"For everyone out there trying to make this giveaway look suspicious":
REAL SOFTWARE OF THIS CALIBER offers easy support and will not hide nor offer such an EXCEPTION or have a need to come off defensive.
If you offer "encryption" there are going to be those who need to reach out...

Great going folks... BE VERY AWARE

FLUFF...
#10 says: @Everyone,

Its nice to see many people concerned about their data security. Let me clarify that Data Protect is one of the best data security software in the market today. It provides you with all types of security, starting from the simple password protection of files as well as protecting your files with unbreakable encryption using AES 256-bit algorithm.

If the google results doesn’t bring up anything, that never means that THEIR <--(DID YOU SEE THAT?) product is not good enough. If you have any concerns, you can contact OUR <-- (OH, NOTICE IT'S NOW OURS??) support via Live Chat at our website http://www.dataprotecto.com or send us email at support@dataprotecto.com
Comment by Data Protecto — May 19th, 2014 at 7:26 am

Found them to have an address located: Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Cyprus is the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean, and a member state of the European Union.
Running through a webhosting server out of Chicago, USA based.

El Zero on this Data Protecto is my vote!

This is the first time I've had problems with a giveaway in ages.

Data Proteco installed and registered okay, then the computer froze, 30 seconds later and went to Win 8.1's equivalent of a Blue Screen of Death. (only the second time this has happened since installing Win 8 18 months ago). I waited for it to go through its auto back up but it froze at 100%. I left it for two hours hoping that it would recover but had to restart the computer using the reset button.

Same thing happened again. Thankfully I'd just installed Restore It 2014 (from
glarysofts daily giveaway earlier in the day). That enabled me to restore the first backup during the boot up phase (that had been created before Data Proteco was installed). Thankfully I managed to get the computer up and running, then uninstalled Data Proteco... Restarted the computer a couple of times with no more freezes or BSOD's

Has anyone else had similar problems with today's giveaway?

The only other things I've installed this evening was the new game release on Steam called Wolfenstein: The New Order and over the last few days the game giveaways and the BitsDuJour three pack offer of WinCatalog 2014, ToDoPilot and SecureSafe Pro. The problem only started after installing Data Protecto

If the software publisher is unwilling or unable to come out with a straight answer of who they are and where are they located, as well as substantiate all of their claims to fame, why should we trust their products?

Ref #1 Karl
Quote
In the settings they want me to update my credit card information!!!
UnQuote

I will start and end with this statement: Never give your credit card data to some one on-line that you do not know much about; and who says to you: "Trust me".

It is not conclusive or proved whether the software developer is what it claims to be. OK, let's give it the benefit of the doubt.

Even so, if you wish to encrypt data, better use paid or freeware encryption.
If you like a commercial encryption software, then buy it (in CD in case you need to re-install it) to use.

There are enough high quality encryption freeware to satisfy most users. Too many to name. Giovanni will provide list.

I use a mix of paid and free encryption software, as follows:

ABICoder-Ver3.6.l.4 (FREE)

Blowfish Advanced CS-desk-Ver2.57 (FREE)

EasyFile(+folder)Locker-by-XOSLAB-Verl.4 (FREE)

FileWarden (Paid but very cheap - part of PC Magazine Utilities)

Kryptel-Standard (Giveaway but useful because Kryptel has a freeware version that will be able to unlock your data with your password; if somehow your Kryptel giveaway version has stopped functioning)

Steganos Safe 2008 (Paid and excellent)

I will start and end with this statement: Never give your credit card data to some one on-line that you do not know much about; and who says to you: "Trust me".

Bravo to all the GOTD users who truly investigated this software company! #39 sums it up quite nicely:
"You haven’t answered a single one of the substantive questions people have asked."

Answering my critics would be my first response if someone were questioning my reliability and truthfulness. I would offer info that could be verified. Since they are unable to do that, they have a real trustworthiness problem. I agree wholeheartedly with the gentleman who couldn't find a long enough extension to his 10 foot pole. Stay far away from software and companies like this; don't allow yourself to feel guilty about mistrusting them. You have every right to protect yourself from unsavory people, especially nowadays!

