Encryption is hard, but this app makes it pretty easy.

* It’s an all-purpose file encryption program called miniLock, a free and open-source browser plugin designed to encrypt and decrypt files with practically uncrackable cryptographic protection in seconds.

* MiniLock offers so-called “public key” encryption. In public key encryption systems, users have two cryptographic keys, a public key and a private one.

* MiniLock uses a type of encryption that had barely been developed when PGP became popular in the 1990s: elliptic curve cryptography.

As the U.S.’s global surveillance state continues to swell, apps like these could start to provide citizens with the digital privacy they deserve.

[More.](http://www.wired.com/2014/07/minilock-simple-encryption/)