Q1. What encryption technology is used by iPrivacy?
iPrivacy uses the US government standard AES 128-bit symmetric encryption to protect your notes. This is the same encryption technology used for secure web sites which is considered to be strong enough for online commerce applications.
Q2. What happens if I edit the prefix "[Encrypted by iPrivacy:DO NOT EDIT]"
of an encrypted note?
iPrivacy uses this prefix to identify encrypted notes. Therefore, if you edited this it would no longer recognize the note as an encrypted note and would ignore it for decryption purposes. If you inadvertently edit the prefix, please edit it back to "[Encrypted by iPrivacy:DO NOT EDIT]" (without the quotes, of course). Note that if you edit the prefix and then encrypt the note, the note will be doubly encrypted. To recover the original contents you will need to decrypt it, edit the prefix to be "[Encrypted by iPrivacy:DO NOT EDIT]" and decrypt it again with the original encryption password.
Q3. I forgot my password, how can I recover my encrypted notes?
Unfortunately, there is no way to recover the notes if you forget the password. That is how symmetric encryption works. If you forget the password, you will need to restore the contact notes that you encrypted from a backup. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you 1) keep the password in a secure place where it won't be misplaced and 2) regularly backup your contacts database. In Mac OS X, backing up your contacts is as simple as exporting an address book archive (File -> Export -> Address Book Archive...).
But, surely, as the developer you must have a backdoor to recover my notes?No. iPrivacy contains no backdoor to decrypt encrypted notes without the password. iPrivacy does not store the password nor is there a backdoor master password. If you forget your password, the encrypted notes cannot be recovered.
Q4. The notes in a contact group are already encrypted and now I want
to encrypt all notes. Do I need to select to decrypt the encrypted
notes first?
No. iPrivacy will detect the encrypted notes and will automatically prompt you to enter the password to decrypt them first. Note that the password that you used to decrypt the notes will be retained in the subsequent encryption password entry field (shown as bullets) so you can simply press "Next" on the keyboard to re-use the original password.
Q5. Can I use different password to encrypt notes in different contact
groups?
Yes, so long as you encrypt each group separately. If you select multiple groups to encrypt, you will only be prompted for a single password that will be used to encrypt all the selected notes.
Q6. Are encrypted notes sync'ed with my computer?
Yes. If you encrypt your notes and then sync your contacts database with your computer, the corresponding notes in your computer's address book will be updated with the encrypted contents. Note that this applies not only to iTunes syncs but also to MobileMe and Exchange syncs as well.
Q7. Can I decrypt encrypted notes on my computer?
Technically, yes, they could be decrypted on your computer using the password that you used to encrypt them and a program that supports symmetric AES 128-bit encryption/decryption. Should you ever need to do this, please contact us and we will guide you through the steps to accomplish this.