Stingle Photos Blog

Stingle Photos for IOS is finally available. You can download it from Apple App store and enjoy the same familiar experience and bulletproof security that Stingle Photos was offering on Android.

For those who are not familiar with Stingle Photos, it’s an open-source, end-to-end encrypted gallery and sync app that ensures security and privacy of your photos and videos while offering intuitive and easy to use interface, just like your ordinary gallery app.

Stingle Photos encrypts photos and videos as soon they are imported into Stingle Photos with bulletproof end-to-end encryption, so it protects your data both locally and in the cloud.

Also Stingle Photos offers convenient features like organizing your memories into albums and sharing, which is also protected by end-to-end encryption of course.

You may ask, why do I need another gallery app? Or what’s wrong with Apple’s iCloud security? The thing is, if you use Apple’s iCloud backup all your photos and videos are being sent to Apple servers in the clear, it means Apple employees, government or future hackers will be able to see all of the photos and videos that you have ever taken on your iPhone or iPad. How would you feel if one day all of your private moments will leak online?

That’s why you need to protect your data today, so you will not regret in the future. From day one Stingle Photos is designed in such a way that even if our servers would get hacked some day, hackers will not get any user data at all. That’s because we keep only encrypted data on our servers and we don’t have keys to decrypt it. We don’t have access to user data and so the others, like government or hackers! iCloud also uses encryption, but unlike Stingle, Apple holds the encryption keys, it means that they can decrypt and see the data in clear at any moment.

We are excited to present you Stingle Photos for IOS and we are excited to hear you thoughts and feedback.

Zero-knowledge, end-to-end encryption is the best way to ensure users’ online security and data privacy. End-to-end encryption means all the encryption happens on your device so all your files leave your phone or computer already encrypted. Even your passwords are encrypted and hashed in your device before being stored on the cloud. This means in case of a cyberattack hackers can only see your hashed passwords which are very hard to decode. Nevertheless, we encourage you to have a strong password. The stronger it is, the harder for hackers it will be to decode your password and get access to your account. 

End-to-end encryption is also crucial in cases when admins’ login details are leaked. If an app uses server-side encryption and the system admin gets hacked, hackers can possibly access and decrypt users’ passwords no matter how strong of a password you have. This might happen because server-side encryption means encrypting and decrypting the files on the service provider’s servers. The system admins can have the encryption keys which means hackers will easily get access to your files and passwords.

In case of end-to-end encryption, if the system gets hacked hackers will get a bunch of encrypted files that are impossible to decode without the encryption keys. This is the reason end-to-end encryption should be mandatory for truly secure apps. Basically, your files are being encrypted on your device and only you get the key to them so the provider has no access and possibility to see the content. 

Of course, users’ can’t just rely on app security and have to think of strong passwords. Data breaches may provide access to users’ hashed credentials and weak passwords could be decrypted. 

You already know how important it is to take care about your online privacy, even if you think you have nothing to hide. It’s even more important to be cautious when it comes to sharing your personal files with different cloud-based service providers. You trust the app to keep your personal files safe and the last thing you want is to have your files leaked or learn that the provider has access to your data and is scanning your photos and videos. Whether you store the pictures of your family or your tax returns, you must have the right to data privacy.  

If you are one of those people who think data privacy is not important because you have nothing to hide, this article is for you.

• Nobody cares what I do online. 

• Let them get my data, I have nothing to be ashamed of. 

• This app/device is pretty secure, I watched their ad.

The problem is not just you, the problem is when the surveillance and total control becomes a norm for everyone. Do we want our lives to become like an episode from Black Mirror or a simulation game where our actions are tracked and analyzed?

Do you want to adopt a child? You can’t because they know 10 years ago you were drinking on a daily basis. Do you want to work as a teacher? You can’t because years ago you had a few topless selfies, which happened to be backed up in Google Photos. We all have something to hide.

There are 3 groups of people that need our data:

• Government officials who install surveillance systems to “fight the crime”
• Companies who use our data to sell products with personalized ads
• Cybercriminals who get access to online identities and payment information

Many companies that offer free services derive their revenue from our data. Very often it’s written in their Privacy Policy, but none of us reads those long texts. We get excited to use the free service without realizing that we will pay with our data. 

Often our data is used to sell us services, but the worst scenario is when cybercriminals hack and steal our identity or payment information or when we are manipulated to change our vote. 

We might think it’s not a big deal if they see what I like, what I usually buy online and where I eat out. But imagine you want to get insurance and they offer you the service at a higher cost just because they have extracted data from your phone and they know you are a smoker or that you don’t walk enough during the day or you have excessive weight. 

We don’t want to publicly speak about our new relationships, or health issues or grades but by granting access to your personal data you literally invite them to follow your actions 24/7. You have to understand what’s the trade-off. What do you give and what do you get? 

