Samsung regularly brings new privacy and security features to its phones and tablets. Over the past few years, it introduced legendary features like Knox and Secure Folder. Today, Samsung is adding two new security features to Galaxy smartphones and tablets: Quick Share Private Sharing and Samsung Cloud Enhanced Data Protection.
Quick Share Private Sharing and Samsung Cloud Enhanced Data Protection coming to Galaxy phones and tablets
Earlier today, Samsung announced two new data security and privacy features: Private Sharing mode in Quick Share and Enhanced Data Protection for files stored in Samsung Cloud.
Quick Share Private Sharing
Private Sharing is a new mode inside Quick Share. You can turn it on by clicking the three-dot button on the top right corner of the screen after choosing Quick Share while sharing files. Once you turn on this mode, you can share up to 20 files and a maximum limit of 200MB.
Using this feature, you can allow only certain contacts to view the files. You can set an expiration timer for files, and once that time is up, shared files won’t be visible to the user. You can also set who can see and access those files. Both these settings can be changed at any time.
Files shared using this feature are visible in read-only mode to the other user. So they can’t share your files with others. Moreover, screenshotting is blocked as well, and Samsung claims that data protection is done using “blockchain-based encryption technology.”
However, this feature only works between Samsung devices, so users who use Android phones from other brands or iPhones can’t use this feature. Moreover, this feature is limited to audio files (.mp3, .wav, .ogg, and .m4a), documents (.pdf and .txt), images (.jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .bmp, .webp, .heic, .dng), and videos (.mp4, .mkv, .webm, 3gp, and .3g2).
Enhanced Data Protection for Samsung Cloud backups
Starting with the Galaxy S24 series, Samsung started offering end-to-end encryption for all backups and synced data. This means that data stored in your Samsung Cloud account can only be decrypted on your Samsung phone or tablet, even if it is stolen from the server. So, even if the server where your data is stored is compromised, your data can not be viewed by others.
You can access this feature by navigating to Settings » Security and privacy » More security settings » Enhanced data protection, and then turning on the toggles for ‘Encrypt Backup Data‘ and ‘Encrypt Synced Data.’
When you activate this feature on your Galaxy device, you will be given a recovery code. You need to write down that code so you can regain access to your Samsung account if you lose it.
