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Saferoom - Zero-Knowledge Encryption for Evernote and more


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Hello, Evernote community,

 

We are a small team of developers and we are passionate about our new product which is Saferoom. We have been working hard to provide users with zero-knowledge encryption functionality without destroying user's productivity. We wanted to build an encryption app that will be easy to use and allow anybody protect their personal data.

 

Saferoom is now a set of mobile and desktop that together add full encryption capabilities on-top of Evernote. It means that you work with Evernote normally, and when you need to create or view an encrypted note you use Saferoom. All the time your encrypted items are part of Evernote notes, but you can see them (e.g. decrypt) only inside Saferoom app. And Evernote is just a beginning - we want Saferoom to be like "Passbook" for your encrypted data.

 

Saferoom encrypts whole note including all the resources - independently of the resource type and your password is stored on the device only. It also means that password cannot be restored - that is a price for true zero-knowledge encryption.

 

Our app is available in iTunes Store:

https://itunes.apple.com/app/saferoom-one-app-to-encrypt/id964858486

 

And in Google Play Store:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.secomsoft.Saferoom

 

 

Saferoom Desktop for MacOS and Windows are free:

 

https://itunes.apple.com/app/saferoom-zero-knowledge-encryption/id981600236

 

Windows:

http://en.softonic.com/s/saferoom:windows-mac-iphone-android-windows-phone-7-web-apps/windows

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/saferoom-for-windows-81/9nblggh40cdw#

 

And also you can use Saferoom Chrome extension:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/saferoom/nnphkaehepldgkjgnlnmfmpcjkklibfj?hl=en-US

 

 

Here is a video demos of Saferoom capabilities:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzyNcs_NN5H_JVxZCeR1bFg/videos?spfreload=10

 

Any feedback is always welcomed.

Edited by ilia5101982
Added link to new Windows version
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  • Level 5*

Congratulations!

It is great to see someone who takes security / privacy seriously developing an app that will help all of us protect our data. I've followed the development of this app from the initial idea all the way to its current state and I think it looks like a major breakthrough that will help all of us. I'm looking forward to trying it out!

However, as a warning to everyone, this is a beta product, which means you are likely to encounter problems (that's why they call it a beta), so please be sure to back up your data just in case. Actually, you should always be doing this!

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=962

The more people who test it out and provide feedback, the better the app will be, and if there is something in particular you want to see for your use case, the beta stage is a great opportunity to make sure your voice is heard.

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  • Evernote Expert

Good luck for your project.. This is something that a lot of people have been requesting for.. and the fact that it is client side encryption makes it even more interesting.. 

 

But if my understading is right, the encrypted notes won't be indexed and show up in evernote search results, but i guess, you can't have the cake and eat it too.. Good Luck guys..

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Good luck for your project.. This is something that a lot of people have been requesting for.. and the fact that it is client side encryption makes it even more interesting.. 

 

But if my understading is right, the encrypted notes won't be indexed and show up in evernote search results, but i guess, you can't have the cake and eat it too.. Good Luck guys..

 

Indeed. They won't be indexed, because syncing the content would defeat the purpose of the encryption used to keep it private. Notice, though, that the titles are visible. If you use informative titles (I recommend YYYYMMDD + keywords) then it is pretty easy to navigate even thousands of notes without needing to actually view the content. 

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First of all thanks a lot for kind words and great help that we have recieved from Chris and Evernote community.

 

As correctly mentioned, Saferoom encrypts the content on the client-side, so it will not be indexed at all - that is the purpose of zero-knowledge encryption.

 

Additionally, we have prepared a Windows Desktop Version that will allow you create encrypted notes already next week. We are waiting for approval from CNET download.com website. We decided that it will be better that our software will be checked by third-party systems so users can be sure of it's security and integrity. CNET approval usually takes couple of days, so our deadline is 18.02.2015. I will post update here and on our twitter: https://twitter.com/saferoom_app

 

You can check our Youtube channel where we have already posted Windows functionality. Remember, that is a beta version - and we would love to hear your feedback. And one more thing - we plan to release Saferoom Windows (and MacOS) client for free.

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzyNcs_NN5H_JVxZCeR1bFg

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  • 1 month later...

Hey, Evernoters!
 
 
We have finished our Saferoom MacOS client which you can now download for free from download.com website - http://goo.gl/BCqBxI.
  
