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Cross-platform apps and privacy
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Posted by MadaboutDana
Dec 6, 2024 at 09:41 AM
Slightly scrappy post that may be of interest to some:
Inspired by the Google-free version of Android currently being developed by Dutch company e-Foundation (together with Murena), I’ve been reexamining Android alongside my current Apple-based IT environment. At the same time, I’ve been checking out knowledge management and in particular task/project management apps that run on a broad range of platforms.
My particular focus has been on end-to-end encryption. This is, it seems to me, increasingly desirable, but only a limited number of apps offer it.
So I’ve been experimenting with:
acreom (a project/task management app, available on most platforms and on the web, recently open-sourced – excellent on desktop, good on iOS, not great on Android)
Justnote (also open-source, uses an unusual distributed server approach – still very new, very elegant, but search function a bit hit-and-miss)
Notesnook (proprietary, but with a generous free tier – nice, well-developed app, but with a lot of internal advertising urging upgrades to “Pro”)
At the same time, I’ve also been experimenting with two of my most used apps, Obsidian and NotesHub. I have no particular desire to tie myself into an annual subscription for Obsidian (although I may yet decide to do so, simply because it’s so flexible), so I use both of them with GitHub (using an Obsidian plug-in called “Fit”, which works very well). NotesHub’s management of GitHub is exemplary – way ahead of most other apps.
Now that I’m experimenting with Android, I’ve also invested in a cheap and cheerful Android tablet (Ulefone Tab a11 Pro, for those interested), and I’ve been impressed by the overall fit and finish of both tablet and operating system. But wow, Android is so open to abuse: I run DuckDuckGo as my browser on Android 14, and it also acts as a tracker screen. The number of trackers blocked by DuckDuckGo runs into the thousands over the course of 3-4 days – most of them Google trackers, or trackers used by software performance monitors, but the details of what they track are positively horrifying in the sense that they are super-personal. Apple’s protestations of respect for privacy are also, of course, highly suspect, as anyone who’s run a tracker monitor on a Mac computer will have discovered (hundreds of calls back to the mothership made every day). What to do?
Now, even acreom and NotesHub use trackers (Google, primarily), because Google trackers appear to be embedded in almost all Android apps. But then, so do so many other services, whether TIckTick or Microsoft Outlook (well duh, Microsoft!). So the attempts by e-Foundation and others to create a deGoogled version of Android are very welcome – as are calls to create a new version of Linux that is wholly independent of Silicon Valley. There’s a huge potential niche here for a completely new approach to operating systems (especially now that Microsoft is toying with including ads in Windows – what a lovely thought!). Linux has always been a resort for those searching for neutrality – Cory Doctorow is a regular and highly capable advocate of privacy-focused software.
Obsidian, incidentally, doesn’t appear to use trackers in its Android guise… just saying! But neither is it end-to-end encrypted.
It’s time to start thinking laterally! I’d point out that e-Foundation have just realised a Google-free version of Android for the relatively new CMF Phone 1, a very nice and affordable smartphone from Nothing. Their version of Android is also available for the Fairphone (which is designed to be user-repairable, with removable batteries and everything!) and various models of Google Pixel (amusingly enough!)
Posted by satis
Dec 6, 2024 at 05:10 PM
MadaboutDana wrote:
> My particular focus has been on end-to-end encryption.
> This is, it seems to me, increasingly desirable, but only
> a limited number of apps offer it.
I’m not familiar with the apps you mentioned but there are larger, established apps which offer e2ee which sync between iOS and macOS (and usualy, Android, Windows and Linux too). Standard Notes, Notesnook and Joplin immediately come to mind.
> Their version of Android is also available for the Fairphone
> (which is designed to be user-repairable, with removable
> batteries and everything!)
Be wary of products highlighting checklist features. I typically haven’t seen battery drain issues until a phone has used for at least three years, and at that point the processor, camera etc in new phones has become so improved there’s good reason to trade-in and upgrade. And the reason smartphone manufacturers have moved away from removable batteries isn’t anti-consumer or nefarious: by designing without an openable case that fits larger, standard-sized batteries phone manufacturers are able to make phones that are thinner, lighter, and more water- and dust-resistant. (Additionally, as battery technology has improved, the need for users to carry spare batteries has diminished, leading to less demand for removable options, while portable battery packs and chargers have become smaller and more affordable.)
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Dec 6, 2024 at 05:16 PM
Reflect Notes also has end to end encryption. They say this three different times on the home page, so they apparently take it seriously.
Posted by Christoph
Dec 7, 2024 at 10:10 AM
If you’re looking for e2e-encryption, https://standardnotes.com/ is also an interesting option.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Dec 16, 2024 at 03:37 PM
Thanks for the suggestions, people.
I’m currently looking seriously at buying an Obsidian Sync subscription – it is end-to-end encrypted, apparently, but a full subscription is quite expensive. The lesser subscription is relatively modest (USD 48, I believe), but only handles a single Vault and up to 1GB of data. That might be sufficient for my current needs, however.
On the other hand, you can run Obsidian quite nicely over (encrypted) iCloud if all you’re using are Mac devices. Having introduced Android to the equation, however, that’s not enough for me.
Standard Notes is certainly solid, but doesn’t appeal. Notesnook is pretty good and I use it already, but doesn’t have the (vast) flexibility of Obsidian.
As mentioned, I’ve been running a small Obsidian vault over GitHub using the Fit plugin, but the latter has temperamental moments which aren’t easy to overcome (often following the addition of a large batch of information). Shame, because when it works, it works very well.
One can run Obsidian on Android and OneDrive using the (rather good) OneSync app, but of course iOS doesn’t give you direct access to OneDrive, so that solution only works on Mac and Android, not on iPhone or iPad. I have toyed with setting up virtual iCloud folders on OneDrive, but frankly, what a hassle…
Cheers!
Bill