Dropbox and which on the fly encryption?

Bossk128 · 6 Dec 2012 at 14:02

I quite like Dropbox. I don't have a problem with their Privacy either, but I would still like to have only encrypted documents on their systems. What I'm after is something to install on each Dropbox machine (actually if I could get away without having anything I would) where I have to authenticate once to allow the local Dropbox version of files to be un-encrypted transparently on the fly. Windows only at the moment, although Android too would be good. I don't use Linux or Apple.

Has anybody any real world experience with:

Boxcryptor
actually I've stopped looking, this ^ looks good!

or anything else?

Any opinions?

Bossk128 · 6 Dec 2012 at 16:21

OK, Boxcryptor is a decent app but not what need: I want it to be integrated with Windows (explorer), because I want applications to be able to save to the encrypted folder, rather than me having to drag my files into the Boxcryptor window to appear on the encrypted folder.

Is what I want already in Windows? I'm getting the impression this won't be possible without OS support. I know Windows supoprts a file encryption standard but unsure how to use it in the Dropbox situation.

Tikkabhuna · 6 Dec 2012 at 16:29

Can't you use Truecrypt? Make a file that you place in the dropbox folder and then you mount it as a drive.

And I believe OS level encryption would be too low. It would be encrypting/decrypting data on the disk but the Dropbox app would be able to see the unencrypted files anyway.

Bossk128 · 6 Dec 2012 at 16:52

If TrueCrypt is only a single file, it means Dropbox will ahve to sync the entire file for every small change I make?

Tikkabhuna · 6 Dec 2012 at 17:00

Very good point. How about: http://getsecretsync.appspot.com/download/lifehacker/

Bossk128 · 6 Dec 2012 at 17:13

That sounds good: the link directs to another app called Viio by PKWare. I assume they were bought out. I'll give that a shot ansd see what it looks like.

I'm also going to check out cloudfogger.com and encsfs for win.

CaptainCrash · 6 Dec 2012 at 22:59

You could also check out Wuala and Spideroak as alternatives to Dropbox - they both do client-side encryption natively, so no need for a third-party encrypting addon.

They're not quite as slick and simple to use as Dropbox (Spideroak in particular has a rather complex and messy desktop app), but they're also more fully featured - in particular, you're not restricted to syncing a single base folder as in Dropbox.