Wickr Me is shutting down December 31, 2023

https://wickr.com/our-focus-on-end-to-end-encrypted-enterprise-communications/

by vorpalhex • 4 years ago

72 71 4 years ago

wickr.com

hobbitstan• 4 years ago

Wickr is a notorious hideout for pedophiles sharing CSAM. I wonder if that had anything to do with this?

55555• 4 years ago

Yeah I only heard of it as a place to buy hard drugs.

mdp20213• 4 years ago

Others as a user/pass - anonymous, as expected - communications system that was selected by the Air Force of the USA.

encryptluks2• 4 years ago

Any private end-to-end encryption solution could be considered a hideout for pedophiles or drug trade.

goatsi• 4 years ago

Wickr didn't require a phone number for account registration or identification so it attracted a higher proportion.

mistrial9• 4 years ago

unlike say, Walmart and Purdue.. very legal there

mdp20213• 4 years ago

Similar things have been said for people who pay with cash.

Used by "people with something to hide", and by people with dignity - people who deem it inappropriate to allow being tracked: "people with everything to hide".

edgyquant• 4 years ago

Any hotel could be a haven for drug dealing and prostitution.

temp_account_32• 4 years ago

Haven't heard about that but I know people use it to buy drugs quite often, as in the dealer will message you through Wickr, then you transfer crypto payments and they either mail it or drop it off. A breeding ground for scams related to this as well.

formerly_proven• 4 years ago

the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had invested $1.6 million into Wickr via the CIA's shell company In-Q-Tel (…) Wickr markets itself to government agencies (…) On June 25, 2021, Wickr was acquired by Amazon (…) the founder of the controversial private security firm Blackwater, is one of the principal investors.

Checks out lol

newZWhoDis• 4 years ago

Yeah if it wasn’t comped before, it sure was after that.

post_break• 4 years ago

This person is getting downvoted, but he's 1000% not wrong. It's bad.

Temporarily213• 4 years ago

This is reddit?! Almost!

tomschwiha• 4 years ago

The headline is misleading, it's only about their consumer product Wickr Me, not about the full company shutting down.

22c• 4 years ago

Pretty sure Wickr Me used to simply be called Wickr, back when Wickr was just a chat app.

dang2• 4 years ago

Ok, we've put Me in the title above. Thanks!

alophawen• 4 years ago

So AWS bought Wickr in 2021, and now they shut it down.

Let's hope they buy capitalism next.

dang2• 4 years ago

Can you please not post shallow dismissals, or comments in the flamewar style generally, to HN? You've unfortunately been doing that quite a bit, and we're trying for something else here.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

carom• 4 years ago

Used it for a few weeks, absolute trash. There is a lot that is noticeably missing if you've ever used Slack. Org ended up on Mattermost, it has its quirks (like delayed notifications) but we're very happy.

deadalus• 4 years ago

Wickr was one of the biggest sourcing platforms in the psychedelic world. It will be a huge loss for Psychonauts.

mdp20213• 4 years ago

Well it was also the software of choice for people who wanted their conversation with faraway peers to be, as expected, private.

coder-3• 4 years ago

Any predictions about where they'll move to? I'd be surprised if they start picking a set of different apps.

hsbauauvhabzb• 4 years ago

I work in security. People from my past have occasionally popped up as new signal users, I imagine they care about operational security for other reasons than what I do

Sami_Lehtinen• 4 years ago

Session is quite popular in Finland after Wickr.

Temporarily213• 4 years ago

Also hardcore drugs and antidotes

arcturus17• 4 years ago

Antidotes?

codetrotter• 4 years ago

Bur Wickr Pro, used by companies for internal communication, will continue to exist it seems. That’s good.

whatwherewhy2• 4 years ago

What kind of company gets an app popular with drug dealers for their internal communication?

potatototoo99• 4 years ago

If your app is not popular with terrorists and child rapists, it is not secure.

andrewinardeer• 4 years ago

I know Australia's Ex-Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, used Wickr while he was in office.[0]

[0] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-03/malcolm-turnbull-uses...

buildbuildbuild• 4 years ago

Militaries, for one. https://wickr.com/secure-communication-for-the-military/

Markoff6• 4 years ago

Oh no, where will I get my drugs now? Oh wait, I don't do drugs, so anyway...

And even for druggies seems like Matrix should be sufficient enough or Wire, Session, Tox, etc.

seattle_spring• 4 years ago

Not doing drugs is not the flex that you seem to think it is.

jacooper• 4 years ago

It totally is.

Markoff6• 4 years ago

judging by number of upvotes vs downvotes this comment gets today I learned HN is full of junkies

RobotToaster• 4 years ago

I've been expecting this since they were bought by amazon last year.

lexandstuff• 4 years ago

In Australia, the majority of drug deals are organised on Wickr. It's so popular amongst criminals, drill rappers mention it in their bars [1]

This is going to be a huge loss (or gain if you're in law enforcement, I guess).

[1] https://genius.com/17161424

shp0ngle• 4 years ago

Not just in Australia

Stagnant• 4 years ago

In Finland as well, and funnily enough it is also mentioned in some Finnish rap songs [1]

[1] https://genius.com/22801616

m00dy• 4 years ago

what is Finnish Rap about ? Don't tell me it is just about weather xD

technion• 4 years ago

Ironic, given few in Australia had heard of it before pur politicians endorsed its secrecy.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/wickr-app-the-snapchat-fo...

quickthrower22• 4 years ago

Another nail out of the coffin for decentralised platforms

WaitWaitWha• 4 years ago

As a side note I used to use Wickr, then moved over to Signal, as Signal also could do SMS. Now they are getting rid of SMS :'( .

Any alternatives where I can do secure messaging and standard SMS/MMS?

Lazare• 4 years ago

Signal isn't dropping SMS by choice, but because the APIs aren't being exposed on Android going forward. You won't find a replacement until that changes.

simfree2• 4 years ago

Unless your an Android Device Manufacturer, you can't get access to the RCS APIs.

All SMS/MMS apps are stuck due to this, Google has known since 2013 that they need to open up RCS but has kept it as a walled garden instead.

kypro• 4 years ago

The comments mentioning how Wickr is used for bad things seem a bit naive?

Surely it's only used for bad things because it's one of the few places for communicating without the risk of surveillance?

When Wickr is gone won't the criminals will just move to the next best app which allows them to communicate without surveillance?

djs070• 4 years ago

Kind of infuriating that the blog post doesn't mention what "Wickr Me" is. The link in the page footer to "Wickr Me" only goes back to the same blog post.

themihai• 4 years ago

Wickr is/was one(or the only) privacy oriented chat app that didn't require your phone number or your phone book. For some reasons there is no replacement. All the "privacy" messaging apps want your phone number and phone book.

kbknapp• 4 years ago

Last I looked Session[0] does not and was created for just that purpose but without sacrificing much in the way if UX.

0: https://getsession.org/

lachstar-x• 4 years ago

SESSION, the chat program that runs over the Oxen network (a Tor alternative) is much better to my mind. Voice, text, chat, all e2e encrypted and not requiring a phone number like Signal.

https://getsession.org/

Wickr Me is shutting down December 31, 2023

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