October 16, 2014 | Leave a comment Why encrypt your journal? The use case I like to quote is imagine that you want to show your friend a photo on your phone. You pull out the phone, find the photo, and hand him the phone. Something happens and the homescreen pops up. Your friend sees the logo for iFeelio, is curious, and clicks on it. BAM. Now all of your deep private thoughts are at the privy of your friend (or husband/daughter/boss/etc). How it works For this reason, I put in password protection and encryption. The password protection helps prevent this, because every time you step away from the app, it asks you to re-enter your password, as does a banking app. The encryption helps because if someone were to get access to your device and know how to hack into phones, they could get at your information very easily. If there is encryption, it will take them longer, and may be near impossible if you use a very strong password. Downside If you lose your password, you’ve lost your password. As far as I know, any organization that can reset your password can also access your account. With iFeelio, I cannot reset your password and therefore, if you lose it, all of your info is gone. Upside Your information is safe and you can feel free to express yourself without fear that somebody might get access to it. Because of this, iFeelio is actually SAFER than your previous diaries/journals that would you keep locked with a key. As long as you use a good password and never tell your password to someone else, you’re safe. Bonus Your information is only stored locally. There is no cloud. So for someone to get at your information, they physically need to have the device. Some super clever people may be able to hack into the phone remotely, but as of now, I’m completely unaware of how they would do so. Conclusion Any company that promises you security and safety and then has the option to reset your password means that your security and safety inherently rely on you trusting them. iFeelio trusts you to determine who you trust.