Keeping your data private and secure

(SWEEPS FEED)- Experts say a whole new industry of apps and software are popping up promising to encrypt your chats, messages and emails.

But how do they work? What cool features do they promise? And do they really keep your info on the down low?

Dave Crusoe cringes just thinking about all the personal and business information on his phone and tablet, so he installed a program to encrypt messages and emails on all his devices.

“I do worry about unauthorized people reading my chats or my messages. An encryption app is really a no brainer these days,” Crusoe said.

There’s a high tech explosion of encryption apps, experts say, that seem to be most popular with millennials. The programs offer to keep what you want private– private!

“There’s no question this has become a hot market,” said Matti Kon with Infotech.

It’s like writing a message using a secret code, so only the people that have access to the unique code can understand the message.

Kon says, digital encryption codes are nearly impossible to crack.

“Encryption today works on keys and keys that are random and are at the hands of the sender and the hands of the receiver and there is really no way to break encryption algorithms,” Kon said. “If you take any typical encryption algorithm you’ll need over 100 years on a powerful computer to try to break the encryption.”

So what apps are out there promising to safe guard your privacy?

Wire offers end to end encryption of voice and video messages. The Signal Messaging app says you can “say anything” it’s encrypted. Some offer James Bond-like verification codes so users can confirm their messages are secure. Wickr Me offers expiration times for messages and a “shredder” to remove all deleted messages, images and videos from your device.

“They give a feeling of confidence, they give a feeling that, you know, your data will not be violated, you get a feeling that here we finally found the solution,” Kon added.

That’s exactly what Crusoe relies on, “privacy is a fundamental aspect of our life today as is security. We need to ensure that the content we have on our devices is only viewed by the intended recipient.”