Internal SD Encryption & Enterprise Security

[Zann_H]

Does Sony has any plans for the above?

Internal SD encryption is something that a lot of users have been seeking. And the fact that Android doesn't have this feature built in or there's no such app in the Play store makes it more appealing to have it built in on Xperia phones. The current Android encryption only effect the 'data' partition and not the internal sd card. Which becomes an issue when an Xperia phone is lost or stolen. All one need to do is flash a new os, erasing all user data, but the content in the internal sd is still intact.

As for Enterprise Security, it's something that Xperia phones need to have if it wants to penetrate the Enterprise Market that are still being dominated by Blackberrys. Samsung has Knox, and it's about time Xperia has one of it's own. 

[Bolinder]

The Xperia Z1, Z Ultra, Z, ZL, ZR and Tablet Z supports internal SD-card encryption according to the White Papers found at http://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/business/.

[Zann_H]

I have the Z, and the problem is,  It only encrypt the 'data' partition. Not the entire internal SD.

Edit: Looks like the new ROM has this feature. Previously,  it used to say that it only encrypt 'data' partition. I will test it out when I have the time. Thanks for pointing it out.

Edit 2: When i try to start the encryption, it says it wll only encrypt "your personal data". Just like the old one. 

[Bolinder]

I continue to refer Sony's whitepapers. 😉 This time the section about memory in Android devices from http://www-support-downloads.sonymobile.com/c6602/whitepaper_EN_c6602_xperia_z.pdf

"In Sony Mobile 2013 products, “Internal Storage” is now the union of what was previously known as “Phone Memory” (for applications and their data. “/data”) and “Internal Storage” (for user’s content, “/sdcard”). The reason for this change is to make the use of available memory more flexible, and also to enable the optional encryption of user’s content."

This basically means that there are no such things as  "data partition" or " internal sd-card" anymore, only one big "internal storage" that holds everything. When it is encrypted, everything stored on the phone is encrypted.