Why Use a File Transfer Tool?
When you need to transfer large files, email quickly becomes a constraint: your mail server imposes limits on attachment size—and so does the recipient’s server. That’s why various solutions exist to act as intermediaries between sender and receiver, offering generous file size limits.
Once this technical barrier is overcome, user reassurance remains a key concern: data geolocation, security guarantees, applicable jurisdiction, etc. These aspects may seem trivial, yet “it doesn’t only happen to others”—the stakes are real and should not be overlooked.
What is the Connection Between File Transfer and Cybersecurity?
If you’re using a file transfer tool to share a video of a sports event or a concert, there’s little to worry about if the data gets intercepted. On the other hand, concerns arise when sharing a passport, bank account details, a financial report, or medical records.
The growing technical sophistication of attackers makes their malicious intent more concerning: identity theft, misappropriation of bank funds, economic or industrial espionage, misuse of health data, etc.
Sadly, there are no limits to the creativity of those seeking to harm your interests. The consequences can be severe—too many high-profile cases remind us of this regularly.
How to Choose a File Transfer Tool?
Ideally, you should demand strong guarantees of confidentiality and data sovereignty. This means the service provider must adhere to clear commitments :
1. Encrypt data before it is sent, directly from your web browser
That way, even if the data is intercepted, it remains unreadable.
2. Not hold the encryption key
This ensures the service provider itself cannot read your data.
3. Host of their servers 100% in the country
This limits legal jurisdiction to your own country, and not a foreign one.
What Solutions Are Available?
There are two main categories:
- First, most SaaS solutions rely on server-side intelligence (not your browser). Because the data is transmitted “in the clear” (unencrypted), antivirus scanning is sometimes included.
Examples: FromSmash.com, WeTransfer.com
Downside: Confidentiality is not guaranteed, and the provider can access your data.
- Second, a few SaaS solutions take an ethical approach, integrating encryption directly in your browser for end-to-end encryption. The provider’s role is limited strictly to transporting the data, without ever being able to read it. The encryption key is only shared between sender and recipient.
Examples: SwissTransfer.com, LuxTransfer.lu
Downside: For files over 1GB, encryption may take a few extra seconds.
What Is the Relationship Between Ethics and Technology?
This question borders on philosophy.
As early as 1996, the issue of encryption was already being debated. Eric Hughes wrote:
“In the electronic age we live in, the right to privacy is a crucial element of a free and open society. Privacy is not secrecy. A private matter is something one doesn’t want the whole world to know, but a secret is something one doesn’t want anybody to know. Privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world.”
Pioneer of electricity and co-author of the U.S. Constitution, Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1755:
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Each person must form their own opinion—and that opinion is, therefore, legitimate.