"For everyone out there trying to make this giveaway look suspicious by raising all kind of questions that they can think of, just try out the product yourself and see if you find any kind of suspicion or illegal activity. Trying to trace our domain, location or any information and unable to finding it out is not an acceptable reason of saying foul stuff about our product!"

Try harder. Your awards seem to be fake. Your company is an untraceable cutout with no real contact information; you don't even tell us where you're incorporated or who your officers are. You use proprietary encryption. Your ask us to trust data confidential enough to require encryption to your software and your server "just because". The companies which are supposedly on your client list can't verify you're a vendor. You haven't answered a single one of the substantive questions people have asked.

This is not the way a professional company acts. It is more like the behavior of a scammer or some other criminal.

Re comment 30 Dataprotecto
The concern is not about the concept of encryption.
To some extent it's about the integrity of the software not leaving handy backdoors.
It's more about whether the software and cloud storage will still be around to obtain and decrypt the files.
And the company that makes such outrageous grandiose claims, that is nonetheless unlocatable through the normal methods, is beyond being worrying.

It's refreshing to see that at least SOME people are performing due diligence on this software and its publishers. It always amazes me how some people practically hand their personal data to total strangers on a silver platter, and IMHO that's what one would be doing by using today's offering.

The developer/publisher has given us plenty of reasons to doubt the veracity of the claims they make on their website. Despite their shrugging off the results of exhaustive Google searches for information about their company, the awards they claim to have received, and even the organizations that gave them the alleged awards, they still expect us to accept their word at face value and basically hand them the keys to our individual kingdoms.

If they can't be trusted to be truthful about those claims, there is absolutely NO basis for trusting their software with information that could easily bankrupt us if it fell into the wrong hands!

While my memories of my early childhood grow ever dimmer with each passing day, I'm convinced that at no time in my past did I ever experience any sort of accident involving unintended egress from the cargo section of a turnip truck!

I'm not sure what kind of process GOTD uses to vet software contributors, but it seems to me that a little more effort should have gone into screening when it comes to this type of software - especially when its stated purpose is in the realm of security, which is becoming more of a concern with each passing day.

Bottom line: I need to purchase an extension for my ten-foot pole - but then again I wouldn't touch this software with a pole of any length, let alone install it on any of my systems - business OR personal!

(For all we know, this software could possibly even contain a client for the "Blackshades" spyware that made the headlines today... or not - who really knows?)

Talk about saying "foul stuff": The fact that they claim their software "...is unbreakable" and they "guarantee..no one can decrypt..", that in itself makes their reliability and competence suspect:

http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/security-vendor-snake-oil-7-promises-dont-deliver-242138

@ MikeR re post #20
"Presumably, you re-checked all of those “hidden files” of yours in Windows Safe Mode . . ? It tends to be the first thing any computer does."

Yes I have booted windows in 'safe mode' and the hidden files remain hidden.

I appreciate the effort someone has put in to find out all the information about our product. All of this information has nothing to do with the Encryption of the Vaults or their passwords, and the data that you put in those Vaults get encrypted with the password that you choose and therefore, we can never decrypt your data, since we do not have your password.

Hello!!!! this is a security/encryption company. They must be really good because they can keep their identity secret from all the geeks here *Grin*.

Thanks but no thanks. Open source PGP works pretty well for me.

This should not even be on this site. The company makes clearly false claims. The testimonials are from "experts" and "companies" who do not turn up on Google searches and the images used to personally present them are stock footage, e.g. Shutterstock ID: 130608911 is this "Roy Haley".

The "world’s best file encryption software" has a fake WhoIS address and only 5 followers on Twitter. One of these followers has the site's url as their website and posted an article on the software on CNN's user pages. Their profile picture? Stolen from an Australian journalist, Caroline Overington. Her Facebook page (also linked to Data Protecto's FB page) shows no real images of herself (but images of the "product"!) and has a lot of random friends added. The Facebook page also has a strange timeline for its likes (where it seems to take a massive gap).

I cannot find any evidence of any mention of the product on sites that were used as "proof", such as BBC, Gizmodo and PC World.

