Other > FAQs > What Is a Privacy Protected Archive?

After you privatize a set of files, a series of new files will be found in the locations that you set. There may be from 3 to 121 files. These new files are really your data over again, sometimes mixed with extra random stuff. But you won't recognize your data. It has been shredded to bits. The bits have been swept up and scrambled together in these new files. They are unrecognizable because (among other things) each tiny fragment has been worked over by a random set of methods that disguise it further.

A copy of each archive file is placed in the working directory on your hard disk. In addition, copies may be hidden away in various locations. This is done automatically for you, depending on the settings that you approved in advance. Each file is gibberish. Don't try to open them with word processors or other programs. (If you change these files, you may lose data.) And even if the worst enemy in your worst nightmare got hold of some of these files, they still would yield no data. Without EVERY file in the archive, PLUS the reconstitution file or files for that archive, there is little chance of someone capturing any part of your original data.