 
You can also have a look how simple it is to completely encrypt your Evernote note with Saferoom:
http://goo.gl/U792Kf

 

We are almost finished with our iOS Beta testing - and we are proceeding to release in the middle of April. And then with Saferoom you will enjoy full zero-knowledge encryption on-top of Evernote.

 

As always our updates are on twitter: @saferoom_app

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hey! 

 

We are proud to announce the release of Saferoom iOS client - goo.gl/WdmdkY.

 

Now you can encrypt your Evernote notes using any of our free desktop clients and place secure notes into synchronized notebooks and then decrypt any of those notes using Saferoom iOS. You can also create encrypted notes right from your iPhone or iPad.

 

Getting started guide for Saferoom iOS - goo.gl/9qwCHo.

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Hola, Evernoters!

 

 

We have update our Windows Client - now it is more simple, and clean. Have a look at Saferoom Windows in action:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TkJZJ2x-7I&index=2&list=PLXqjPvpj-4Xa81

 

And this is how you can encrypt Evernote notes from an iOS mobile device (iPhone in this case):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ3u5xwhCkE&list=PLXqjPvpj-4Xa9eHiARHxD5JGci7ztlLbF&index=3&spfreload=10

 

And here is how you can decrypt Evernote notes (including PDF files) on a mobile device (check the Touch ID Support):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKVFS2SOE4g&index=2&list=PLXqjPvpj-4Xa9eHiARHxD5JGci7ztlLbF&spfreload=10

 

Saferoom iOS is now available in App Store for just 4.99$ (one-time fee), and Saferoom MacOS and Saferoom Windows are free.

 

Cheers,

Ilia

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hey,

 

a small update for a very important feature in Saferoom:

 

One-time passwords is a new feature in Saferoom that will be available in coming weeks with the new MacOS (v1.2), iOS (v1.2) and Windows versions.

Right now there is only one password in Saferoom - we call it a master key or master password. Your master password is stored securely in your device, and is always used for your operations. In general, it means that Saferoom is a single-user application - you use it for your own purposes.

Now with one-time passwords you have options - you can either encrypt or decrypt a note using master password, or you can either press or select "One-time password" and enter any different password to encrypt or decrypt current note. 

This will allow you to share encrypted notes with other people without revealing your own master password - just use one-time password feature and share the note to other people. They in turn can decrypt those notes using the same one-time password feature - Saferoom will just ask them to put password manually during decryption.

 

In the next post you will find the links to the examples.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Another update to Saferoom brings functionality of one-time passwords. That means you can now create encrypted notes and share them with other users without revealing your master passwords. Take a look how easy it is - 
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgZLw1JHxS8

 

Here is the detailed video how to use One-Time passwords with Saferoom MacOS:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIWPwnQAwcw

 

And here is the demo of Saferoom Windows:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzVEgFj36Es

 

Saferoom iOS is already under review in App Store. I will post the video with one-time passwords in Saferoom iOS as soon as it is approved by Apple.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hola, evernote-fan,

 

Yep, we at final stages of the development (encryption works fine, user interface tweaks left) and soon we will start beta testing of Android client. You can follow us on twitter (@saferoom_app) where we post updated. 

 

I really hope we can release it this September, let's see how beta tests go.

 

Kudos,

Ilia

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I installed this app and endured it for about 10 minutes while I looked for a way to stop the pop-ups notifying me every second about encrypting / decrypting together with an annoying ding even though Windows sounds is marked as 'none'.  After 10 minutes of this harassment, I uninstalled the program.  

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Hello,

 

When Will it be released for Google Drive?

 

zir, thank you for your interest. For Google Drive I think we will start in December. First we will try to support Dropbox, and then we will start investigations about Google Drive. Meanwhile, you can try Boxcryptor which might be a good solution for Google Drive only - only check if they are really zero-knowledge.

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I installed this app and endured it for about 10 minutes while I looked for a way to stop the pop-ups notifying me every second about encrypting / decrypting together with an annoying ding even though Windows sounds is marked as 'none'.  After 10 minutes of this harassment, I uninstalled the program.  

 

Hello, incantata,

 

I am deeply sorry that you had such a negative experience. And it hurts me even more because this negative experience is the result of my mistake - I think that you have installed the old version of Saferoom which had a timer support. It executed encryption/decryption operation based on configurable timer. By default it was set to 1 minute only. 

