Privacy
Can Apple read your notes?
The short answer is yes, in most cases. Here’s why, what “encrypted in iCloud” really means, and what to do if that bothers you.
The Catchlight Journal
Notes on privacy, focus, and building software slowly.
Field notes from building a private notes app in the open, plus practical guides on capturing thoughts, protecting them, and getting more done with less friction.
Featured
Privacy
What zero-knowledge actually means for your notes
Many claim their app is secure, but most of them don’t mean what you assume. Here’s an easy way, to tell the difference, in about 10 seconds.
Comparisons
The best private notes apps with no account (2026)
An honest roundup of note-taking apps you can use privately, some with no account at all, and how to tell real privacy from the marketing kind.
Privacy
The UK quietly lost Advanced Data Protection. Here’s what it means for your notes.
Apple pulled its strongest iCloud privacy setting for new UK users. Here’s what it did, what changed, and how to keep your notes private now.
Product
One Take. Why notes, tasks and reminders belong together
The three-app shuffle is a habit, not a rule. What changes when a single thing can be all three at once?
Privacy
Your notes shouldn’t need an account
Sign-up walls are there to collect you, not to help you. A look at what “no account” is actually buying you.
Comparisons
Apple Notes is great, until it isn’t
An honest look at where the default starts to creak, and who should probably just stay put.
Craft
The quiet case for offline-first
Why an app that works with no connection ends up faster, calmer, and more private almost by accident.
Craft
How we designed the Iris
The little mark on every Take carries more weight than it looks. Here’s how it earned its place.
Privacy
A password manager for your thoughts
Twelve words, held only by you. What a Privacy Phrase is, and why we refuse to call it a seed phrase.
Craft
Where the names came from
Catchlight and Obie aren’t words we made up. We borrowed them from people who spent a century learning to light a human face, and there’s a real person in one.
One considered email. Whenever there’s something worth reading.
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