Google has tested this security app with activists in Venezuela. Now you can use it too

When Jigsaw tested this privacy app with a few dozen political activists in Venezuela, the company wanted to limit the number of lawsuits.

Within a few weeks, thousands of people around the world were using Intra, a security application used to prevent government regimes from censoring the Internet and manipulating traffic.

On Wednesday, Jigsaw, a technology incubator owned by Google's parent company, Alphabet, has announced the release of this app to the world.

The application supports DNS (Domain Name System) manipulation, one of the most common techniques used for the political manipulation and propagation of malicious programs. Intra creates an encrypted connection between your phone and DNS servers, making it much more difficult for governments and hackers to intercept this traffic.

"DNS manipulation is one of the most common forms of censorship in the world," said Justin Henck, product manager at Jigsaw. "It's true for people at risk, as well as those who are just trying to live their lives and understand what's going on."

Think of DNS servers as a phone book – something that matches a domain name that you type with the IP address of the website, where it is actually hosted.

When connections are not secure, attackers can intercept DNS traffic, directing users to pages that are infected with malware, or completely blocking online resources. According to a study by the Observatory's Open Interference Network, the Government of Venezuela is known to block access to social media applications and information sites through the manipulation of the DNS.

The practice is widespread, researchers have discovered that governments in more than 60 countries, including Iran, China and Turkey, were using DNS manipulation to censor parts of the internet.

Intra is available for free on the Play Store on Wednesday morning and Jigsaw is testing its security duties among a small group of activists in Venezuela since the beginning of summer, said Henck.

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They wanted to keep its public beta limited, but the application has spread by word of mouth in Venezuela, to the point that activists around the world have started using it.

"People have found that it was a useful tool to get the access they needed," Henck said.

Intra automatically points your device to Google's public DNS server, but you can redirect it to other servers such as Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 through the settings. There is not much to do with your encrypted connection: the app only has one button that you press to activate it.

This encrypted connection to DNS servers is provided by default on the next version of Android Pie, but Jigsaw developers have realized that millions of people who do not have the latest updates would not benefit from the same protection. It is important to take into account the fact that nearly 80% of Android users do not have the latest version of the mobile operating system.

"We realized that millions of users could not help us just by adding features to Android 9," said Ben Schwartz, Chief Engineer at Intra.

The application should be compatible with 99% of Android phones, he said. When Jigsaw engineers tested it with Venezuelan activists, the majority of people were using devices from 2011 and 2012, he added.

"It has been very helpful to reach all these users," he said.

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