 

We quickly realized that it was not a very good for users based on the same frustrating experience that you and other users had. Our new version that you can download from here does not have such functionality and is informing you only when you run the encryption or decryption operation. 

 

My mistake was that in earlier posts I did not change the links for download - old links were forwarding users to CNET download. We are not placing our software there anymore. Here is a correct link:

http://en.softonic.com/s/saferoom:windows-mac-iphone-android-windows-phone-7-web-apps/windows

 

I really hope that you will give it a second try and maybe this time it will not be so annoying. 

I have already agreed that this weekend we will add two improvements - an indicator in the main window of the decryption/encryption process and an option to remove any pop-ups.

 

Thanks a lot for your feedback,

Cheers,

Ilia

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EDIT: The problem is resolved after I tried the Tools -> Clear Cache function.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Hi,

 

Love this project, thanks for all the work on getting encryption integrated with Evernote! Very useful!

 

Do you have bug reporting system?

 

I've installed Saferoom 1.2 on Windows 8. I found it was working working with the default notebook settings but I'm having an issue after I changed the default notebook names. I changed the Encrypt From and Encrypt To notebooks names:

 

Encrypt From: Saferoom_Encrypt

Encrypt To: Saferoom_Encrypted

 

When I click 'Encrypt', the log shows a successful encryption but the encrypted files do not appear in the 'Saferoom_Encrypted' notebook.

 

Thanks!

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I'm also interested in SafeRoom, but I'm a little bit concerned about the encryption format: is it a standard format (7zip, ...) or is it a proprietary one? In the latter case, how can I prevent data loss in case SafeRoom would cease to exist?

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  • Evernote Expert

This product seems to be very well developed.. At the moment though, I have a very limited Internet connection speed and i depend upon a lot of Evernote Indexer Files, and MetaData tagging.. Sure, I would love to have it all encrypted, but at the moment, my other needs are more important with inbuilt Evernote functionality than encryption..

 

And already my internet connection is .. :angry::( for the past few months..

 

But, I am sure that this is defintely a product in need.. Maybe, when I am a little free, i might consider this product atleast to encrypt my Personal diary journal in Evernote.. :)

 

Good Luck with this product guys.. We need more and more Third Party developers to develop functionalities that are not being natively provided by Evernote.. :)

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Hallo, Panzerkampfwagen,

 

Yes, unfortunately, this is a trade-off one have to make - either you have full encryption or indexing. However, it does not mean that there is no golden middle. We are investigating this question closely. I think that you need to search through many notes which include many different types of data like PDFs, images and etc. If they all are encrypted then you cannot search. 

 

We will try to find a way to provide at least partially indexing functionality and keep encryption still on current level. There are ways to achieve that - we are now "playing" with recognition tags, no good progress so far.

 

I just wanted to mention that we are looking into that seriously.

 

Thank you,

Ilia

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Hello, evernote-fan,

 

There is no way to attach Saferoom to Evernote Web Client. The only possible way is to create browser extension to which you can "share" your Evernote note. 

 

However, there is a catch - you still need to install something (browser extension). I think your question is related to a more complicated issue - when you are Internet cafe or library PC (with strict access policy), am I right? 

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 I think your question is related to a more complicated issue - when you are Internet cafe or library PC (with strict access policy), am I right? 

 

 

I already assumed that you have to install a browser extension which encrypts/decrypts. Using a public computer (Internet Café/Library) with strict access policy is so not possible. But for a work computer it's also often impossible to install a piece of software but the installation of browser extensions is possible. For this purpose such an extension could be really useful...

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Hi,

 

All right. We were already thinking about browser extensions - from the first check it looks like a simple task, however, our experience tells us that things usually are not what they seem to be in beginning. We need a bit more to investigate due to our load with Android version.

 

I will post updates here and in twitter (https://twitter.com/saferoom_app)

 

Regards,

Ilia

 

P.S. Check the new feature that we are deploying for Saferoom iOS v1.5 - you can now decrypt notes directly from Evernote app:

https://youtu.be/dE9tGY1OQQQ

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Hey guys, just downloaded and started playing around with Saferooom. What keeps a would-be intruder from altering the message - adding or deleting text to the message. Yes, it will stop them from reading what is in the note, but by changing a single character, you have essentially made it undecipherable. Would you also need to have a backup of the encrypted note stored somewhere within the program if the intruder, or even if your infant climbed on the computer and started banging away on the keyboard?

 

Just my thoughts.

