Privacy and Your Data

Privacy and your data

Status: the design is settled, and the features are planned across Phases 2, 3, 12, and 13. No release exists yet, so there is no app to collect any data today. See Roadmap and status.

OpenNote is meant to be trustworthy with your data. It needs no account. Your notes live on your own computer, in plain folders. The app works offline, and on-device intelligence runs without sending anything out.

Where your data lives

The exe holds only the program. Everything personal lives outside it, in standard Windows folders.

What	Where
Notes	Documents\OpenNote\, or a folder you pick
Settings	%APPDATA%\OpenNote\settings.json
Search index and caches (can be rebuilt)	%LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenNote\cache\
Downloaded updates, the previous version, and backups	%LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenNote\
Speech and handwriting models (optional downloads)	%LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenNote\models\

A notebook is a folder, each section is a subfolder, and each page is a folder with its content, its images and recordings, and a readable page.md copy. You can back them up, sync them with a tool you trust, or read them without OpenNote.

A planned portable mode keeps settings, caches, and models next to the program, so OpenNote can run from a USB drive and leave nothing on other PCs.

What uses the network

Only the actions in this table use the internet. Each is optional, or is described here so you can decide.

Use	What happens	Control
Update check	Every six hours, the app reads a small manifest from GitHub Releases. Your notes aren't sent.	Choose automatic, ask first, or check by hand
Update download	The app downloads a signed exe for your PC	Same setting
Model downloads	Speech and other models download only after you agree, with their sizes shown	Setup and Settings
Linked accounts	Google and Microsoft sign-in, and "Send to" uploads, when you link an account	Off until you link one. Nothing uploads without an action.
Online look-ups	Finding a source by DOI or ISBN, and live embeds, run only when you ask	Listed in the Privacy panel
Crash reports	A report can be saved for you to send if you choose. It never includes note content.	Opt in (Phase 13)

In Phase 13, Settings gets a Privacy panel that lists every kind of network use and when it last ran. A "Work offline" switch blocks all of it, and the title bar says so in text.

On-device intelligence

Transcription, handwriting recognition, text in images, and summaries run on your PC. Tests confirm that these parts of the app can't reach the network. They stay off until you turn them on. See On-device intelligence.

Recording

Recording never starts by itself, and a clear indicator shows while it runs. Audio stays in your notebook. See Audio recording.

Protecting sections

Password-protected sections are encrypted on disk and unlocked with Windows Hello. They lock again after a chosen idle time, and when Windows locks or sleeps. Locked sections are left out of search, thumbnails, recent pages, and crash reports.

Deleting data

Deleted items wait in Trash for 30 days. Emptying Trash also removes a page's old versions, search entries, and transcripts. "Delete history" clears old versions for a page, section, or notebook.

Related pages

• Installing and updating
• Import and export
• The security policy explains how to report a problem privately.