Pros and Cons of Volume Encryption

Caution:  

There is already a certain level of built-in privacy simply by storing your data on an Amber device you own.  So what does enabling volume encryption do for you? 

Before you make your final decision, read on carefully for some critical info. 

Pros: 

1. If your amber X is physically stolen, a sophisticated thief can pull the internal storage device and read the data directly using another computer.  Volume encryption will render these data extracted from the storage drive un-usable to anyone without the decryption key. 

Cons:

1. Volume decryption happens only during device boot-up (including after OS updates) – a relatively infrequent event.  You are most likely not able to remember a new password you hardly use.  Most people will forget a new password within a day. 
2. If you forget your volume decryption password and also don’t have a backup decryption key file, you will lose your data forever. The encryption is so strong that we can’t help you recover your data.  So unless you can protect your password and/or the decryption key file, you will most likely lose your data over time. This likelihood is orders of magnitude higher than being a victim of a theft. 

Note: You need to decide whether to encrypt the volume during the initial setup. You cannot remove or add the decryption protection once the volume has been set up. The only way to enable or disable volume encryption is to do a factory reset and re-initialize the Amber again, which means all the data will be wiped out.

Mitigation 

1. You need a strong method of protecting your volume decryption password. There are many password management programs (eg, KeePass, LastPass, etc) that can help you manage the many passwords you use. But if you have never used one and are not inclined to start using it, your next best bet is to download a volume decryption key file while you still remember your volume decryption password. Follow this link for how to download your volume decryption key file. 
2. If you are also not sure whether you can store your volume decryption key file safe for a long period of time (because you simply don’t have the habit of such), we will strongly advise you against enabling volume encryption on your Amber device. 
3. For the best data security, we strongly recommend you NOT to use your cloud account password as the volume decryption password. 

Final Decision:  

You don’t want to lose your volume decryption password/key file and cause you to lose all your data faster than losing it through theft or fire.  Choose wisely depending on your habit.