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Hello, TheMyth,

 

Wow, I've never thought about this - thanks a lot for a challenging use case.

 

 As everything is stored in Evernote I thought that you can revert changes made to a note. Just tried that to cancel my changes to a note - and it is not so simple. I have used note history, but it works only for Premium.

https://evernote.com/contact/support/kb/#!/article/23258632

 

We need some time to think about implementation of such feature - maybe a like a tip where the character(s) have been changed, etc.

 

Cheers,

Ilia

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When I change the title of a note in the "encrypt from" notebook, and re-encrypt, the log indicates that the work was done, but there is no change in the titles of the encrypted notes. Is this expected?

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When an encrypted notebook is decrypted, the decrypted notes all carry over the tag "win_encrypted" as well as gaining the tag "win_decrypted". This makes it hard to do a search which excludes encrypted notes.

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When I change the title of a note in the "encrypt from" notebook, and re-encrypt, the log indicates that the work was done, but there is no change in the titles of the encrypted notes. Is this expected?

Similarly, notes deleted from the source plaintext notebook remain in the encrypted notebook. Conservative, but eventually messy. Seems that the easiest resolution to both issues is to delete all encrypted notes, and re-encrypt the source notebook.

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I just noticed that Saferoom created the encrypted notes target notebook as a local notebook! This seems contrary to the whole point of the app, no? Obviously I can pre-create this as synced, and repeat the process, but this could be a big surprise if someone was counting on Saferoom having done the right thing and having the encrypted notes in the cloud for recovery / transfer purposes.

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Hello, jdmarch,

 

See my answers below.

 

 

When I change the title of a note in the "encrypt from" notebook, and re-encrypt, the log indicates that the work was done, but there is no change in the titles of the encrypted notes. Is this expected?

 

Interesting... So here is how it works - as title is not encrypted, then when you press "Encrypt" for the second time after change the title, the note is not encrypted because Saferoom sees that the content has not changed. You press "Clear note cache" in Tools, before you press Encrypt and the note will be encrypted with the new title.

 

When an encrypted notebook is decrypted, the decrypted notes all carry over the tag "win_encrypted" as well as gaining the tag "win_decrypted". This makes it hard to do a search which excludes encrypted notes.

 

These tags are by default in the app. You can remove them in Tools->Settings - just leave the fields for tags blank.

 

 

 

When I change the title of a note in the "encrypt from" notebook, and re-encrypt, the log indicates that the work was done, but there is no change in the titles of the encrypted notes. Is this expected?

Similarly, notes deleted from the source plaintext notebook remain in the encrypted notebook. Conservative, but eventually messy. Seems that the easiest resolution to both issues is to delete all encrypted notes, and re-encrypt the source notebook.

 

 

We made it so that Saferoom Desktop apps never delete anything. This was done on purpose to protect users. I agree that it is a bit messy, but automatic deletion of notes can lead to more severe consequences.

 

 

I just noticed that Saferoom created the encrypted notes target notebook as a local notebook! This seems contrary to the whole point of the app, no? Obviously I can pre-create this as synced, and repeat the process, but this could be a big surprise if someone was counting on Saferoom having done the right thing and having the encrypted notes in the cloud for recovery / transfer purposes.

 

This is also done on purpose in the beginning. By default all notebooks that we create are local - if we would create a synced notebooks for the results, and for some reason some user can accidentally copy original note there (or for decryption), then this note can be automatically synced with Evernote cloud, hence, there is no point of encrypting it. To avoid such risk in the beginning when our users just start with the app we decided to make all notebooks local. 

 

Please let me know if above answers are enough for you or you would like more explanations.

 

Regards,

Ilia

P.S. We are working on Saferoom Pro app for Windows and MacOS which will feature much closer integration with Evernote.

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Thanks for the explanations, Ilia. Not sure I would make the same choices, but all reasonable! 

 

The only thing that I might suggest is more explanation / warning, especially that created encrypted notebooks are local, which could cause drastic loss of data.

 

Look forward to hearing more about Saferoom Pro.

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Problems with the log:

1) The window won't resize, and the lines won't wrap, so that the only way to read long entries is to horizontally scroll back and forth, poor UX.

2) There seems to be no Copy to clipboard implemented, making it hard to record issues (e.g. my issue report coming up next!)

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> ERROR: Unable to encrypt note [<note title>]: the 'div' start tag on line 25 does not match the end tag of 'end-note'. Line 67, position 329.

