eye so far . In Europe , recent efforts include the MVNOMurena , the OS makerJollaand the hardware companyPunkt . Those that have number and gone include thePrivacy Phone(FreedomPop ) andBlackphone(from GeeksPhone and Silent Circle ) .
There ’s already the option to buy a prepaid SIM in the U.S. anonymously , but ness points out that this has other trade - offs and is n’t as secure as what Cape is build . Although payments for this might be anonymous , a exploiter ’s data is still root through the connection infrastructure of the underlying attack aircraft carrier , making a drug user ’s move and usage discernible . you could also still be exposed to SIM swap attacks and spam .
For a16z , the investment is becoming a part of the firm ’s “ American Dynamism ” effort , which this week have a$600 million boostfrom the latest $ 7.2 billion in monetary resource that the VC raised .
