Your notes sit on your computer by default. I use chrome’s local storage to save your notes. That also means that there’s a limit to how much can be stored. I’ll cross that bridge and make something better at some point.
I value privacy, and by default I want to keep your information private.
By default, Jotter stores everything local to your machine (it uses Chrome’s local storage). And even though Chrome says, it can read the information in your tabs, the specific permission I use only allows the extension to interact with the page when you hit a hotkey that activates Jotter. Meaning, it is not able to read information on your tabs unless if you give it permission to. Toggling the “Open jotter app” shortkey triggers this on your current tab. But just browsing to (in the worst case) your bank account website, and not hitting any hotkey, does not let us look at your bank account.
I’ve also created some functionality to help you out. People have asked for integration with Google Docs and Notion, so I’ve made integrations with those to let you move your notes around easier. Those are opt-in only, but they will allow the app to create new documents in the service of your choice, and search your Google Drive.
I realize that Chrome uses different language to inform users what extensions can do. However, sometimes their descriptions are overly broad, and sound scarier than they are. I’ll go through each of the permissions I use in this extension:
storageThis lets me store data inside your chrome, for up to 5 megabytes. I store your notes and some user preferences in here. I realize 5mb is low, and I’ll work in the future to enable larger storage optionsactiveTabThis lets Jotter insert the notepad on tabs where the extension has been “activated”. Activation means that you, the user, made a conscious effort to use Jotter, either by hitting one of the Jotter hotkeys, or by clicking the “open editor” button on the Jotter extension panel. I do this, versus an alternative (”let Jotter view all my pages”) because I don’t want the extension to be able, for example, run commands in the background when you’re on your bank site and are not using the extension. You must make a conscious effort to say, ok, I’m using Jotter on this page, here we go. I’m saying this because there are permissions that allow extensions to do this kind of thing, and I’m trying to make the choice that’s most user-safe.-
scriptingThis lets me insert scripts into pages. This is basically how the Jotter editor works, and I do this because it makes it faster and easier for you, the user. And I strongly believe that speed matters for tracking thoughts. notificationsThis lets me send you notifications. There are some places where Jotter simply cannot work (for example on new tabs without a page loaded, or the chrome extensions site). People have run into this issue before, and I want a way to communicate this to you.identityIn the case where a user does want to use cloud abilities - for example, the ability to export their notes to Notion - I communicate to my server to make that happen. In order for this to happen, the extension in your browser needs to communicate to the server, that you are who you say you are.
Everyone has their own workstyle, and I appreciate that. I find it easier to record thoughts if I’m able to do it quickly and without minimal context switches. I tried to optimize for these things (contrast that to using Notion, which I love, but which means i have to switch apps, find the right place to categorize my next note, hit “+”, and then start typing). At least for me, I prefer capturing thoughts quickly, and processing and putting them into somewhere permanent later.
I’m David. I used to be a trader, and left. I read a lot on the internet and care about memory, knowledge, and efficiency. I made this because I wanted to augment my own working memory.
I guess you’d expect me to say there is none, which is what I’ll say. I care about this a lot. I won’t sell your data, and there’s pretty minimal costs to keeping this running right. I might try to monetize one day with other features (eg. cloud syncing, pro features), but those will be opt-in, and the base experience will be free.