Now you can talk secretly
on your VoIP phone.

Philip Zimmermann of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption fame has introduced ZFone for Windows. His objective is to protect our privacy by allowing encrypted conversations over VoIP.

Similar to encrypted emails and private, encrypted email networks, ZFone is a small software application that ensures privacy between two VoIP conversations.

Phone call encryption is possible because of the digital nature of VoIP. In the past with analog phone systems one had to buy expensive encryption devices to conduct secret phone calls. This VoIP technology might leave doors open for the possibility that  spyware software can be placed on a computer to intercept a VoIP phone call and sent it through the internet to a corporate spy.  

Here's what the ZFone  web site explains how ZFone works:

"You can use a variety of different software VoIP clients to make a VoIP call. The Zfone software detects when the call starts, and initiates a cryptographic key agreement between the two parties, and then proceeds to encrypt and decrypt the voice packets on the fly. It has its own little separate GUI, telling the user if the call is secure. It's as if Zfone were a "bump on the cord", sitting between the VoIP client and the Internet. Think of it as a software bump-on-the-cord. Maybe a bump in the protocol stack."

What makes ZFone different is that Zimmermann has designed the encryption scheme to exchange keys within the digital voice channel. So no third party has the key. ZFone comes as the nation reels from the NSA's disclosure that they have listened to domestic phone calls. The software is still in beta as per May 22, 2006. But knowing Zimmermann - it will work.

Is he setting himself up for federal scrutiny again? Probably. After 9/11 the government wants to restrict encryption of all data to reduce the risk of the country's enemies using it to communicate and plan terrorist attacks. This VoIP conversation encryption software will undoubtedly heat up that debate.