 

The note in question is perfectly readable. Honestly, I don't really care if it is mal-formed. Just encrypt it as-is!!

 

While this might be a useful warning about a potential Evernote bug, it is not useful or friendly in its present form.

 

Thanks!

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Hi, jdmarch,

 

Thanks again for thorough check, and below are my comments. If it is fine with you, let's continue our troubleshooting using our support mail: support@getsaferoom.com . You can report any issues using this email.

 

 

Problems with the log:

1) The window won't resize, and the lines won't wrap, so that the only way to read long entries is to horizontally scroll back and forth, poor UX.

2) There seems to be no Copy to clipboard implemented, making it hard to record issues (e.g. my issue report coming up next!)

 

Agreed, this is a bug. I have attached this for version 1.4. We might also add some errors printout in lower status bar, so you can immediately see what was the problem.

 

 

> ERROR: Unable to encrypt note [<note title>]: the 'div' start tag on line 25 does not match the end tag of 'end-note'. Line 67, position 329.

 

The note in question is perfectly readable. Honestly, I don't really care if it is mal-formed. Just encrypt it as-is!!

 

While this might be a useful warning about a potential Evernote bug, it is not useful or friendly in its present form.

 

Thanks!

 

Error is clear, some tag is not closed. All right, I will try to reproduce this. As a user I understand your point of view here. However, we are still dependent on Evernote, and this bug is potentially Evernote export/import issue. I will investigate this further. I would suggest that you try to export this note, and then import it back to Evernote and see if there are any errors. 

 

 

 

"Encrypt now" re-encrypts (with different results) several notes that have not been edited since they were encrypted (last update date is more than a week previous).

What could cause this?

 

Now here how it works: let's say you move a note with title "First Note" to encryption inbox. You press "Encrypt now", it is encrypted and place to other notebook of your choice. Now if you press again "Encrypt now" again, nothing will happen, because Saferoom knows that it has already encrypted this note. Now you move "Second Note" to encryption inbox and here you have an option: if you press "Clear note cache" before "Encrypt now", "First note" and "Second note" will be encrypted. So you will have duplicate of "First note" encrypted, because after clearing the cache Saferoom runs encryption of all notes in the encryption inbox (cache is empty, so all notes considered to be new). If you don't press "Clear note cache", then only "Second note" will encrypted.

 

We have done that to avoid creating more duplicates. We thought that notebook for encryption should be always empty, and if accidentally you forget one original note there, it will not encrypted again. 

 

I would like to welcome a discussion about this functionality if you want, because it seems not very fluid and a bit cumbersome for us also. The question is: is it ok to have duplicates if you don't remove notes from encryption inbox?

 

Thanks,

Ilia

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello,

 

We are almost ready - I think we will start sending the instructions this Friday. We want to finish Share Extension so you can also test decryption directly from Evernote app. If we won't finish it, then we will just send the invites for beta without the extension.

 

Cheers,

Ilia

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey,

 

We are preparing the release of Saferoom Android, and I hope it will happen this or next week, depending on how fast Google Play will review the app. Therefore, we have closed sign-up for Beta. 

Thank you very much for participation, we really hope that you were not disappointed.

 

Moreover, along with Saferoom Beta we are preparing a new feature in Saferoom iOS (supported in Android also) - starting from Saferoom iOS v1.7 you will be able to use 1Password to handle encryption and decryption. Here is a small demo how it will look like:

 

Decrypting Evernote notes with 1Password extension

 

Stay tuned for updates in twitter: https://twitter.com/saferoom_app

 

Cheers,

Ilia

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Hola, folks,

 

Finally! Saferoom Android is now in Google Play Store. Real encryption for Evernote notes is now available on Android! 
 
 
 
To celebrate this huge achievement we are offering 50% discount on Saferoom iOS and Android apps till end of this week! 
 
Thank you for all your help and feedback! 
 
Saludos,
Ilia
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Hello, 

 

We have just published a Saferoom Chrome extension - you can now decrypt Saferoom encrypted note directly from Evernote web interface!

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/saferoom/nnphkaehepldgkjgnlnmfmpcjkklibfj?hl=en-US

 

It works without any accounts, just takes the note directly from a browser.

 

Please note that you can only decrypt your notes using Chrome extension!