We tend not to value privacy until it’s too late. You wouldn’t want your parents to see your private messages or your boss to see your job applications. Let me bring you an example. If you or your friend has been diagnosed with a mental illness and you google it to learn more about the problem, would you feel comfortable seeing ads of psychiatric clinics on your Facebook page? What if one of your colleagues sees the page? 

They know everything about us: where we live, where we work, which metro line we use to go to school, when we usually have lunch and with whom. Does it seem comfortable to always have someone follow you like your shadow?

If you still think you have nothing to hide think once again. It can be your child, your friend or your family members that need online privacy. Fighting for data privacy is not just for you, it’s for everyone to maintain their fundamental right to privacy and personal life. 

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Stingle Photos is an open-source, end-to-end encrypted cloud storage app designed to protect your data privacy. Take control of your data, store your photos and videos on Stingle Photos secure cloud.

With around 50% of people working from home due to quarantine rules, data privacy has become one of the hottest topics. Heavily relying on communication and cloud storage services to conduct the work, companies are afraid that hackers, Internet service providers or the government might read their private messages and get access to their documents and videos. The only way to avoid data leakage is to learn which software is safe to use. 

The IT market has made it more important to launch a usable product in time than spend more days to work on the security of the software. Many companies think they will improve the security later which is either not possible or it’s done when billions of their users’ data gets stolen. 

Just recently we have found out that Zoom has been falsely claiming that it’s end-to-end encrypted and safe to use. Since Zoom is not open-source, it was almost impossible to verify whether they were lying or not. It’s not just Zoom, a bunch of services we use on a daily bases keep on lying about their software security. 

This is not the time to blindly believe everyone. You need to know the basic ways to check whether the service you use is secure or not. It’s pretty simple and doesn’t require any technical background to do it yourself.

End-to-end encryption 

One of the first things to check for when choosing a service is whether or not they use end-to-end encryption. End-to-end encryption means only you and the person you share the files with have the “keys” to access them. This means no third-party can access your data. 

Open-source code

Open-source code is like the list of ingredients. By making it open to experts, the software company makes it possible for anyone to see its weaknesses. Usually, if the software you use is open-source, you can be sure it’s reliable. The IT community is a jungle and only the best and honest ones survive. It’s easy to check, just google the name of the software and use the keyword “open source”. You will come across many articles and Reddit discussions from random users and experts. 

Many closed-source software companies like Zoom get away with hiding their product security flaws. If it’s an open-source software, the company won’t be able to lie about the encryption that they don’t have.

Reviews

Talking about the discussions, pay attention to the reviews on the app stores, forums and social media. People don’t hesitate to share their bad experiences and tell what’s wrong with the service or whether this or that software is safe. Meanwhile, you should know no company is perfect and if you see only good reviews that look similar it could be that their employees were paid to leave five-star reviews. This is a common practice on app stores and Glassdoor. 

Data Collection

Read the privacy policy on the provider’s page. They are obliged to inform about any kind of data and metadata collection. For instance, Twitter has just announced about its privacy policy changes. From now on our data will be shared with advertisers and Twitter partners whether we want it or not. 

Beware when giving permissions. Some apps ask for your location, contact list or even access to your media and camera. If you feel that a meditation app shouldn’t ask access to your media, then don’t hesitate to say no and contact the developers for clarifications or simply refuse to use the service. 

Free to use

We’ve all heard the expression that if you don’t pay for the product, you are the product. It’s true. If the service is 100% free, they earn on selling your data and bombarding you with ads. This usually doesn’t apply to so-called freemium plans when you first get the free version then they make you pay. Bare this in mind, any service is a business and no businessman is crazy enough to spend millions on the product and gain nothing from it.

The Coronavirus has taken a lot from us, don’t let your data be taken by dishonest corporations and hackers that use the momentum to earn money. As you see, it’s not hard to check whether the software is safe or not. Follow these simple rules and lifehacks to choose a reliable service both for you and your company. 

For many cybercriminals, the outbreak of the COVID-19 or the Coronavirus is an opportunity to use the chaos to their advantage. As we know, almost the entire world switched to remote working and many IT companies have to be double-careful with their organizations’ cybersecurity. Even though we feel safe at home trying to flatten the curve, working from home can become a headache for many companies. 

Alongside the transition to teleworking, security teams should assess what risks need to be addressed. To get the job done, billions of people use conferencing softwares like Zoom, Skype or Hangouts and login into their work accounts from home. Many don’t have access to VPN services and they forget to, at least, change the passwords to assure some security. 

It’s absolutely critical to take stricter cybersecurity measures with the increased volume of remote workers. With the Coronavirus outbreak, the number of cyber threats and email fishing has doubled. 

Check the emails you get from your colleagues asking for internal information. Calls and emails can be faked. Everyone should be alert, use encrypted softwares and keep the backups of their data on safe clouds. Paying attention to basic security hygiene can go a long way since we don’t know how long the crisis stage of the Coronavirus is going to last.

