Interview: Meet End-to-End Encryption for /e/

Meet E2EEThe project that researches and implements end-to-end encryption for the /e/ cloud, so that data migration and data sharing become more secure for our users. Learn more from this interview with Rik Viergever.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and your team?

/e/ builds privacy-safe and open-source smartphone operating systems (OS) and provides related cloud storage and services. /e/ is the privacy-safe and open-source alternative to Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. /e/ currently has >13000 active mobile users.

What is your motivation to work in the data portability field?

Our cloud services provide our users the option to store personal data on /e/’s servers, to use these data with online services, to import and export the data to and from other providers, and to share the data with other service providers. /e/ supports data portability and interoperability in any way it can: we make use of open-source technologies and open standards, so users can easily share data with other service providers and import and export their data to and from our cloud.

In simple words, what challenges does your project address?

For this project, we will research and implement end-to-end encryption for the /e/ cloud, so that our users will be able to share, migrate and store their data using the highest encryption standards.

What solution are you developing?

For this project we will strengthen the encryption of the /e/ cloud, so that data migration and data sharing become more secure for our users. E2EE is the highest standard in encryption these days, so it is a logical step for us to take as an organization that aims to empower consumers in terms of digital privacy. The main beneficiaries will be /e/cloud users and especially people who also have an /e/OS mobile phone.

What are the next steps?

The next steps for us will be for us to further develop the E2E encryption facilities for other parts of our cloud.