Jot.

Privacy & encryption

Your notes are yours. Full stop.

A private journal only works if it's actually private. Here's exactly what happens to your words in each mode — and, just as important, what never does.

Two modes, one principle

Which mode you pick decides what we ever see. That's the whole model — no fine print that quietly walks it back.

Local
Nothing leaves your device
  • Notes, tags, and settings live only in your browser
  • End-to-end encrypted; the key never leaves your device
  • We have no copy — and cannot recover it for you
Cloud
Stored, scoped to you
  • Notes sync across your devices via our infrastructure
  • Your email is the only account detail — no password stored
  • Every query is scoped to your account alone

Local mode: encrypted on your device

In local mode your notes are stored right in your browser and encrypted before they ever touch disk. Each note is sealed with AES-256-GCM, using a key derived from your passphrase with Argon2id. That key is computed on your device and never leaves it — it isn't sent to us, and we don't store it anywhere.

We can't read your local notes. It's not "we promise not to" — there's simply nothing on our side to read. If you clear the browser or lose the passphrase, the notes are gone; we have no copy to restore. That's the trade for true privacy, so local mode offers an optional backup to your own Google Drive.

You can also put Jot behind a lock and unlock it with a passkey — your fingerprint or Face ID — on each device you use, and it re-locks after a spell of inactivity. The passkey's private key stays in your device's secure hardware; Jot only ever handles a public key used to verify it, never your fingerprint itself.

Cloud mode: scoped to you

Cloud mode trades that absolute isolation for sync. Your notes, tags, notebooks, and AI settings are stored on our infrastructure so they follow you between devices. Sign-in is a one-time magic link — we store your email as your identifier and never set a password. Content lives in a managed database; we keep only brief server logs for abuse prevention, and every read is scoped to your account. You can export or delete your notes at any time.

Your AI key & your content

AI is optional and runs on your own provider key, stored encrypted at rest. AI features only do anything when you click them — Refine, Summarize, Suggest tags, Ask. At that point the relevant note text (or your question plus the excerpts it retrieves) is sent to your chosen provider under your key. If you haven't set a key, no content is sent to any AI provider, ever. Embeddings that power Ask are generated a few seconds after you save, and you can turn them off in Settings.

What we never do

Jot never trains on your notes
Your writing goes only to the AI provider you choose, under your own key — so pick one whose API terms don't use your data.
No selling data
We don't sell your data and don't use your notes for advertising.
No tracking
Analytics are cookieless and anonymous. No advertising IDs, no device fingerprints.
No lock-in
Notes are plain Markdown. Export the lot and leave whenever you like.

This page is the plain-English version. For the authoritative detail — processors, retention, the Google Drive backup flow, and your rights — read the full Privacy Policy and Terms.

Privacy you don't have to think about.

Start in local mode and nothing ever leaves your device. Add cloud sync only if you want it.

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