Privnote offers a dead simple way to exchange confidential messages that leave no digital trail behind. Their self-destructing encrypted notes embrace ephemerality to keep your conversations truly private. Here’s a quick guide to using Privnote for private messaging.
Step 1 – Create a new note
Go to the Privnote site and click “New Note”. Type or paste your sensitive message into the text field on their home page. All encryption happens seamlessly in the background – you don’t have to do anything special.
Step 2 – Copy the unique URL
Once you click “Create”, a unique one-time use URL is generated specifically for this note. Copy the URL somewhere or email it to yourself, so you share it securely.
Step 3 – Share the URL with Recipients
Send the unique Privnote URL to your intended recipients via phone, email, or messaging app. Treat this URL like you would a password – only share it over secure channels and only with trusted recipients.
Step 4 – Recipients view the note
When your recipients visit the Privnote URL you shared, it will decrypt and display the sensitive message. Images, documents, and other files can’t be embedded, so the note can only contain protected text.
Step 5 – Note self-destructs
After the recipient views the note, it is automatically deleted forever from Privnote’s servers, leaving no data behind for hackers or subpoenas.
Step 6 – Recipient replies
If your recipient wants to reply, they create their new Privnote through the homepage and share its unique URL back with you via a secure channel.
Step 7 -Delete URLs when done
Once your conversation concludes, manually delete the Privnote URLs you have saved locally. It closes any remaining access to the notes.
Optional password protection
For an extra layer of security, you set a password when creating a new note. Then privately share the password with recipients separately from the URL. It ensures only those with both the URL and password view the note.
- Double-check URLs before sending to avoid misdirected notes. Once sent, there’s no way to get them back or delete them.
- Only access Privnote through HTTPS encrypted connections for secure transmission.
- Turn off local message previews in your email client to avoid accidental exposures of URLs.
- Use a private channel like Signal when sharing URLs and passwords.
- Consider setting note expiration times to auto-delete unread notes after a certain period.
- Enable link explosions to further protect access after the first view.
Despite the privacy benefits, some risks remain. Recipients could screenshot or copy Privnotes before they self-destruct. Device malware could also potentially monitor content locally. And metadata like your IP address in URLs could identify you as the creator. Privnote minimizes the privacy pitfalls of normal messaging by avoiding data retention. Privnote flips the security model from persistent conversations vulnerable to hacking to ephemeral notes designed to vanish without a trace. Instead of amassing communication histories full of liabilities, your sensitive conversations happen at the moment and then disappear. While not entirely bulletproof, Privnote’s auto-encrypting self-destructing notes empower truly private messaging built for the modern digital era.
