Features

What is encryption and decryption?
Directories and files
Text
Encrypt and decrypt emails
Create self-decrypting files and directories
Encryption compression
Set expiry dates for encrypted data
Choice of three algorithms
Secure handling of original files
Encryption key management

The complete list of topics and features

What is encryption and decryption?
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Encryption changes data so that it is meaningless to anyone without the key to unscramble it. For example, Hello might be changed to 2kdi&k4. After you encrypt data, only you and those you choose can decrypt (unscramble) the information to make it intelligible again. Privacy uses strong keys to ensure that your encrypted data can only be read by the people you want. You can create as many keys for as many different users as you like.

Directories and files
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You can select any directory or file, right-click the item and choose Encrypt with Norman Privacy. Select encryption key and the encrypted items remain inaccessible to others without the matching key to decrypt.

Text
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Select the text part you want to encrypt using clipboard encryption. When you paste the text back into the document/email etc. the text is unreadable. Copy the text again, enter the key and paste it back in, and the text is restored to its original condition.

Encrypt and decrypt emails
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When you send someone an email, you probably do not want anyone else to read it. In fact, sometimes it is imperative that only the intended recipient can read it. But what if you accidentally misspell the email address? Or what if an unauthorized person opens someone else’s email program and reads the other person’s email?

And there are always hackers; people who can break into the computers that email passes through. Hackers can intercept anyone’s email and read it. When you encrypt your email, you can be sure that only the person, who has the key to decrypt, can read it.

Encrypting email

Privacy provides simple and flexible email encryption. You can encrypt:
All of the contents of your email, including attachments
Just the attachment
Just the message, or
Only parts of the message.
Decrypting email

Decrypting an email that has been encrypted by Privacy is simple. If the whole email including any attachments is encrypted, all you have to do is type the encryption key and everything automatically decrypts. You need Privacy installed to do this.

If only the attachment is encrypted and it is encrypted as a self-decrypting file, you just double-click it and enter a key. You don’t need Privacy installed to do this.

If just the message or part of the message is encrypted, use Privacy to decrypt it.

Create self-decrypting files and directories
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A self-decrypting file, directory, or disk is an encrypted file that you can decrypt without using any special software.

When creating a self-decrypting file, directory, or disk, Privacy compresses the information, and then encrypts it to an Encrypted.exe file.

To decrypt the Encrypted.exe file on any computer you don’t need to have Privacy installed. All you have to do is double-click the Encryted.exe file and enter the key. Simple!

Encryption compression
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Whenever you encrypt information, you can set Privacy to automatically compress the information before it encrypts it.

When you encrypt a large amount of text in a document, for example, ten pages, compression decreases the number of encrypted pages required to store the text to, for example, five pages.
When you encrypt any other information (a file, directory, or removable disk), compression reduces the amount of disk space required to store the encrypted information.

Set expiry dates for encrypted data
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When you encrypt information, you can set an "Encryption expiry date". After this date the encrypted information becomes inaccessible for anyone.

Choice of three algorithms
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An algorithm is a mathematical problem-solving model that can be translated into a computer program. Privacy uses an algorithm every time it encrypts or decrypts something. Privacy gives you a choice of which algorithm to use for its encryption/decryption "engine":

Blowfish (1.0)
Is a strong, fast, compact and simple algorithm, supporting key lengths of up to 448 bits.

Blowfish (2.0)
This is a modification of the Blowfish (1.0) algorithm. We recommend you use this algorithm. Currently Blowfish (2.0) is one of the most secure algorithms available to the public.

DES (Data Encryption Standard)
This is an international Government standard algorithm with 56-bit encryption.

Security differences between algorithms

After an algorithm encrypts data, the only way to decrypt the data is to know the key that was used during the encryption process. The procedure to discover the key is more difficult for some algorithms than for others. The more difficult it is to discover the key, the better the security of the encrypted data.

Private and public keys

Algorithms can use two types of keys: private and public.

Private key algorithms use one key to encrypt and decrypt information. Privacy uses private keys. It is up to you to ensure that
You trust the people to whom you tell a key, and
No one, other than the people you trust, has access to your keys.

Public key algorithms use two keys: one is to encrypt information and the other to decrypt it.
The encrypt key can be published publicly because it is never used to decrypt information.

Secure handling of original files
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When you encrypt information you can select to securely delete the original file so that if anyone gets hold of your computer they are unable to access the files that were encrypted in their original unencrypted form.

Encryption key management
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Privacy uses the key together with the algorithm to encrypt and decrypt information. You can create as many different keys as you like. When you want other people to decrypt your information, you tell them, in a manner suitably secure for your environment, the key you used to encrypt the information. They use that key to decrypt your information, and if necessary, encrypt information for you. Privacy lets you associate an alias to a key to make the key easier to remember. You can export aliases to people so they can use them to decrypt your information and encrypt information for you. The people who you export an alias to never know the actual key that is associated with the alias. To organize your aliases you can create profiles, which are groups of related aliases. Multiple users can use the one copy of Privacy, but each user cannot access the key details of any other user.