If you’re willing to shell out $20 a month, you can encrypt your phone calls and instant messages with a new app called Silent Circle. The app’s creator, Phil Zimmermann, thinks it’s a service worth paying for. 

“I’m not going to apologize for the cost,” Zimmermann told CNET, adding that the final price has not been set. “This is not Facebook. Our customers are customers. They’re not products. They’re not part of the inventory.”

Silent Circle’s app will securely scramble conversations — using end-to-end encryption and the ZRTP protocol — between two people if both are using its software. If only one person has the app, the connection will be scrambled only to Silent Circle’s servers, which could still be valuable for overseas users worried less about the FBI and more about their own government eavesdroppers.

For gamers though, privacy seems like a thing of the past, especially for anyone who wants to play online. Perhaps Steam will set up some privacy options so not everyone has to know when you’ve played your 11th hour of Secret of the Magic Crystals. 

[via Boingboing] [Silent Circle]