pCloud's file encryption

Has anyone using pCloud in conjunction with CloudFS any experience with pCloud’s file encryption? I’m getting regular offers from pCloud to enable this – for security reasons presumably – but I’m worried it might affect CloudFS’s operation in adverse ways. Any pCloud/CloudFS user with relevant experience who cares to respond would be appreciated!

I get the same offers but am not tempted. I use pCloud as a common drive for file sharing across all my devices. It is the only file sharing mechanism which works for all operating systems including RISC OS. On mac, windows and linux I use the web interface. On RISC OS and Android the clients are better.
But I can’t think of anything that needs to be encrypted(I don’t put sensitive data in the cloud). It would add a level of complication to a process which is fragile enough already and would also change a free service to monthly subscription.

Thanks, John; that pretty much mirrors my own view.

It’s worth clarifying that CloudFS doesn’t support the extra local encryption option that pCloud are advertising to you – understandably they don’t hand out the algorithm or SDK detailing how the per-file encryption works. If you did take the offer you’d be able to mount the drive still, but all the contents would be jumbled when viewed from RISC OS.

So the main difference is if someone stole your account password they’d be able to see the files by logging in as you, versus just being able to see a load of jumbled data files. Think of it like a dye bomb inside a safe – if you steal the safe and open it the contents are ruined.

they don’t hand out the algorithm or SDK detailing how the per-file encryption works

But presumably they do, to the major platforms? And if so the files, when encrypted, would look normal under, say, Windows 10’s pCloud app, but a jumble under RISC OS? And pursuing this thought further, if the above is correct, presumably viewing an encrypted pCloud directory on a networked PC via LanMan, rather than directly under CloudFS, would show the files correctly?

I’m not familiar with pCloud so I might have the wrong end of the stick, but it looks like the crypto code is in their command line client:

https://github.com/pcloudcom/console-client/blob/master/pCloudCC/lib/pclsync/pcloudcrypto.c
https://github.com/pcloudcom/console-client/blob/master/pCloudCC/lib/pclsync/pfscrypto.c

although I haven’t spent the time untangling that to understand what the protocol is.

I’d expect that if you are running the pCloud client on Windows and then exporting the unencrypted volume via LanMan then it would show correctly, but also to note that some other cloud storage clients (Dropbox, Onedrive) use Explorer extensions (to indicate when files aren’t actually downloaded locally) that might not work.

It’s bog standard AES256.