BitTorrent's Alternative to Dropbox Goes Public
#Computers
Thu, Apr 25th, 2013 21:00 by capnasty NEWS
Torrent Freak reports that BitTorrent Inc. has "opened up its Sync app to the public today." The program, called Sync App works much the same way as Dropbox. The major difference, however, is that "there’s no cloud involved. Users sync the files between their own computers and no third-party has access to it."
While Sync uses BitTorrent technology, people’s files are not accessible to outsiders. Only those who have the unique private key can access the shared folder.
“All the traffic is encrypted using a private key derived from the shared secret. Your files can be viewed and received only by the people with whom you share your private secret,” BitTorrent explains.
To increase security, the latest Sync version also has the option to let the secret key expire after a day so new devices can’t be added, even if outsiders have the private key.
BitTorrent stresses that Sync is still in Alpha development but tests carried out by TorrentFreak confirm that it works very well. It is an ideal tool for people who want to share large amounts of data between computers without going through third-party services.
448