(Archived) Concern from a happy, loyal customer

[Arbitrary 0]

I'm afraid that I won't be able to use Evernote 3+. I'm very concerned about sensitive work information falling into the wrong hands. I use Evernote for EVERYTHING. It is my memory replacement. I put customer information, phone numbers, addresses, and other details that I wouldn't want anyone seeing. Forcing me to keep a copy of everything on your servers is nearly a deal-killer. I've already dealt with this fear with gmail, google docs, etc., and have come to some level of comfort with Google after they fought the Justice Department to keep them from getting user queries that contain private information. I don't know your company's philosophy. I also don't know that you will not sell your company to another company that will violate my privacy. Because of how useful Evernote is to me I put too much information in it to risk exposing it to others.

I need the ability to encrypt everything in my notebook and for it to be stored encrypted. I want to use the sync features. I have 5 different computers that I use Evernote on and I love the sync in EverNote 3 beta. I don't think the reward is greater than the risk, though.

Please find some way to let me continue using this fantastic product.

[vogelap 27]

You make valid and oft-repeated concerns. Evernot3's current configuration to allow local notebooks is a stop-gap measure (and not perfectly implemented), but it may be enough to satisfy your needs for now.

[EP2008 17]

Just use evernote in OFFLINE mode and set your firewall to block it from connecting to the net if you are really paranoid about your data being saved on their server.

Your concerns are legitimate and our data should be as important as banking information (to some, it could be even MORE important).

[shimra 14]

Just use evernote in OFFLINE mode and set your firewall to block it from connecting to the net if you are really paranoid about your data being saved on their server.

Even better, you can block it with Firewall and change your password up on the web version. With the password changed, even without the firewall, the client will be unable to connect when tries to log onto the server with the old password. You then have double layers of protection (or triple, if you include the "offline" button.)

That said, there should be an easier way to do this than fighting with Evernote in this fashion.

[dormouse 3]

I understand all the advice, but, if that advice is followed, is 3 better than 2.2 or worse?

[salgud 12]

I understand all the advice, but, if that advice is followed, is 3 better than 2.2 or worse?

Can't say better or worse, depeends on what you want to do with it. The only real enhancement I can see in 3.0 is that it synchs with the web. Since I have no need for that at this time, that does me no good. It's far less powerful. Marc calls it "Evernote Lite" and is well justified. Others are more knowledgeable about the details than I. I read the comments in this forum before I got access to it, and so wasn't so surprised as others when I finally saw it. I've poked at it like a plate of turnips, but it obviously won't satisfy my appetite like 2.2 did. Saved searches kind of replace keyword categories, but don't do many of the things that the old categories would do. I.e., filters. Templates are history. Note links are history. Others are waiting patiently for these things to return, but I've noticed that the developers and Phil quickly reply that certain requested features are coming soon, and many of those have come in the latest releases, but I haven't seen (please correct me if I've missed it) any such reference to note links, templates, or the full capabilities of the old categories. 3.0 is aimed at the market of those who take pictures of wine labels and business cards. Whoever they are. :?

I believe that the new CEO, Phil, is replesenting the interests of the VCs, understandably, and that they are seeking a much broader market than EN2.2 was reaching or probably could reach. So they are headed in a new direction. Whether this new incarnation of EN will be successful or not remains to be seen. But it simply can't be successuful with many of us who've used it for a while and have tapped it's full potential. It's deliberately no longer that kind of tool. I feel like someone promised me new transportation to replace my old worn-out Toyota Tercel, and given me a nice, shiny, new bicycle! It's prettier and it works, even got baskets in back, but not nearly a replacement.

[crane 40]

I've poked at it like a plate of turnips

and

I feel like someone promised me new transportation to replace my old worn-out Toyota Tercel, and given me a nice, shiny, new bicycle! It's prettier and it works, even got baskets in back, but not nearly a replacement.

I love your analogies salgud! They're perfect, and match my experiences too. Thanks for making me smile

[tablets_r_nifty 0]

+1 regarding security/privacy concerns.

I also was considering using EN for customer/client data because of its great abilities to search inside of scanned images (such as forms that have been filled out by hand).

While the sync options are nifty, it could be disastrous if there were ever a programming mistake that made everyone's private notebooks public, even for a brief period of time. I wish that there were an encryption option wherein we could define our own key, much like what Mozy does with their back up service.

In the same vein, it would be wonderful if the new EN were HIPAA compliant.

[Arbitrary 0]

I wish that there were an encryption option wherein we could define our own key, much like what Mozy does with their back up service.

This is exactly what I want. I want to use public key encryption so that only my endpoints can display decrypted data. This would make all thin-client implementation on mobile and through browsers ineffective but it would give me the major benefits of 3.0 which are, for me, the ability to have my same notes across all of the computers that make up my work and life.

[vogelap 27]

I understand all the advice, but, if that advice is followed, is 3 better than 2.2 or worse?

Can't say better or worse, depeends on what you want to do with it. The only real enhancement I can see in 3.0 is that it synchs with the web. Since I have no need for that at this time, that does me no good.

Agreed... The only "feature" that 3.0 possesses that 2.2.1 does not have is synching. I do not see the value proposition in synching, so it does me no good either. Stick with 2.2.1.

[jgbaron 0]

I will speak as another happy, loyal customer of EN 2.2.1, who has not (as yet) tried the beta 3. But I have concerns after reading most of this forum.

In my opinion, EverNote 2 is a phenomenal product. I had been looking for a long time for something that would get my day-to-day text notes out of the non-searchable paper notebook world and on to the PC / the web / wherever, where they could be searched. I tried using many things as a personal notebook over the years: email (just too awkward), flat txt files (too limiting), OneNote and Google Notebooks (both close, and ok for web clips, but no cigar). I tried EverNote 1, and was immediately hooked. There were limitations, of course, but it was the first note-taking product (for me) that was good enough for me to stop adding to my 23-year stack of 100-page composition notebooks. When EverNote 2 beta came out, I was even happier -- the out of band notes was the killer new feature for me.

To me, the definitive core features of EverNote as a product are:

• 
  ability to create individual plain-text notes that are light-weight and quick,
  which are time-stamped and displayed as a sequential list (the "endless tape" metaphor),
  and which can be tagged, searched, and inter-linked
  

Web clips, images, ink notes, and syncing to another db / device are all gravy -- I use web clips (mostly text) quite a lot, and images and ink notes occasionally, and I don't currently sync, I just back up. I use a laptop, period. But if EverNote did nothing but the list above, in plain text only, I would still buy it and depend on it.

With all that said, I am a big believer in storing information "in the cloud", so the new feature of EverNote 3 syncing to the web, if accompanied by strong encryption, is a Good Thing. For me, since I use EverNote as a personal notebook, sharing is secondary -- if I want to share something, I'm likely to extract it and send it to somebody, or put it somewhere else where it is shared. Maybe I'm just old-school. Being able to get at my EverNote db from anywhere on the web is also gravy. But the core features -- fast plain text notes, endless tape metaphor, and tagging/searching/linking -- are the key gotta-haves.

I Do Not Think that EverNote 3 should simplify itself in order to aim for the same space as Google Notebook or OneNote. Google Notebook does not work for me because I'm not always connected -- I need a local copy with a sync function. And the local copy had better be fast. Google Notebook's tagging and categorization are also too simplistic -- notebooks and labels are just not enough. And again, when a notebook got too large, things got very slow.

The bottom line, I want more of what EverNote does well, not less. If you add syncing and put EverNote "in the cloud" with a simpler UI in order to reach a broader market, great. But please do not "dumb down" the power-user features of a great product in order to reach the wider market

-- Joe Baron