These programs extend Stata to use encrypted datasets.

Run

net install gpgsave, from("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ebardelli/gpgsave/main/")

or alternatively

github install ebardelli/gpgsave

• Gnupg: At least version 2.
• whereis: Install this program using ssc (ssc install whereis) and register gpg using whereis gpg your_path.

To use, simply run

gpgsave dataset

or alternatively

gpguse dataset

gpgmerge and gpgappend are also available.

gpgsave will ask for the password used to encrypt the files.

openssl encryption is also password-based and is a drop-in replacement for gpg encryption. The only difference is that openssl is installed on most systems already while gpg is usually not instsalled by default.

gpgsave also allows for key-based encryption using age.

In this case, age needs access to a list of public keys that have access to the data while encrypting and an authorized private key to decrypt the data.

For example, this encrypts data using a list of authorized ssh keys

gpgsave "file.age", replace age recipients("authorized_users.txt")

and decrypts it using a user's private ssh key:

gpguse "file.age", clear age

Note that gpgsave will ask you for the path to an authorized private key that is authorized to decrypt the data.

The inspiration for this program and much of its code is directly taken from Henrik Stovring's gzsave.