 

Here is a video example of how you encrypt a note on Windows and then decrypt it directly from Chrome (extension starts at 1:15):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_djO1_LUMfs

 

Cheers,

Ilia

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Just downloaded your Mac client and used it to encrypt a few PDF notes. I immediately went to buy the iOS client. I can happily say that your tool has stopped me leaving Evernote. 

 

 

Thanks a lot for kind words! We are happy that you are happy!

 

 

Hi, are there plans to have a Linux version?

 

We actually have built one. However, the issue is that we used an interpreted programming language to built this version. Interpreted language means that you can see source code, it is converted into machine commands during execution (JavaScript can be an example). And it means we cannot protect our Evernote Developer account credentials. Now, we have one idea how to solve this. Instead of using our developer account data you can generate your own developer token (this can be done by any user of Evernote) and use it in Saferoom Linux. This token will limit your activity to your account only, but this is the intention, isn't it?

 

We will investigate this a bit more, but here how it stands now. We have not yet figured out how to protect our own dev accounts in Linux. 

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  • 4 weeks later...
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  • Level 5*
On August 25, 2015 at 7:55 PM, TheMyth said:

Would you also need to have a backup of the encrypted note stored somewhere within the program if the intruder, or even if your infant climbed on the computer and started banging away on the keyboard

Hi Saferoom people.  I think the product is great and I intend to use it.  Was there any followup on this concern?

As per the above note, I am concerned about the encrypted note being corrupted and unusable. Not even from infants, it could be myself accidentally hitting some keys.

Of course this could be resolved if Evernote would implement a read-only feature.

If this is still an issue, I'm going to make sure I have a backup.  I'm thinking after encryption I have to do something with the original notes sitting in the intake notebook.  I can just move them to a local backup notebook.

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On 1/5/2016 at 9:07 AM, DTLow said:

Hi Saferoom people.  I think the product is great and I intend to use it.  Was there any followup on this concern?

As per the above note, I am concerned about the encrypted note being corrupted and unusable. Not even from infants, it could be myself accidentally hitting some keys.

Of course this could be resolved if Evernote would implement a read-only feature.

If this is still an issue, I'm going to make sure I have a backup.  I'm thinking after encryption I have to do something with the original notes sitting in the intake notebook.  I can just move them to a local backup notebook.

Hey, thanks a lot for your appreciation, 

And yes, we actually did some investigation about this topic. However, our hands are tied here by Evernote functionality. In general even normal unencrypted notes can be intentionally corrupted. You mentioned correctly the antidote - do backups. As far as I know there is a feature in Evernote which is called note history. We are thinking adding some kind of preview for a history of selected note so a user can go back to previous version (those versions are provided by Evernote service).

Here is a copy of my answer to similar question:

Topic is : https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/89267-cool-encryption-tool-for-evernote/

Quote

However, I was wondering do you know about this feature of Evernote which is called Note history?

 
 
I am under impression that this feature is the solution for any content changes that you want to revert, isn't that so?
 

 

 I will compile a small demo a bit later so you can see what we can do. But the best advice is to make daily back-ups.

Regards,
Ilia

P.S. We now support LastPass in Saferoom iOS (press on keyhole icon in Saferoom) and Android (add LastPass keyboard) versions. Also 1Password is supported on Windows (still testing LastPass). You can manage your encryption passwords in even more secure fashion, and use master password only to access Saferoom.

Edited by ilia5101982
Edited to clarify LP usage
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11 minutes ago, ilia5101982 said:

 We now support LastPass in Saferoom iOS

Could you please explain how Lastpass would be used in Saferoom?  I'm not seeing it

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26 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Could you please explain how Lastpass would be used in Saferoom?  I'm not seeing it

First of all you need to install LastPass app to your iOS device. And here is how I am using it to decrypt the note (by pressing of keyhole icon you will have an option to choose - 1Password or LastPass). And also in my case I have added Saferoom (in my case it is called Secomsoft) login.

https://youtu.be/N9cytYlVTXw?t=56s

If it is still not available, please send me a message to support(at)getsaferoom.com, we will continue a discussion there.

Regards,

Ilia

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39 minutes ago, ilia5101982 said:

How to use Lastpass with Saferoom - by pressing of keyhole icon

Thankyou, I was missing the step of pressing the keyhole icon.  It's working fine

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi, I'm wondering if the following scenario is supported in any way within Saferoom?

I tend to scan a lot of documents and then store them as pdf's in Evernote - however,  I do not do this with confidential information as I would not want it uploaded unencrypted. I use an app on my iPhone to control the scanner and it is easy to save the documents directly into Evernote.

