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A privacy-centric cellphone carrier called Cape is now officially available across the United States, offering a unique set of features to protect users from surveillance and identity theft. Many cellphone users already use virtual private networks, encrypted messaging apps, and secure password managers to help keep their data safe. But those tools cant always protect against security issues with the underlying cell network itself, and other phone companies dont typically compete on privacy, says Cape CEO John Doyle. Before we built Cape, there was not an obvious differentiated choice in the network space, Doyle says. [Photo: Cape] But Cape, founded in 2022, is designed to protect customers from privacy risks like SIM swapping, where a cellphone number is transferred to a new phone without the owners permission to intercept sensitive messages like authentication codes, and IMSI catchers, which snoop on phone users by impersonating legitimate cell towers and monitoring the unique international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) codes they transmit. That enables their operators, whether spy agencies or other mysterious parties, to track how people move about and potentially intercept calls and texts. (Cape also assisted the Electronic Frontier Foundation in developing technology to spot such devices, which led to evidence of one being found near the 2024 Democratic National Convention.) The company also doesnt collect subscriber names, addresses, or Social Security numbers, and automatically encrypts voicemails its customers receive so that the company cannot access them. Cape has raised $61 million in funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Costanoa Ventures, Forward Deployed VC, and Karman Ventures. Doyle says he launched the company after learning about various vulnerabilities in cellular networks, with an early focus on people involved in security-sensitive work. It then expanded to offering service to users like survivors of domestic violence, investigative journalists, and people working in other high-risk fields, says Doyle, who previously ran the national security business at Palantir and served in the U.S. Army Special Forces. Cape launched an open beta program in March 2025 and has now officially emerged into general availability. Doyle says he believes new consumers will appreciate the companys privacy features enough to pay Capes monthly fee of $99 per month before discounts. Thats pricier than many plans from carriers like T-Mobile and Verizon, which offer base plans at $75 or less before their own discounts, not to mention discount providers like Mint Mobile, though Doyle points out that Capes cost includes all taxes and feesnot to mention the added privacy features. And with most people essentially required to carry cellular phones for business and personal reasons, and growing concerns about data privacy and security, he believes theres a market for a service that makes everyday people harder to hack and track. We find there’s just a wide swath of citizens who are really attracted to the idea of having some choice and taking that little bit of control over how their data is presented to and shared on mobile networks, Doyle says. [Photo: Cape] Though Cape doesnt own its own cell towersits whats called a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), paying for radio spectrum and other services from carriers with their own physical networkthe company operates its own mobile core network, meaning its able to offer a level of customization and security beyond what other carriers offer. In other words, its partner carriers handle radio connectivity, but Capes cloud-based system then takes over the logic of verifying that phones have access to the network, routing calls and messages, and maintaining and securing its own logs. The company disallows less secure 2G and 3G connections, and regularly changes IMSI numbers to discourage tracking, similar to how iPhones randomize Wi-Fi network addresses. And when users travel overseas, Cape verifies their phones locations using its app before routing connections through foreign networks, reducing the risk of impersonation attacks. The company also offers a partnership with Proton, a Switzerland-based provider of secure email, VPN, and other digital services, enabling a discount for new customers. Proton offers email features like encrypted message storage and filtration of trackers embedded in messages and a VPN that can filter out ads, trackers, and malware. And Cape explicitly supports GapheneOS, an Android app-compatible mobile operating system optimized for security and lack of dependence on Google and Apple. The company doesnt have an explicit partnership with the nonprofit behind Graphene, but it does make a donation to the organization for each new Graphene user that signs up, and even offers phones preloaded with the OS, unusual among mobile carriers. It’s a somewhat technical process to install Graphene, says Doyle, so we do that for people if they want. [Photo: Cape] Customers with modern iPhone or Android devices that support eSIMessentially, purely digital SIM cardsdont have to buy phones through Cape and can activate an existing device and port existing numbers. If you do purchase a phone through Cape, which currently offers a range of Google Pixel devices, Cape offers a $500 phone bill discount spread over six months to help defray the device cost (and pledges to delete customer shipping