I find it suspicious that they have received awards for Android apps...with no Android apps released. The awards also have no real back to them as most of the companies who gave them are either not mentioned or do not exist (with Softparison ironically turning up the whois link first in a Google Search, matching the whois protected status).

The site shares a lot of things (e.g. WhoIs protection and images) with DeviceDeals.com, who also look fake with no *real* way to contact them. Especially since their "live chat" requires a name, phone number and email address.

The companies's logos on the page are just ridiculous. Walmart, NASA, Boeing, US Marine Corps and the CIA. Really? Do I even need to comment on why this is ridiculous?

The servers are also provided by hostinglance.com, who ALSO protect themselves.

Finally, as the cherry on the cake, it's strange that as soon as dataprotecto comments here (who don't actually respond to the comments, just give a usual PR speel), one to three "Good" or "EXCELLENT" comments turns up saying how great the software is?

I can't comment on the software itself because I haven't felt it safe enough to download and install, even in a VM, but from what Karl says, that just adds more suspicion.

At best, this looks like a University research project. At middle, this is a way to ciphion your personal information to sell on. At worst, that and stealing your money too.

Downvoted.

If they state "We serve the best across the world", can any of these companies actually confirm this?

I also like this app because it is clearly designed and comprehensive covering all security matters that I have. After setting up a "vault" both on computer and cloud, and, opening up a "digital wallet" file, I attempted to begin using the "Passport Manager". It does not accept my initial password entries. In short, nothing happens after trying repeatedly. Hope this is only my mistake and not the app. (Win 7, 64 bit).

@ post #20: Presumably, you re-checked all of those "hidden files" of yours in Windows Safe Mode . . ? It tends to be the first thing any computer does.

I'm nowhere near the sort of crypto expert you'd want/need to check out the security level of Data Protecto. Basically you create vaults which are a minimum 300 MB in size, & put your files inside of them -- it's up to you to get rid of the originals. Open vaults are mounted as drives. Creating a vault adds a Vault01.vlt file [I assume the number increments], adds a file under C:\Documents and Settings\ [UserName]\ Application Data\ Microsoft\ Crypto\ RSA\ or C:\Users\ [UserName]\ AppData\ Roaming\ Microsoft\ Crypto\ RSA\ , and adds a file, win_axlockerdb_sys.dat, to Windows\ System32\ -- opening that file in Notepad, just the path & name of the vault are in plain text, though I've no idea how easy or hard it would be to get useful info [like the password] out of the remaining data. A SQLite file under All Users, dplistconfig.db, is also updated, while I did not record any changes to the registry from creating a vault other than the virtual drive mounting/dismounting, as the vault was opened/closed.

Installing Data Protecto added the program's folder [~30MB], 4 files to Windows System32 folder, including 2 drivers, antisystemconfig.dat under User AppData Local, plus 3 files under All Users. I recorded ~250 new registry entries in the XP VM -- the only thing I saw to maybe keep an eye on was: [HKCU\Software\XCloudSystems\DataProtecto]
"MPwdHint"=""
.
You probably don't want to use password hints -- that's how lots of accounts are compromised &/or stolen. Sometimes they're required when dealing with Customer Service to get into your account, & in that case the best hint answers are totally made up & completely irrelevant to the question -- using real answers to hint questions means someone can find your answers on-line, in public records, or through a lucky guess, so someone can often convince customer service reps to reset the password, leading to total control over the account. I can't think of a reason to use hints with an app running on your PC/laptop, but if you did, what's stored in the registry & how strongly is that info encrypted?

Some folks were interested in company info.
http://trademarks.breanlaw.com/86043496-data-protecto.html

http://www.herdprotect.com/signer-outreach-global-ltd-11215e3ac969d48691a04282ed4ee159c07c.aspx
"Outreach Global Ltd is a software developer located in Tortola, VG"
.

I found a phone number on xcloudsystems.com" , 1-866-333-7517. Searching for the number I stumbled across this page, http://www.dataprotecto.com/pad/data-security-cloud-storage-software.xml, which gives a name and address in San Antonio, TX. However, Google Earth, MapQuest, and Garmin all could not find the named street.

