Silent Circle secures $30 million for the privacy-based Blackphone

Encrypted comms firm Silent Circle has just announced a new funding round which it says has been fueled by demand in the privacy-focused smartphone, Blackphone, the security hardened Android handset it’s building with Spanish startup Geeksphone. Privacy, it seems, is a hot new investment area in these post-Snowden times. It’s also rather fitting, given Silent Circle was forced to preemptively shutter its encrypted email service last summer, in the wake of the NSA spying revelations, since it didn’t want to be complicit with government snooping on its users.