Wuala, the Zurich-based startup that was acquired by LaCie in early 2009, has brought its secure online storage service to iPhone via a dedicated app. It allows users to access their personal files on-the-go and also share them with others, similar to many other competing cloud-storage services.
However, Wuala is keen to talk up security, pitching its wares based on the fact that it employs encryption locally before files are sent to the Cloud and/or backed up via a peer-to-peer network in which other users also provide disk space on their own computers. The use of client-side encryption, says the company, means that even Wuala itself cannot access a user’s files because the password never leaves the device.
The iPhone app also offers the ability to browse and view files directly. Files can be opened with “selected applications” – though Wuala doesn’t specify which – and files can also be saved for offline access.
Wuala is based on technology that came out of research conducted at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in Switzerland. It’s a company/service that we’ve been tracking for quite sometime.
