Wickr
Wickr is an end-to-end encrypted communications platform designed for secure messaging, voice/video calls, and file sharing, emphasizing user privacy through features such as ephemeral messages and zero-knowledge architecture.[1][2]
Founded in 2012 by Nico Sell and associates emerging from a New Jersey Institute of Technology incubator, the service gained traction among privacy advocates, journalists, and security professionals for its military-grade encryption and resistance to metadata collection.[3][4] In June 2021, Amazon Web Services acquired Wickr to enhance enterprise-grade secure collaboration, integrating administrative controls, audit logs, and compliance certifications like FedRAMP High and DoD Impact Levels 4/5, targeting organizations in regulated sectors such as government and defense.[5][1] The platform's adoption by U.S. agencies underscored its robustness, yet the free consumer variant, Wickr Me, faced scrutiny for facilitating anonymous criminal communications, including child sexual abuse material distribution, prompting its discontinuation with new user sign-ups halting in December 2022 and full shutdown by December 31, 2023.[6][7][8] Today, AWS Wickr persists as an enterprise solution balancing encryption with oversight capabilities to mitigate abuse risks while supporting legitimate high-stakes operations.[1]