A new smartphone created by Russia's InfoWatch, a collective of IT companies which started out life as a project of cybersecurity giant Kaspersky Lab, will reportedly offer anti-surveillance capabilities to enterprise customers who are concerned about snooping.
The device, branded "TaigaPhone", will cost roughly 15,000 rubles ($260, £192) and is being manufactured by Taiga Systems. The firm is a member of Moscow-based InfoWatch, which is owned and led by Natalya Kaspersky, one of Russia's most prominent entrepreneurs.
"We have created it for the corporate market," Kaspersky said during a Moscow business forum Friday (22 September), as reported by the AFP agency.
A release date was not confirmed, and the firm's website states the device is in the final stages of production.
"Half of all data loss in Russia happens on mobile devices, we intend to fix that problem with the TaigaPhone," asserted company rep Grigoriy Vasilyev.
InfoWatch said that the smartphone will keep users' data confidential, track the location of devices to reduce theft and prevent "information leakage."
According to Bloomberg, the first run of the TaigaPhone, 50,000 handsets, will be made in China and delivered to employees of state-owned Russian companies. It said the phone's internal software has been designed to stop mobile apps from collecting or retaining personal data.
An old, now unused, Facebook page described it as a "totally surveillance-proof smartphone." But in reality, details about the smartphone remain vague.
