Today, privacy is one of the most important aspects of the digital world. Many of our personal and professional communications occur online, making our data vulnerable to hacking or surveillance. Others can access sensitive information through emails, texts, and chat apps.
- You type a message on the Privnote website. It includes text, images, attachments, or links.
- Privnote encrypts the note using TLS and AES-256 encryption. It scrambles the data so only authorized parties read it.
- You get a unique, randomly generated URL to share the note.
- Privnote decrypts the note and displays it when the recipient clicks the link. After it’s opened once, the note is deleted from Privnote’s server.
- If the link is clicked again, it will display a “Note not found” message.
So in essence, Privnote allows secure, private communication similar to an encrypted messaging app, but without requiring any account setup or app installation. The encrypted note exists temporarily, then disappears forever.
- Encryption – Messages are encrypted end-to-end with bank-level security. Not even Privnote accesses the contents of messages.
- Self-destructing – Notes disappear forever after being read once, leaving no records or traces.
- No accounts required – Just visit the website and start creating secure notes to share. No sign-up is needed.
- Free – Privnote is a free service that anyone use.
- Accessibility – Notes created and read from any web browser. Recipients don’t need to download apps or have accounts.
These features make Privnote ideal for:
- Sharing confidential information like passwords, account numbers, or API keys.
- Having private conversations you don’t want to be stored in chat logs.
- Sending instructions or info you only want to be viewed once.
- Protecting sensitive text from prying eyes if your device is lost, stolen, or hacked.
- Communicating anonymously without revealing your identity.
Privnote tips for better security
To maximize privacy when using Privnote, here are some best practices to follow:
- Avoid putting any personally identifiable info in the note itself, like names or locations. The encryption protects the contents from third parties, but the recipient could always screenshot or copy the info before it self-destructs.
- For extreme anonymity, use a VPN or Tor browser when creating notes. It hides your IP address and internet activity from Privnote.
- For sensitive notes, don’t reuse the same URL multiple times. Create a new note and URL to send to each recipient.
- There’s no password option since the random URLs are the authentication. Create a strong master password separately that you convey to recipients out-of-band.
- Remind recipients to open the note in a private browsing window so no traces are left locally after viewing.
- Privnote pages could hypothetically be cached or archived by search engines before being opened. Add “noarchive” to URLs to opt out of caching. You can read more about private messaging at privatemessage.net if you need more information.
By following best practices, you feel confident that Privnote allows you to share sensitive information securely. The main advantage Privnote has over these other options is being accessible to anyone with a browser, without requiring any accounts, apps, or software.