I found a press release dated Feb. 21, 2014, http://www.marketpressrelease.com/New-protective-software-leaves-hackers-trembling-1392992296.html", indicating the software was available through CDW.com. I couldn't find the software on the CDW site. I thought it odd that the contact email was a gmail account.

Sorry, but I can't get the tags to work for me.

Before you store your private information to the "cloud" (actually a particular company), you must be assured that the company is absolutely safe and reliable. I see no evidence of that here. Very little information on the company.

In this time of identity theft, reputation is everything. Who are the employees? Where are they located? Where will your information be stored? Who will have access to it? What kind of security do they use? Can your data be decrypted by them? Are their claims verified?

Think twice before giving someone all your valuable information.

re: ixQuick
Recommended.
Not as refined of results as Google, but more private than other search engines. If using ixQuick, multiple variations of your search terms will broaden your results. Yes, slower but still highly private. Searching is an art form that requires personal development, including a diverse vocab.

Any company distributing products (including software) that are available to US citizens and/or European citizens must comply certain EU and USA laws that include among other things the legal name of the company, the mailing address of the company where live individuals representing the company can be found during local business hours, the address of where legal documents and inquiries can be sent for a prompt official response, a (working) telephone number, (presumably) a valid email address and clear identification of the country origin. It is a violation to conduct commerce with certain non grata countries (and persons) depending on the user's situs and the home nation of the company offering to do business. Other similar criminal laws may apply for Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In addition, some countries, such as North Korea, prohibit outsiders from doing business of any nature with nationals; the nature of their punishment is unclear, but it is death for their citizens engaging contact/contract with foreigners.

Then there are privacy requirements that also must be clearly explained and verifiable by the home nation of any user. Failure to include certain safe guards can be found to be criminal in nature also.

Should anyone, including GAOTD, assist in furthering any act specified as "illegal" or "criminal" or "unfair trade practice", such as failure to comply with applicable local laws, under treaty and Federal law the assistant(s) is equally liable and punishable for furthering the putative criminal act(s).

Hence it would seem provident to refrain from using any product or company that fails to meet minimum legal requirements of your home legal system. Since NSA is actively tracking world wide internet use (and all other electronic communications since the 1940's), "skating" is not an option. Any rumor that you are "free" is a gross fabrication. ©2014 All rights reserved. Not intended as legal advise; provided for educational purpose only. If you have concerns or legal issues, contact a competent (very difficult to find) practitioner in the relevant legal area of concern.

For everyone out there trying to make this giveaway look suspicious by raising all kind of questions that they can think of, just try out the product yourself and see if you find any kind of suspicion or illegal activity. Trying to trace our domain, location or any information and unable to finding it out is not an acceptable reason of saying foul stuff about our product!

@JGF,

First of all, data encrypted with Data Protecto remains on your computer unless you choose to subscribe for cloud storage and choose to upload your data. The data remains encrypted from end to end and there is no way possible that this encrypted data can be accessed without providing the correct password that is used to encrypt the data. We are using the best encryption algorithms to make sure that no one could breach the privacy of our clients. This encryption is impossible to break and I can guarantee that no one here or anyone anywhere can decrypt the data protected with Data Protecto without using the correct password.

Never use commercial software for encryption. Go with open source. Even if you can't read the code to see if it contains any trapdoors and confirm that it uses a strong encryption algorithm, you know other people with the technical chops to understand it have vetted it. Google "TrueCrypt" and "Password Safe". And there many more worthy open source programs.

And of yeah, dig the people on the testimonials page. They all live in Stockphotolandia.

I Like this software - very nice polished program & GUI - very easy to use.
I have read and understand the concerns of others.
I will give the cloud option a miss as I have no interest in sharing files and prefer to back up to USB stick.
As for credit card details and such I prefer to keep these in an encrypted text file for which there are many free programs.
What I do like very much though is the ability to hide files and portable programs, once hidden I can find no trace of the files or anything suspicious to suggest a hidden file even exists.
So for me this is a keeper and thank you for today's GOTD

@Confused,

From our website, you can download the free trial software and then you need to purchase the license. It is on giveawayoftheday because we are giving out FREE registration key for Data Protecto.

