Guides/On this machine
Encrypt personal files on a work laptop — sensibly
Personal files on a work laptop are a grey area. Elba can seal a small folder locally in a browser tab — no installer, no admin — but the honest first step is to check your employer's acceptable-use policy.
When it's fine
Personal notes, side-project drafts, or a personal password list you keep on the machine you use every day. The vault stops a colleague or IT sweep from casually reading them.
When it isn't
Company data that must live in company systems. Employer-owned devices in regulated industries where personal files are prohibited. When in doubt, use a personal machine for personal things.
Questions people actually ask
- Can IT still see the sealed folder?
- They can see it exists as encrypted bytes. They cannot read its contents.
- What about MDM tools?
- MDM can see file names and sizes; some can screen-record. Encryption at rest doesn't defeat live surveillance.
Take the island
Elba is one HTML file. It runs locally in a Chromium browser, seals a folder with AES-256-GCM, never phones home, and becomes open source on 1 January 2030.
- €49MMXXVI· now ·
- €39MMXXVII2027
- €29MMXXVIII2028
- €19MMXXIX2029
- FreeMMXXX2030
the price falls each year · free to all 1 jan 2030
pay once · no account · nothing leavesRelated guides
- How to encrypt files on Windows without admin rights
Locked-down work laptop? Elba is a single HTML file — no installer, no admin prompt, no registry keys.
- How to encrypt files on a Mac without installing anything
No installer, no admin prompt, no App Store account. Elba is a single HTML file that runs in Chrome or Arc on macOS.