I have nothing to hide

or maybe…

Quite often, when I talk about my project Seald and the usefulness of cryptography, the answer is “I have nothing to hide!”.

This answer implies that only people who have a secret, or are practicing an illegal activity, may be interested in cryptography. This is not necessarily the right angle to consider the contribution of cryptography.

If you ask these people who have nothing to hide to give you their credit card pin codes, or their online passwords, suddenly, they realize the interest of cryptography, as a real protection for their privacy.

In our modern and connected world the usefulness of cryptography has spread from the professional to the private sphere. It has already become crucial in protecting communications online, though a step further is necessary: easy-to-use cryptography tools are a requirement to achieve dematerialized transactions.

It’s crazy powerful.

The military first used encryption to prevent enemies from understanding communications, in case of interception.

Then data encryption has spread through the professional sphere such as industrial and scientific firms wishing to protect themselves against industrial spying.

But since the Second World War, cryptographic needs have exploded. The civil applications of encryption are now numerous.

You use it everyday!

Entering a PIN and a password, on the web or in an ATM, is already making use of cryptography. Gradually, it has invaded our daily lives, but through an easy and transparent use.

When a credit card is entered into a vending machine or an ATM, numerous checks of encrypted data, card number, magnetic tape, erroneous code entry, make it possible to unblock payment or withdrawal (well, if you have money 🤑).

It is very convenient to control your accounts, to order a train ticket or a concert ticket directly from your home thanks to the Internet. But when you communicate your password or credit card number, they must not pass through the network unencrypted.

You don’t want your CB number to be transmitted to everybody in the buying process. You don’t want anyone to get it and spend your money! Me neither!

That is why cryptographic protocols are working to prevent those virtual thefts.

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say” Edward Snowden

It’s not automatic everywhere.

What about your daily conversations? Your Facebook account? All your emails? All the communications platforms you use?

Trust me, you’re not safe… it’s so easy to have access to all of these (keylogger, phishing, use the password you wrote on a little paper), read all your conversations, and use your private data!

Could you answer this for me please? How will you keep unwanted eavesdroppers out of your internet life?

That’s the question we’re trying to solve with Seald. It makes secure communications easy and fun. It allows you to end-to-end encrypt (RSA-4096 and AES-256) all your messages, documents, posts, on the services you already use (Facebook, Slack, Gmail, Messenger…). Only the intended recipient, and nobody else can read your messages.

The beta version is released ! You can sign up today on the website https://www.seald.io ✨

We would love to hear your feedback!

Cheers :)

Better Seald than sorry.