and billing info after 180 days). Users are also entitled to three numbers per line as a privacy measure, so they can provide one to friends and family and use others to receive authentication codes from businesses, for online dating, or any other privacy-centric purpose they wish. The numbers show up as ordinary numbers, so theyre not barred from services that ban purely internet-based numbers like Google Voice assigns, Doyle says. While the carrier cant entirely protect peoples privacy when they interact with other appsride-hailing apps will still know peoples locations, and users may still elect to share photos or other potentially sensitive data with apps and websitesit can help people keep their primary phone numbers safe. If subscribers wish to port their numbers to another phone or out of the Cape network, they need to provide a predetermined 25-word passphrase. That may seem daunting, but its designed to prevent number hijacking accounts that can be a serious risk to privacy. In general, though, Capes privacy measures are designed to be relatively unobtrusive. Some may even save users time and complexity: Requiring less personal information from account holders makes the sign-up process quicker, Doyle says. For potential customers wanting more detail about Capes privacy policies, the company offers a set of privacy principles along with information about how it will handle law enforcement requests for customer information. Cape pledges to notify customers of such requests whenever its legally allowed to do so (and says so far it has not received any requests for subscriber data that contained a nondisclosure obligation) and to challenge any secret request that is not narrowly tailored or otherwise lawful. In addition, Cape says it doesnt log phone GPS coordinates, deletes more general location data, and purges call logs after 60 days, except in situations like resolving fraud cases. And if the company is ever acquired, Doyle says, it will require the buyer to agree not to monetize user data. Of course, its possible some security-conscious users will be wary that Cape will keep its promises, perhaps especially given Doyles background in the military and at Palantir. But Doyle says he hopes the companys record of transparency will help it continue to establish trust among potential customers. We do everything we can, basically, to be transparent and to do what we said we would do, and say what we’re going to do, he says. And I think that over time, that will just build more and more trust in the market.
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E-Commerce
President Donald Trump said Monday he is increasing tariffs on South Korean goods because the country’s legislature has yet to approve the trade framework announced last year.Trump said on social media that import taxes would be raised on autos, lumber and pharmaceutical drugs from South Korea with the rate on other goods going from 15% to 25%. The U.S. president previously imposed the tariffs by declaring an economic emergency and bypassing Congress, while South Korea needed legislative approval for the framework announced in July and affirmed during Trump’s October visit to the country.“Our Trade Deals are very important to America. In each of these Deals, we have acted swiftly to reduce our TARIFFS in line with the Transaction agreed to,” Trump said. “We, of course, expect our Trading Partners to do the same.”The threat was a reminder that the tariff drama unleashed last year by Trump is likely to be repeated again and again this year. The global economy and U.S. voters might find the world’s trade structure constantly being subject to disruption and new negotiations as Trump has already sought to levy tariffs in order to bend other nations to his will.Trump has in the past tied his tariffs to commitments by South Korea to invest $350 billion in the U.S. economy over several years, including efforts to revitalize American shipyards. But the Trump administration’s relations with South Korea have at times been rocky with the raid last year by immigration officials at a Hyundai manufacturing site in Georgia in which 475 people were detained.South Korea’s presidential office responded after a meeting of top South Korean officials that it will convey its commitment to implementing last year’s deal to the U.S.The presidential office said that South Korea’s Industry Minister Kim Jung-Kwan will travel to the U.S. for talks with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, while Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo will travel separately to meet with Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Kim was on a visit to Canada.South Korean lawmakers have submitted five bills on implementing South Korea’s proposed $350 billion investment package to the National Assembly. The bills are currently before the assembly’s finance committee.Kim Hyun-jung, a spokesperson for South Korea’s governing Democratic Party, said his party will coordinate with the government to organize swift debate and action on the bills.Assembly officials said the five bills will likely be incorporated into a single proposed law, which will need approval from the finance and judiciary committees before it can go to a floor vote.Trump’s announcement of new tariffs fits a pattern in which Trump plans to continue to deploy tariffs, possibly to the detriment of relations with other countries.Just last week, the president threatened tariffs on eight European nations unless the U.S. gained