// ITS FOSS — LINUX & OPEN SOURCE
Privacy Notes: Markdown Editor With Built-in Encrypted Vault
There is no dearth of note taking apps for Linux. There are tools like Obsidian that are local first, tools like Joplin that are both local and cloud but not encrypted. There are also collaborative tools like Etherpad that put encrypted notes on a remote server.
And then I come across a new tool this week called Privacy Notes. It mixes several things at once and tries to be the "one note app to rule them all". It is Markdown-first with WYSIWYG editor, vault for storing passwords, ssh keys etc, journal and more.
The idea of Privacy Notes is to give you an application that is primarily aimed at keeping your most important documents safe on their server by providing client side encryption.
This means that the notes and files are encrypted on your device first and then they get uploaded to Privacy Notes's servers. Privacy Notes website mentions that their servers are hosted in Switzerland.
This is zero knowledge encryption which means you have to save your key or phrase somewhere safe because if you lose that, not even Privacy Notes can give the data back as everything is encrypted.
Privacy Notes is developed by Lifetime Labs and they have the motto to provide software but NOT as a service.
In that regard, Lifetime Labs offers a lifetime price for Privacy Notes. You get 500 MB of encrypted storage for $48 (early adapter price, and it rises to $89 later). If you want more storage, extra storage is self-serve from $4.80/GB per year.
Note that server storage is a recurring cost, unlike desktop software. That's why extra storage has a recurring subscription fee.
Privacy Notes apps are open source and the source code is available on their GitHub repository. This includes the web, desktop and mobile clients and even their encryption and threat model.
While the name suggests it is another Markdown based editor focused on privacy, it does offer a few things different than most other editors in this category. Let me share them with you.