Private Note

Self-destructing secret notes — encrypted in your browser, read exactly once.

End-to-end encrypted · One-time read · Plaintext is never stored by the service

0 / 8,192 bytes

The note is encrypted in your browser before it is sent. The server only ever stores encrypted bytes — never the plaintext or decryption password.

Unread notes are destroyed at expiry even if nobody ever opens them.

Reference name stays only in this browser tab. It is not added to the note, share link, or server request.

This skips the recipient's Reveal confirmation. The opt-in marker stays in the URL fragment, which is not sent to the server. Opening the link will consume the note.

The password is never sent to or stored by the server. Share it with the recipient through a separate trusted channel. There is no password recovery.

How the private note works

Write a note and the browser encrypts it with a fresh, per-note 256-bit key before anything leaves your device. The service receives encrypted bytes, an opaque random note id and limited timestamps/expiry metadata needed to enforce one-time delivery — never the plaintext and never the decryption key. You get one share link; the key lives exclusively inside that link's URL fragment, which browsers do not send in HTTP requests.

The note can be retrieved once. On a successful consume, the stored encrypted payload is deleted so a second attempt, a parallel attempt or a replay gets the same "no longer available" result. Notes the recipient never opens are removed when they expire. The protocol supports a lifetime from 60 seconds up to 7 days. There is no recovery: if the link is lost, the note expires, or it has been consumed, the content is unrecoverable by design.

Because the key travels inside the link, treat the complete link as a secret: anyone who obtains it can attempt to read the note once. Requests are configured not to be cached, framed or referred from the protected note route, and the note service applies bounded rate limits. Network delivery necessarily exposes limited connection metadata such as an IP address to the infrastructure and rate limiter; Private Note is encrypted-content storage, not a zero-metadata service.

For the full treatment of retention, infrastructure and your rights, read the Privacy Policy.

Where is the Private Note key?

The decryption key is stored only in the fragment of the share link, the part after #. Browsers do not send that fragment in the HTTP request, so the service never receives the key. Keep the complete share link private because anyone who has it can attempt the one allowed read.