Enclayve Is A Black Box For Your Private Public Chats

Enclayve is secret services that happen on real devices. Connect, connect to Wi-Fi, and the device acts as a central server for a social network that can host several hundred people. Only the person who owns the device and the people they invite can log in and see what’s being shared there.

The device is a small plastic box, smaller than a credit card. It costs $129, but only one person should have it, and they can invite others. (They also have to download the app.) Once they’re allowed in, the app looks like a bare-bones social network. People can post in groups to chat and share photos. All messages and media sent between people in the group are stored on the device, which comes with a 32-GB microSD card that can be changed if needed. There are no subscription costs, no ads, no in-app purchases, and no data tracking with Enclayve, the company says.

Enclayve is meant to challenge social networks such as Facebook and X. Instead of writing everything openly and discreetly allowing a company to absorb all the data about your interactions on its platform, Enclayve stores all that information on a physical device and records everything. It’s the latest in a line of privacy-focused tools aimed at helping users control what they know, like security cameras that save the view locally or fire extinguishers that keeps you safe online.

Courtesy of Enclayve

David Chura, CEO of Enclayve, is a former director at Northrop Grumman and a father of two. He is said to have been inspired to create the product in 2020 after watching Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg make unproven privacy promises in testimony in the US Congress.

“There was very little that led me to believe that there would be no more laws to deal with problems on social media,” says Chura. “Users need to protect themselves.”

Chura says that while Enclayve’s goal is an online privacy service, there was a beginning three different types of the device: one designed to be a cryptocurrency wallet and the other NFTs, or random symbols. When the crypto economy collapsed and the idea of ​​paying real money for digital “artwork” lost popularity, the business collapsed, and the Enclayve was sold only as a social device.

Enclave was launched in March. The company markets its products as a group family app like Family Album. Enclayve wants to take action and keep everything that everyone sends to its platform safe in its inbox. Device owners can create different groups and topics and choose who gets invited to what. It feels like a stripped-down version of WhatsApp Communities, or a simple Slack workspace.