nd Robert Statica's Wickr secure-communication app and she can honestly say, "We don't know who our users are." The free iPhone and iPad app uses well-tested strong-encryption techniques to prevent anyone snooping on text messages, images and video, or voicemail exchanged between its users. Accounts are created on the device and checked with a central registry to prevent duplicate names, but no passwords or other identifying information passes to Wickr's servers. Only Wickr users may send messages to other Wickr users, and the software can be set to allow communications only from a preset white list.
如果询问Nico Sell关于谁在使用她和Robert Statica的Wickr安全通信应用程序时，她会诚实地说，“我们不知道谁是我们的用户。”免费的iPhone和iPad应用程序使用了行之有效的强加密技术以防止任何人偷窥文字信息、图片和视频，或者用户之间语音邮件的交流。虽然帐户可以在设备上被创建，并利用一个中心注册处进行检查以防重名，但没有任何密码或其它识别信息传给Wickr的服务器。只有Wickr用户可以把信息发送给其他Wickr用户，同时该软件可以被设定为仅允许从一份预设的白名单中通信。
Ms Sell says that adopters are particularly fond of Wickr's self-destruct timer, which irretrievably scrambles the transmission after a period, from seconds to days, set by the sender, and which cannot be overridden once transmitted. A sender may delete a message at any time after sending, too, removing it from the recipient's account.
Sell女士说，使用者特别喜欢Wickr的自毁定时器，这是发件人通过对自毁定时器的时间设置，从几秒钟到几天不等，它就会进行不可恢复地扰乱传输的信息，而且一旦发送的信息被扰乱，数据就不可能被重写。发件人在发送完成后可以在任何时间删除一条信息，也可以从收件人的帐户中移除它。
Wickr is part of a growing backlash against the culture of constant sharing and permanent archiving that Facebook, Twitter and other social networks encourage—and often expand without consulting with users. Another app, called Path, limits one's social circle to no more than 150 people, matching "Dunbar's number", as evolutionary anthropologists call the limit to the how many people one can maintain stable social relationships with (which may explain why the Path's original limit of 50 did not stand the test of time).
Wickr是不断增强的对抗Facebook、Twitter和其它社交网络鼓励下的持续共享和永久存档的文化（而且经常不与用户协商就进行扩张）的一个部分。另一个被称为Path的应用程序则把某个人的社交圈人数限制在150人之内，符合“邓巴的数量”，这是由进化人类学家称之的限制数量，即一个人可以与多少人保持稳定的社会关系（这可以解释为什么Path最初所限定的50人经不起时间的考验）。
The Pair app is aimed at love birds and does not automatically self-destruct when a relationship breaks up, though its creators will destroy the exchanged messages and pictures on request. The Snapchat app sends pictures, which are automatically deleted no later than ten seconds after receipt, as set by the sender. Snapchat, however, is still vulnerable to a screen capture by the recipient (he need only hold down the "home" button and press and release the "standby" button on an iOS device). With Wickr, if the device's built-in accelerometer detects it is in motion while viewing a photo or video, the screen goes black. Ms Sell says that her firm designed the app to make it easy to use, even for her septuagenarian mother with whom she exchanges texts via the app. The hardest part of using Wickr is picking and remembering a password.
而针对恋人们的Pair应用程序在关系破裂时它不会自动自毁，虽然创建者会按要求破坏交换的消息和图片。而Snapchat应用程序则通过发件人的设置 ，在收件人收到图片后的十几秒钟内会自动删除发送的图片。然而，Snapchat仍然很容易被收件人截屏（他只需要在一台互联网操作系统（iOS）设备上按住“主页”按钮，按下并松开 “待机”按钮即可）。但使用Wickr程序，如果设备的内置加速计检测到它处于活动状态，即一边欣赏照片或看视频的话，屏幕就会变黑。 Sell女士说，她公司设计的应用程序易于上手，甚至通过这个应用程序她年逾七旬的母亲可以与她互发短信，但Wickr最难的部分是选择并记住一个密码。
Ms Sell, for many years the person in charge of press relations at the annual Defcon hacking conference, confesses she does not use Facebook and advises her family to keep information off social networks and other sites, whose privacy and information-retention policies might allow uploaded images or personal details to be retained forever. This is one reason Wickr sports a data scrubber that can wipe remnants of old files that remain in an iOS device's seemingly empty storage areas. The founders have also enlisted leading security experts to probe and test their system, and plan to offer a bug bounty, paying for discovered flaws.
多年来，在每年的防御黑客会议上负责媒体关系的Sell女士承认，她不使用Facebook并建议她的家人远离社交网络和其它网站的信息，因为它们的隐私和信息保留政策会允许上传可以被永远保留下来的图像或个人的详细资料，这是一种原因。而Wickr突变为数据清洁器可以擦去残留在一台iOS设备上看似空空如也的存储区域里的旧文件。许多创始人也在招募主要的安全专家来探查和测试他们的系统，并计划提供一种漏洞赏金，付钱给那些发现程序缺陷的人。
A trial version of an encrypted-voice-call feature is in the offing. Wickr plans eventually to spread to Macintosh and Windows platforms, although there's no timetable as of yet. That would make it a direct competitor to Skype. Skype calls, too, are encrypted, but security is wholly controlled by the company. By contrast, Wickr relies on independent third parties to ensure its security protocols are robust.
一个加密的语音通话功能的试用版正在酝酿中。Wickr计划最终传播到Macintosh和Windows平台上，虽然至今还没有时间表出来，但如果那样会使它成为Skype的直接竞争对手。当然Skype的通话也都是加密的，但安全完全是由公司控制的。而相比之下，Wickr依赖独立第三方来确保其安全协议却是强大的。
Wickr does not scour any social networks or other systems to discover existing relationships, and exposes nothing to the outside world. It collects no information about users and will not include ads. (Future versions will generate revenues for the firm by offering premium upgrades that will appeal to some of the more paranoid punters.) The most detail that Wickr can obtain its customers is a breakdown of app's downloads by country, provided by Apple. Ms Sell notes that in many places where Wickr is popular, like Pakistan or South Africa, its use is considered a crime because of its high-grade encryption or because it lacks a "back-door" for law enforcement.
Wickr不会清除任何社交网络或其它系统以便找到各种已有的关系，也不会向外界公开任何信息。它不收集有关用户的任何信息，而且不做广告。（未来的版本会为提供优质升级的公司产生收益，这将吸引一些更偏执的投机者）。通过苹果公司提供的按国家要求进行的应用程序下载的分类，Wickr可以获得其客户的最详细资料。Sell女士注意到，Wickr在许多地方受到欢迎，如巴基斯坦或南非等地，在那些地方使用它被认为是一种犯罪，因为其高级加密或因为它缺少执法的一个“后门”。
In America the situation is somewhat schizophrenic. The state department has backed efforts to help citizens in repressive states with anonymous and secure communications (and Wickr has received its export license, says Mr Statica), while the justice department and security agencies would rather they not be used domestically, fearful that such tools might be useful to criminals or terrorists. But then, says Ms Sell, "Good tools are always going to be used by good people and bad people.
而在美国的情况就有点混乱。国务院支持那些帮助专制国家的公民使用匿名和安全通信的努力（而且Wickr已收到了其出口许可证，Statica先生说），而司法部和安全机构不愿在国内使用它们，害怕这样的工具可能对罪犯分子或恐怖分子有利。但随后，Sell女士说，“好工具总是要被好人和坏人使用的。”
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