Data protection is "pretty easy" with Luxembourg-developed app

A user-friendly application called "pEp" developed by a Luxembourger was recently launched, protecting communications and internet user privacy.

"pEp" was born from meetings between Luxembourger Leon Schumacher and German Volker Birk, a member of "Chaos Computer Club", an association of hackers who defend access to information, and government transparency.

It was between meetings in Barcelona, a dinner in Zurich and another meeting in Nice when Schumacher decided to create his company in 2012 with a single purpose: to protect private and corporate communications.

"An email is like a letter. Anyone can intercept and read email that you send from Gmail," said the computer expert.

As head of the computer department of Novartis, Schumacher bought encryption programmes to protect communications of 80,000 employees, but for five years, only 80 actually used it. Schumacher assumes that only 11 percent of members of "Chaos Computer" use protection systems.

This low utilisation rate is mainly due to the complexity and difficulty of use for the programmes. This spurred Schumacher to join forces with Volker Birk and eventually launch "pEp" (Pretty Easy Privacy), an encryption system totally easy to use.

"pEp" can "encode various types of communication such as phone calls and emails without the user needing to do anything", ensures the developer, adding that it is also able to protect the identity of internet users, in order to avoid unwanted publicity.

"pEp is a system that automatically searches for all security protocols and best coding tools," he explains.

And it's easy to install: in a few minutes, users have access to the safe programme which “reduces risks by 95 percent", ensures Schumacher.

An Android version will be launched in early June, and will be available for the iPhone's iOS system on July 1 at a cost of about three euros.

The PC computer version is already up and running, works with Outlook and is sold for 19 euros for private users and 40 euros for business.

Schumacher, who studied at Zurich Polytechnic and completed his high school studies in Paris, has always been focused on programming. He believes that "pEp" will eventually be used by around 100 million people.

Currently, one version of "pEp" is already used by three to four million people in their emails. In September an increase to 40 or 60 million is expected. Added to that, there will be a free, easy-to-use application which can be applied to Thunderbird and Mozilla, with a variety of features.

For more information, visit the website: prettyeasyprivacy.com