BitTorrent’s new file-syncing technology, BitTorrent Sync, can synchronize files between computers and mobile devices without copying data to a cloud server. The company is hoping that, in light of the National Security Agency’s controversial harvesting of information stored in data centers, people will be attracted to the new technology. The only way the NSA could gather this data would be by going directly to the source where the information is stored.

According to MIT Technology Review, a beta version of BitTorrent Sync is available as a free download on PCs and mobile devices, and a newer, more user-friendly version will be available in spring. The only drawback of the technology is that it requires both devices to be online for the sync to work.

The technology isn’t completely foolproof. “Synced data does travel over the public Internet, where it might be intercepted by a surveillance agency such as the NSA, which is known to collect data directly from the Internet backbone,” the article explains. “But it travels in a strongly encrypted form.”

Files aren’t the only thing this technology is useful for. BitTorrent CEO Eric Klinker says companies have started using Sync to avoid the high costs of cloud-based storage.

“He plans to eventually make BitTorrent Sync pay for itself by finding a way to sell extra services to corporate users of the software,” notes Technology Review. More than two million people are already using the technology.

“The company says one author in Beijing uses BitTorrent Sync to distribute blog posts on topics sensitive with Chinese authorities,” the article reports. “And one U.S. programmer built a secure, decentralized messaging system on top of the software.”