Google Partners With Privacy-Centric Smartphone Maker

As more employees conduct business and personal activities on the same smartphone or tablet, companies are scrambling to figure out how to secure their data. A partnership between Google GOOGL +0.10% and Silent Circle, the Geneva-based maker of privacy-centric phones, is an attempt to capitalize on that concern.

Silent Circle’s Blackphone, which encrypts calls, texts and data, is part of a wave of privacy tools that emerged in the wake of Edward Snowden‘s revelations about the U.S. government’s pervasive intelligence gathering. The company is so concerned about data security that it doesn’t even keep track of its own customers’ names.

Under the partnership, the next version of Blackphone will come equipped with Google’s Android for Work software, according to Silent Circle and Google. The latter, of course, collects huge amounts of user data to sell advertising.

Released earlier this year, Android for Work is a software suite that allows users to compartmentalize personal and professional use. It also comes with corporate features for managing employee access to company information as well as Google productivity apps including Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

For Google, the partnership is an opportunity to address security concerns that have hampered adoption of its Android mobile operating software in the workplace. Corporate information technology managers often view Android devices, which come from a variety of companies, as less secure than devices that are controlled by a single manufacturer such as iPhones or Blackberries, said Tyler Shields, an analyst with the market research firm Forrester.

Google did not respond to request for comment.

Android for Work is being tested or deployed by more than 10,000 businesses, including the World Bank, U.S. Army, and Guardian Life Insurance Company, Rajen Sheth wrote in a blog post Thursday. Sheth, who works for Google, holds the title Senior Director for Android and Chrome for Work Product Management.

So why would Silent Circle, which is intensely concerned with privacy, team up with the largest data collection company in the world? The answer comes down to marketing, the company said. Most users of Blackphone and Silent Circle’s other encrypted-communication products are in Europe. The Google deal will raise the company’s profile in the U.S.

Nonetheless, an association with Google may not be the right type of exposure for a company that prides itself on having zero visibility into its customers’ data.

“We debated this quite long and heavily inside the company before we decided to go down with this,” said Dan Ford, Silent Circle’s Chief Security Officer, in an interview.

Blackphone is being used primarily by businesses and government users, not consumers, Ford said. Companies may find Blackphone more appealing if their workers can switch between work and personal use.

Ford wouldn’t share names of Silent Circle customers, citing privacy. The U.S. government has been a customer, according to public records.