What is Personal Key and how is it derived?

Personal encryption key option is one of the available method of which we encrypt your file. To protect your data privacy, all files you upload to ElephantDrive are encrypted first before leaving your system. You can choose whether to encrypt your data with the generic ElephantDrive key or your personal key.

The Personal Key is derived from your user password. Since ElephantDrive does not store any of our users' password information in plain text (we store a hashed value that is compared to the hashed value of the input in the password field at login time, which allows for secure authentication without actual knowledge of the original passphrase), the resulting key is known only to the user. Objects uploaded with the Personal Key can only be opened/restored by the user with that key.

Keep in mind, since personal key is derived from your very own password, any object you upload using a personal key is not sharable and if you lost your password, those objects are also not retrievable.

Currently in development is a third option is a where a user can provide a binary key of their own independent creation.