Re: st: Features for Stata 14

[Daniel Feenberg <feenberg@nber.org>]

On Tue, 3 Sep 2013, Simon wrote:

> Sorry of this is a little tangential. I occasionally work with data sets that 
> I prefer to keep encrypted. At the moment I have to mount a true crypt drive 
> then run stata as required. Would it be possible to have an encrypted version 
> of a .dta file where stata manages access and requests the pass phrase? It
Windows has the Encrypting File System for this function.

Unix has similar file systems, but more easily you can do this by reading 
from a pipe. The examples below are about reading from a compressed file, 
but should work with an encrypted file also, using your choice of 
encryption code. See:
  http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/unix/read-data-from-pipe/
  http://www.nber.org/stata/efficient/pipes.html
  http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2012-09/msg00337.html

The statalist message linked to above repeats a rumour that Stata
no longer supports pipes, but that is contradicted by my experience, and 
would be very sad if true.
I wouldn't think that Stata should take on the burden of having an 
encryption module itself, but it should be compatible with the encryption 
technology that comes with the OS.
Daniel Feenberg
NBER

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