Cyber attacks are the last thing we as a society need right now. The collective caution when it comes to using safe softwares to work and back up your data can help your company avoid costly incidents.

While protecting your physical health, you shouldn’t forget about your data security. We at Stingle Photos were and are working from home and 100% prepared to cope with the current situation with minimal business disruption. 

A few remote work cybersecurity tips

• Among a dozen problems that we have to deal with during the Coronavirus outbreak, having your company’s data spread across your team’s personal iCloud or Google Drive accounts can become one of the biggest issues.

It makes sense to provide your team with trustworthy services to communicate and save their work-related files, video and audio material. Count on Stingle Photos. It’s an open-source photo and video gallery with encrypted cloud storage space where your team can save their media.

• Provide a free VPN service for your team to have encrypted Internet traffic especially when connected to a public Wi-Fi network.

• Functions like “remember password” for company information systems and work tools should be turned off.

• Make sure your team implements two-factor authentication both on their mobile phones and laptops.

While trying to stay safe during the Coronavirus outbreak we should take all the measures to reduce the likelihood of cyberattacks, data leakage and errors. For what we know, this situation can entirely change the way we work and revolutionize modern work culture.

“I remember waking up to see 87 notifications on my phone screen. Someone got into my Google Drive account and stole my photos and, I assume, all my work-related documents. I didn’t know what to do. I was too scared to call my manager, but at the same time, I was more worried about my sensitive data. Did they see my nude photos that we took with Eric at the beach? What should I do?”

Stories like this are more common then you would expect. Models’ accounts get hacked, social media users’ data is sold to third-party companies, bloggers who keep their raw material on cloud storage find their unpublished articles on other websites. The list is too long and scary. In 2020, we still can’t trust any safe cloud storage apps because many of them are not.

Let’s compare the best safe cloud storage solutions to understand which one we can use to protect our online privacy:

iCloud

It’s Apple’s cloud storage service that is believed to be more secure than many of its competitors. However, the biggest downside is that it is not an open-source service which means no one has access to their source code to audit and find problems by the security and privacy professionals. 

Apple has a good reputation and an army of fans who trust their products and services 100%, but if we look back we can see that the company worked hand in hand with NSA and in 2017 cybercriminals stole photos of celebrities and published them online. If FBI requests information about Apple users, they are obliged to provide your data including your iCloud photos, calendar, contacts, etc. Do we still trust Apple and believe its iCloud service is secure enough?

Apple holds the right to scan and delete any data at any time if that is “objectionable”. The company doesn’t even explain what they mean by “objectionable” so maybe it’s something to have in mind every time you upload anything sensitive into your iCloud account.

Google Drive

The service is very popular and easy to use to back up your data, however, there are many concerns about how secure Google Drive really is. NSA with its PRISM surveillance program was collaborating with Google Cloud to collect material on users including their search history, the content of emails, live chats and file transfers.

All your files are encrypted “on the fly” to make sure all users’ data is stored securely. But there is a catch! Google holds the key to your files, which means that they can go into your files if they want to.

Thus, we have another convenient, easy-to-use service that is not secure enough to store our photos and videos.

Dropbox

Compared to Google Cloud and iCloud, this service is not a part of a big corporation with other countless products and services. It’s just a cloud storage service created to serve its only purpose. So, they had one job and, well, they failed at it. While Dropbox is popular, it’s not secure at all and has been criticized by many professionals including Edward Snowden. It’s impossible to verify the source code for the service since it’s partly closed source and there is no end-to-end encryption. 

Like Google Drive, Dropbox holds the encryption keys of all its users which gives them a chance to access user data whenever they want to. This is a risk in terms of our data security and privacy. The company has already failed to protect its users’ privacy by first storing user login information in plain text and then making everybody’s files open to access for 4 hours without the account password.

Stingle Photos

It’s a new player in the market that is determined to provide secure and private experience to its users. The main goal of the service is to ensure your data has no chance to be hacked, leaked or stolen neither from your phone nor from the cloud.

It’s an open-source safe photo app and cloud storage designed to save your photos and videos by encrypting each file you upload on the cloud. Stingle Photos software is released under the GPLv3 license, and everyone can review, audit and even contribute to the codebase. If you are looking for a security and privacy-oriented cloud storage, source code transparency should be an absolute requirement.

Libsodium – a well-vetted cryptographic library is used as an encryption backbone, and, even more, you only provide your email and create a password to register. Your photo and video metadata is 100% encrypted which means in case of a cyber-attack all they get are meaningless ones and zeros. Stingle Photos does not hold the encryption keys and there are no exception backdoors.

You can support Stingle Photos and take control over your data privacy by downloading the app from the Google Store and soon from the App Store.