@13 JGF

... Try ixquick or dogpile for less censored results.

nice try ;)

http://www.dogpile.com/search/web?fcoid=417&fcop=topnav&fpid=2&q=%E2%80%9CBest+Android+App+Developer+2013%E2%80%B3+by+%E2%80%9CProtech+Award%E2%80%9D&ql=

ixquick shows also nothing ;)

#9 Data Protecto has made a correct statement.

If the google results doesn’t bring up anything, that never means that their product is not good enough

That's correct, it doesn't say anything about the software quality, but everything about the reliability. ;)

@Karl,

This unique ID xxx@dpflow4.com is generated just for the user's reference since we do not want to force a user to sign up for cloud storage or purchase the software or provide us any information until they are satisfied with our product. It is not an actual domain but just a reference ID for the user.

As for google not showing anything for "Protech Award" or other items, don't forget that google cherry-picks what gets precedence in its searches. Try ixquick or dogpile for less censored results.

@Confused . Its not free at all. The trial version at our site is free as usually it is. After using it, you can purchase it. And of course the giveaway we are running today is also FREE.

I appreciate the developer and GAOTD offering this, but I'll not bother with encryption until certain issues have been acceptably addressed.

http://mashable.com/2013/09/11/fbi-microsoft-bitlocker-backdoor/

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/09/government-seeks

http://www.cnet.com/news/report-feds-to-push-for-net-encryption-backdoors/

I do not use cloud for the same reason (even if you put something in a "private" folder Micro$oft claims the right to snoop into it).

Doing a pretty good job of masking its identity, hiding its address, obscuring its online provenance, obfuscating its contact channels and fictionalising its awards, reviews and user base, today's developer certainly protects its own interests extremely well even if there's no definitive evidence that it has ever protected anyone else's.

Neither I nor anyone else I know has ever heard of the "World's Number 1 Software Company", X Cloud Systems. Neither I nor anyone else I know has ever heard of "Data Protecto", the world's leading data encryption and security software. Neither I nor anyone else I know has ever heard of Aaron Denton, purveyor of Public Relations puffery on behalf of this oh-so secretive yet paradoxically world-renowned company, puffery as explicit and unambiguous as this:

Data Protecto, the world's leading data encryption and security software, is pleased to announce over 6 million downloads of its zero-cost software on CNET. This Data Protecto is the world’s best file encryption software for computers which also features the most Secure Online Cloud Storage Service with Encrypted File Sharing.

Wow. That's some going, Aaron. A question though: how come the world's leading "zero cost" software -- in other words, freeware -- is being punted on here today at $30??

How come Boeing is using your outfit for cloud storage when Boeing's servers are some of the biggest in the world with at least 500,000 times your capacity?

How come you're the best Android App Developer of 2013 when, er, you don't produce anything at all on Android? (By the way, who're Protech and why did they give you this award?)

And how come those that made you Data Centric's Best Android Developer of 2013 are all in prison?? According to you, they formed a penal of reviewers -- so were they let out to present you with the award at a ceremony that, of course, is still secret because everything this developer is, is . . . Secret?

So many questions. Too many questions, in fact, because this looks nothing like any giveaway promotion I've ever seen.

Instead, the amount of time and money that has gone into its set-up makes it look exactly like a behavioural research project undertaken by some US university or other to see how gullible people can be when snake oil is pitched at them by salesman in snazzy clothes with a smooth yarn to spin. Are today's Internet users more savvy than their ancestors? Is a sucker still being born every minute . . ? Or are computer users nowadays alert enough to dismiss fictions, fantasies, and downright lies when such pop up on their collective radar??

Thanks for the fun,GOTD, but really, today's academic research exercise has missed its April 1st date by a considerable margin. As for the world's most famous software company and the world's most famous software product, we-ell . . . Here's to the day when you're the most famous in the entire galaxy: can't be long, can it?

After visiting their site, which is a nice looking site, I noticed that all downloads are free... so why is it offered as a 1-day give away?

The user comments were helpful and helped me decide to give this product a try and it downloaded without any issues and working fine.

@Everyone,

Its nice to see many people concerned about their data security. Let me clarify that Data Protect is one of the best data security software in the market today. It provides you with all types of security, starting from the simple password protection of files as well as protecting your files with unbreakable encryption using AES 256-bit algorithm.

