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From | Daniel Feenberg <feenberg@nber.org> |
To | statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu |
Subject | Re: st: Features for Stata 14 |
Date | Tue, 3 Sep 2013 06:50:28 -0400 (EDT) |
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 Statano 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 * * For searches and help try: * http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/ * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/