control of Greenland, only to pull back on his ultimatum after meetings at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Trump on Saturday said he would put a 100% tax on goods from Canada if it followed through with plans to bolster trade with China.Trump has bragged about his trade frameworks as drawing in new investment to the U.S., yet many of his heavily hyped deals have yet to be finalized. The European Parliament has yet to approve a trade deal pushed by Trump that would put a 15% tax on the majority of goods exported by the EU’s 27 member states.The United States is poised this year to renegotiate its amended 2020 trade pact with Canada and Mexico. There are also ongoing Section 232 investigations under the 1962 Trade Expansion Act, as well as an upcoming Supreme Court decision on whether Trump exceeded his authority by declaring tariffs under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea. Josh Boak and Hyung-Jin Kim, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
After two weeks of intense political and legal scrutiny, the Federal Reserve will seek to make this week’s meeting about interest rates as straightforward and uneventful as possible, though President Donald Trump probably still won’t like the result.The central bank’s interest rate-setting committee is almost certain to keep its key short-term rate unchanged at about 3.6%, after three straight quarter-point cuts last year. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said after December’s meeting that they were “well positioned to wait to see how the economy evolves” before making any further moves.When the Fed lowers its short-term rate, it can over time influence other borrowing costs for things like mortgages, auto loans and business borrowing, though those rates are also affected by market forces.This week’s meeting one of eight the Fed holds each year will be overshadowed by the bombshell revelation earlier this month that the Justice Department has subpoenaed the Fed as part of a criminal investigation into testimony Powell gave last June about a $2.5 billion building renovation. It’s the first time a sitting Fed chair has been investigated, and prompted an unusually public rebuke from Powell.Now, Powell will have to shift from a dispute with the White House to emphasizing that the Fed’s decisions around interest rates are driven by economic concerns, not politics. Powell said Jan. 11 that the subpoenas were “pretexts” to punish the Fed for not cutting rates as sharply as Trump wants.Powell will be “under even more pressure to underscore, ‘everything we’re doing here is all about the economics,'” said Claudia Sahm, a former Fed economist and chief economist at New Century Advisors. “‘We didn’t think about the politics.'”Michael Gapen, chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley and also a former Fed staffer, said that despite the scrutiny, the Fed can be expected to consider its interest rate policies like it always does.“The meetings have a regular flow to them,” he said. “There are presentations that are made, there are discussions that have to be had. Some of these other broader-based attacks on the Fed don’t really come up.”Not long after the Justice Department’s subpoenas, the Supreme Court last week considered whether Trump can fire Fed governor Lisa Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud, which she denies. No president has fired a governor in the Fed’s 112-year history. During an oral argument, the justices appeared to be leaning toward allowing her to stay in her job until the case is resolved.Other Fed officials have also signaled the central bank is likely to keep rates unchanged at their two-day meeting that ends Wednesday. The Fed’s three rate cuts last year were intended to bolster the economy after hiring slowed sharply over the summer and fall in the wake of Trump’s April tariffs on dozens of countries.Yet the unemployment rate ticked lower in December, after picking up for much of last year, and there are other signs the job market may be stabilizing. The number of people seeking unemployment benefits has stayed historically low, a sign layoffs haven’t spiked.Meanwhile, inflation remains elevated and actually ticked higher last year, according to the Fed’s preferred measure. Prices rose 2.8% in November from a year earlier, the latest data available. That is up from 2.6% in November 2024.Unless businesses start cutting jobs or the unemployment rate rises, the Fed is unlikely to cut rates again for at least a few months, economists say. If inflation slowly declines this year, as economists expect, the Fed may cut again in the spring or summer. Wall Street investors expect just two quarter-point rate reductions this year, according to futures prices.Many economists expect growth could pick up in the coming months, which would be another reason to forego rate cuts. Gapen estimates that tax refunds could be about 20% higher this spring than last year as the Trump administration’s tax cuts take effect. Refunds could average $3,500, Gapen said.The economy expanded at a 4.4% annual rate in last year’s July-September quarter and may have grown at a similarly healthy pace in the final three months of last year. If such solid growth continues, Fed officials will likely wait to see if hiring picks up as well, further reducing the need for more rate cuts. Christopher Rugaber, AP Economics Writer
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E-Commerce
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