If the google results doesn't bring up anything, that never means that their product is not good enough. If you have any concerns, you can contact our support via Live Chat at our website http://www.dataprotecto.com or send us email at support@dataprotecto.com

Why is this giveaway not packaged as all others? The package looks funny... missing GCD file, etc....

Very suspicious...

:(

Code-signing certificate address:

CN = Outreach Global Ltd
O = Outreach Global Ltd
L = Road Town
S = Tortola
C = VG

VG being British Virgin Islands, a well known location of offshore incorporation.

No domain whois details (they use a proxy service to hide their true address and email), no real contact information on their web site and the company is incorporated on an offshore paradise.

I'll definitely pass on this one.

"a mass of files encrypted using a proprietary system, a system no longer available leaving my files unreachable."

Which sums up the main issue - even before the matter of using the "cloud" on some unknown company's servers.
Unlike office software, which usually allows a file created in one programme to be opened and edited in another, encryption programmes are software dependant. So if you neeed to reinstall and the original programme is unavailable, or just suddenly becomes massively expensive, you're screwed.
At the very least you need to use a well known or freely available programme for encyption. And that's not hard to find. Nor is cloud storage.

I also think this giveaway looks fishy...
They do have a very nice webpage and the download counter ticks away indicating a lot of people must be downloading the program.

I opened a second window with www.dataprotecto.com. This pages counter also ticks away. But this counter is more than 200 downloads off, indicating this is not the real counter but just a timed counter.

They claim to have more than +6.9 million downloads but the version at download.cnet.com has only been downloaded 1.589 times.

I also have a hard time finding any real reviews or anything about real world rewards given to them. In fact it is very hard finding any information about this company claiming to have "millions of satisfied users".

All in all, I guess I'm not downloading... :o/

@Karl, thank you for the "heads up". It's appreciated.

The level of security offered by encrypting using compression programs, say zip or rar, is more than sufficient for most of our needs and they offer one great advantage, they are not going to disappear leaving you with data you cannot retrieve.
Many moons ago, no many decades ago I was left with a mass of files encrypted using a proprietary system, a system no longer available leaving my files unreachable.
So bear the above in mind before your entrust your data to programs such as today's.

Addendum :

a 15 MB uninstall.exe file!

Another company whose website claims numbers of reviews and awards, but doesn't actually have any links to the sites that reviewed the software, or gave it an award. They claim it's "Recommended by all media outlets", and amongst the logos, there's one for BBC Technology News. I did a search on the BBC site for both "dataprotecto" and "data protecto", and got nothing; "Search Term Not Found". I don't like people who make misleading or false claims, so I'll give this one a miss.

Installed and registered without problems on a Win 8.1 Pro 64 bit system.

A company without name and address. Claims to be the :

"World's best data security software".

I have a serious problem :

The company claims among many others things :

"Best Android App Developer 2013" by "Protech Award" -> google results in no hits, except the company statement.

or

"Software of the Year Award 2013" "Softwares unlimited" -> google results in no hits, except the statement itself...

Testimonial :

"Roy Haley" Data Security Analyst -> google does not give an answer, who is "Roy Haley"

The company itself :

Data Protecto is backed by XCloud Systems, the world's leading Software Company

When I entered the main key, the software contacted in this moment the I-Net...

Okay, everybody know best, whom to trust. Back to the software itself :

After entering my main key, the software says, that I am logged in on a secure cloud as

xxxxxxxxxxxx@dpflow4.com

Google "dpflow4.com" does not produce a result...

The link to the cloud leads to http://www.dataprotecto.com/area/RegisterUser.aspx?uid=xxxx. In my case with Firefox and disabled NoScript, this page does not show up.

In the settings they want me to update my credit card information!!!

Do you really think, I would ever....

By signing up, I would get a cloud space of 500 MB.

-------------
A nice interface, you can encrypt files or folders, you can use a wallet - and you can give your confidential information to... whom???

I would never used a closed software for encryption sensible data from a company, where the claimed statements lead to the nirvana.

Uninstalled vi reboot. Use it on your own risk ;-)