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Comment by mandelbrotwurst | Hacker News Reader

> Find out what it feels like to write with total privacy.

This made me laugh. You mean like on a piece of paper?

A piece of paper doesn't have the same level of privacy as something like Standard Notes. Anyone who finds your written paper notes can read them.

Standard Notes is encrypted, and password protected. It can't ever be read by the provider or the host (which is the major problem with the majority of syncing notes apps), and it can't be read by a nosy friend or family member, unless you leave your computer unlocked and unattended (at which point all bets are off anyway).

It offers much, much better privacy than a piece of paper.

They can be read by another program on your computer too.

How do you know I'm not burning the notes afterward?

I mean, if you never want to read your notes again, sure, that's more secure. But writing stuff you will immediately burn and never want to read again in the future is such a different thing from using a syncing notes tool that the comparison doesn't really make sense.

I just thought the implication of the copy was funny, wasn't really making a serious comparison of every possible use case and threat model for pen and paper versus this tool. Each has its own advantages.

I am 100% sure there is no root kit installed on my piece of paper transmitting every pen stroke to the internet. I am 100% sure there is no defect in the design of the piece of paper that could make it instantly readable to the entire world once discovered.

You can't say that about any software or hardware.

Private journaling is likely to end up encrypted forever and not accessible to the families of deceased persons. Sure, it could be argued that it was encrypted on purpose but one never knows. Someone may suddenly pass and their loved ones would never get access to this piece of their work even if the author intended to share it and never got to leave the encryption key (they never expected their sudden departure)

Sure, this same thing could be argued about electronic mail, computers and other encrypted devices but I feel something deeper would be lost a lot more often.

Imagine Kafka used an encryption tool on his work or countless of other silent authors whose work only came to life after their death when somebody else discovered it.

Well, unless there are technological improvements in processing speed that allow for future decryption, right?

Food for thought though, for sure.

That's a problem with encrypted stuff in general, and as a society we really haven't worked out any better way to manage that yet than measures like "keep a clearly-labeled master password in a safe deposit box where your estate can get at it".

I agree, the tech stack under pen and paper is very light compared to computers. But it's only as secure as your physical security.

With an encrypted hard drive and a strong key, the files remain private even when the physical security is breached.

A piece of paper (in the USA at least) also has stronger constitutional privacy protection than digital files uploaded to cloud storage/sync services.

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