Feature Article: Metaheuristic Methods Can Decrease the Probability of Weak Keys Being Generated Improving Randomness of Symmetric Encryption for Consumer Privacy Using MetaheuristicBased Framework Hsin-Hung Cho National Ilan University Min-Yan Tsai National Ilan University Fan-Hsun Tseng National Taiwan Normal University Hsin-Te Wu National Ilan University Chi-Yuan Chen National Ilan University Abstract-In order to maintain data privacy and security for consumers, data encryption is closely related to our daily lives. Symmetric encryption is currently the most widely used encryptionmethod in consumer electronics fields, especially in services involving Internetof-Thing devices due to easy usage, and quick and lower computing costs. However,most of symmetric encryptions adopt a quite linear key generationschemeso that the generated keys still have higher opportunity to be cracked.In this article, wedefinea model to identify the generated key's randomness and further proposea novel metaheuristic-based key generation framework to improve the symmetric encryption drawbacks. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCE.2021.3060370 Date ofpublication 18 February 2021; date ofcurrent version 6 December 2021. & WITH THE ADVANCEMENT of the Internet of Things (IoT)1 and mobile communication technologies,2 people can obtain all kinds of information and even all kinds of automated services anytime, anywhere. That is to say, the vigorous development of consumer electronics has completely changed human life. 42 2162-2248 ß 2021 IEEE Published by the IEEE Consumer Technology Society IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine