Handle edge cases in analytics

**Feature request**
It would be great to have encryption for validation.

**Use case**
Many users need this functionality for production deployments.

**Implementation idea**
Add a new config option `enable_encryption` with default `false`.

Start by locating the configuration and validation entry points in the Shell project and tracing how existing options are defined and consumed. Confirm how encryption for validation is expected to work before making changes. Done means a new enable_encryption option exists with a default of false and the requested validation encryption behavior is covered.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.