Secure Encrypted Note Taking
There are a number of ways to take notes online including using Google Docs and Evernote. However, when you dig under the covers you find that these notes are not entirely secure. While presenting your data to you you may feel at ease seeing the https in front of the URL, however on the server the data is not stored in an encrypted fashion.
In the quest to disconnect from “big brother” of the “big tech” watching everything we do, I went out to find a note taking system that did not store my data in an unencrypted fashion. This search lead me to Joplin – a free, open source note taking and to-do application, which can handle a large number of notes organized into notebooks.
I have been using Joplin for a few weeks now primarily to take notes during sermons at church. However, I have used it for a few other things as well. I have found it easy to use. The cross platform support for Android, iOS and PC allows me to synchronize all my notes just like I could with Google Docs and/or Evernote. Unlike Evernote, there is no cost. And unlike Google Docs, I am no longer sharing my documents with “big brother tech”.
Since Joplin was created as a replacement for Evernote, it actually provides the ability to export from Evernote and import into Joplin. I am not planning to migrate my old notes, and I had stopped using Evernote some time ago.
Joplin can be configured with End to End Encryption. I set this up in a few minutes to synchronize the encrypted messages via dropbox. The steps provided to enable end to end encryption on the Joplin website are straight forward.
While Google Docs provides more functionality than a basic note taking app, Joplin does meet most of the needs for simply taking notes. I recently upgraded my Proton Mail account to a paid account. With that I now have access to the beta of Proton Drive which provides encrypted document storage. Using this it will become possible to store any document online encrypted. More to come…