--- title: "Secure Notes App: How We Protect Your Notes in Memory Chat" description: "A separate key for every note, encryption on your phone before anything syncs, and a Master Key that never reaches our servers. What that means for you." locale: "en" canonical: "https://memorychat.app/en/blog/secure-notes-app-how-we-protect-your-privacy/" publishedDate: "2026-10-03T10:00:00.000Z" updatedDate: "2026-10-16T23:08:26.000Z" author: "Memory Chat Team" tags: ["secure notes app","private notes app","safe notes app","encrypted notes app","private notepad","secure notepad","notes app with privacy","private notes with password","encrypted notes","safe notes app for android","secure note taking","locked notes"] readingMinutes: 5 --- # Secure Notes App: How We Protect Your Notes in Memory Chat > A separate key for every note, encryption on your phone before anything syncs, and a Master Key that never reaches our servers. What that means for you. - **Published**: 2026-10-03 - **Author**: Memory Chat Team - **Canonical Article**: https://memorychat.app/en/blog/secure-notes-app-how-we-protect-your-privacy/ - **Website**: https://memorychat.app --- Think about what's in your notes app right now. Maybe a half-written letter to your dad, the dose of a new medication, what you owe on the car, a voice memo you'd be embarrassed for anyone to hear, a photo of your kid's birth certificate. Writing those down shouldn't come with a worry that someone at the company, an ad network or a stranger could read them. Memory Chat works on one rule, which is that **your memories belong to you.** Encryption, private keys and controls on your own devices work together to keep your notes, recordings and files that way. Here's how, in plain language. ## Key Terms, Explained Simply Security does not have to be confusing. Before we explain how Memory Chat protects your information, here are five basic terms in plain English. ### 1. What does encryption mean? Encryption turns a readable message or image into scrambled code. Only you and the intended recipient can make sense of it; anyone who intercepts it sees gibberish. ### 2. What is an Encryption Key? A digital encryption key is a unique secret string that lets a device turn information into scrambled data and then restore it to readable text, photos, or audio. Without the exact key, the data stays unreadable, like a locked door that only its own key can open. ### 3. What Is Envelope Encryption? Each note or file has its own key, like a locked box with a separate key. Memory Chat secures those individual keys with your personal Master Key. This method, known as envelope encryption, separates the protection of the content from the protection of its key. ### 4. What is On-Device Encryption? Locking your home means turning the key yourself before you leave instead of relying on someone nearby to do it later. On-device encryption works the same way: your phone scrambles notes and files before sending them over the internet. ### 5. What does "Offline-First" Mean? Your notes are stored on the phone itself, so you can open, search, or edit them without an internet connection, even on a plane or deep underground. When you reconnect, encrypted changes sync across your other devices. ## What happens when you save a note When you type a note or tick a checklist item, it's saved to an encrypted database on your phone right away, with no waiting on a server. Each note gets its own 256-bit encryption key, so no two notes share one, and that key is then sealed with your personal Master Key. So if you sync your phone with your laptop tonight, the copy that passes through our servers on the way is scrambled, and we can store it and hand it on without ever being able to read a word of it. ## Photos, voice memos and files Say you snap a photo of your passport for a trip. Before it leaves your phone, Memory Chat encrypts the file itself with a key of its own and only then uploads it, so anyone who grabbed it from storage without permission would get noise that won't open. When you pull up the same note on your iPad later, the encrypted file comes down to the iPad and gets decrypted there, in its own memory, with its own key. ## Where your keys live You hold the Master Key, not us, and our servers never store it unencrypted. It lives in one of these places: - Apple Keychain on iPhone, iPad and Mac, or Android Keystore on Android, with safeguards that vary a little by device - The private `appDataFolder` in your Google Drive, for a Google account backup - iCloud Keychain, for an Apple account backup There's also an emergency recovery QR code. Save or print it and keep it somewhere private, because if you lose access to your devices it can restore the keys needed to get your encrypted data back. Treat it like a password. ## Keeping people off your phone Encryption protects your notes on the way to our servers and while they're stored there, but it can't help if someone picks up your unlocked phone. For that, Super Memory and Ultra Memory give you: - An app lock with Face ID or your fingerprint - A lock on just the Memory Boxes that hold sensitive things, like a health journal, or on the whole app - A blurred preview when you switch away, so nobody glancing at the app switcher can read your screen ## No ads built from your notes Some free apps pay for themselves with advertising, so before you trust any app with private information it's worth asking how it makes money. Memory Chat doesn't put ads in your notes and doesn't sell their content to advertisers. It's paid for by subscriptions: - **Basic Memory** (free, $0): unlimited Memory Boxes and notes, up to 2 active Workspaces, sync across **2 devices**, and 100MB of cloud storage - **Super Memory** ($3.99/mo or $39.99/yr): everything in Basic Memory, up to 10 active Workspaces, sync across **4 devices**, 5GB of cloud storage, advanced UI customization, biometric app lock (Face ID or fingerprint), and uncompressed HD image uploads - **Ultra Memory** ($9.99/mo or $99.99/yr): everything in Super Memory, unlimited Workspaces, sync across **8 devices**, and 30GB of cloud storage Prices can differ by region and app store, since they're adjusted for local purchasing power. ## Taking your data with you One tap exports your notes, checklists, recordings and photos into a .memchat backup file that you can import into Memory Chat later. You can protect that backup with a password, in which case PBKDF2 with 210,000 iterations turns the password into an encryption key and the archive is encrypted with it, so keep the password somewhere safe or you won't be able to open the file. The backup is yours to store wherever you like, and you can restore it on any compatible device. ## Start with one private note If there's something you've been keeping out of your notes app because you weren't sure who could see it, try putting it in Memory Chat on the free plan, and print your recovery QR code while you're at it. [Get started with Memory Chat](/en/).