Courier Secure News Reader is a Guardian Project mobile phone app for secure and anonymous news reading. The app works with Orbot, a Tor proxy for Android phones from the same developers. It hides your computer IP when downloading RSS feeds, gets around ISP censorship in countries where they block websites and it encrypts what you download to thwart wire-tapping. The feeds can be synced automatically or manually, with the option of only syncing when on a Wi-fi network to stop expensive data roaming charges.
Download news and personal data are stored encrypted in your mobile phone, in case of emergency they can be wiped altogether with the app by swapping on the screen. A smart move if you expect arrest but bear in mind that most arrests are never expected and the chances of you being able to wipe evidence that you have accessed banned news sites will not be too successful unless you have forewarning of the arrest in which case disposing of the whole device would be safer.
Courier Secure News Reader Android
The menu is simple and easy to use, a button on top lets you know when you are connected to the Tor network, a “My Favourites” tab to bookmark sites and “Stories Received” tab can be tapped to read the news. Any data you receive from a friend will be listed separately in the “Receive a Share” tab.
People who have no Internet access can still read the news as long as one of their peers manages to get online and shares it with them P2P using Courier Secure News Reader via Bluetooth.
Courier Secure News Reader is open source, free and without any advertisements, the developers aim is to help those living in countries where news sites access is censored to be able to read them anonymously.
The app has been digitally signed with a 4096-bit key to verify that it really came from the developers and nobody has replaced it with a fake malware app that spies on the user.
Note: Courier Secure News Reader is currently in beta.