Once in Evernote, I know they can be encrypted - but this means an unencrypted version has already been uploaded to the servers. I don't believe it is possible to have a 'local only' Evernote folder on iOS; which had this been the case I could have used this to save the document and then encrypt.

From within the scanner app, I do have the ability to 'open in' - but this does not include 'Saferoom'

At the moment, the only way I can see to get an encrypted version into Evernote is as follows

1. Scan document (I use 'Canon Print' app) and the use 'Open In' to copy to PDF Expert app

2. Within PDF Expert, save the document to local device

3. Within Saferoom, create a new encrypted Note and attach a file, selecting PDF Expert as the location  - can see local PDF Expert files

4. Encrypt Note etc.

5. Open PDF Expert app to delete local unencrypted version of the document

However, this is rather cumbersome and far from convenient/practical; - Just wondering if there is an easier way to scan (using a scanner not a Photo) a document and then directly encrypt into Evernote?

any suggestions ?

 

cheers,

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6 hours ago, Boots said:

From within the scanner app, I do have the ability to 'open in' - but this does not include 'Saferoom'

At the moment, the only way I can see to get an encrypted version into Evernote is as follows

Why use Saferoom for PDFs, when you can encrypt a PDF directly using many PDF tools, like Adobe Acrobat, and then attach to an EN Note?

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On January 16, 2016 at 2:39 PM, JMichaelTX said:

you can encrypt a PDF directly using many PDF tools, like Adobe Acrobat, and then attach to an EN

I think that would be the best approach.  I don't think Adobe Acrobat (IOS Reader) has the feature, but I read that PDF Expert 5 does encryption.  Of course you lose the Saferoom master password feature. This does have the advantage of allowing you to add some unencrypted text to the note.
IMG_1168.jpg.4abbe73743a3f3fb06eb5b51930

Edited by DTLow
Added IOS Reader to my Adobe Acrobat comment to more clearly identify the Adobe product
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11 hours ago, Boots said:

Just wondering if there is an easier way to scan (using a scanner not a Photo) a document and then directly encrypt into Evernote?

I just downloaded and tested Foxit MobilePDF

I was able to open it with a PDF from my scanner app, encrypt it, and it interfaces with Evernote.

I don't know too much about it; it was free

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3 hours ago, DTLow said:

I don't think Adobe Acrobat has the feature, but I read that PDF Expert 5 does encryption.

Please check your facts before posting.  I have been using Adobe Acrobat for years to encrypt PDFs.

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11 minutes ago, JMichaelTX said:

Please check your facts before posting.  I have been using Adobe Acrobat for years to encrypt PDFs.

Is this still about @Boots problem with his iPhone and scanner?

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5 hours ago, DTLow said:

I don't think Adobe Acrobat has the feature

1 hour ago, JMichaelTX said:

Please check your facts before posting.  I have been using Adobe Acrobat for years to encrypt PDFs.

1 hour ago, DTLow said:

Is this still about @Boots problem with his iPhone and scanner?

Yes. As I stated above, encrypting the PDF is probably a better approach than using Saferoom.

Unfortunately, you are misleading people with your post that "I don't think Adobe Acrobat has the feature,". 

So, I'm asking you to please check your facts before you post.  

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On January 17, 2016 at 9:34 PM, JMichaelTX said:

Yes. As I stated above, encrypting the PDF is probably a better approach than using Saferoom.

Unfortunately, you are misleading people with your post that "I don't think Adobe Acrobat has the feature,". 

So, I'm asking you to please check your facts before you post.  

This was a discussion about the iPhone (IOS)

IMG_1168.jpg.7fff37b6c52730d04756edf6f18
The Adobe Acrobat app on this platform is for the reader.

Is it possible you're thinking about Adobe Acrobat on other platforms?

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2 hours ago, DTLow said:

Is this still about @Boots problem with his iPhone and scanner?

I am aware that there are other ways of encrypting PDF's, however using Saferoom gives me a single consistent encryption method across all my devices and while I can use it for scanned PDF's on the iPhone, I have to go through an intermediate app - I was looking for a more seem-less option for scanning/encrypting into Evernote.

 

cheers

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15 minutes ago, Boots said:

 I was looking for a more seem-less option for scanning/encrypting into Evernote

Understood

I agree with your decision to not go through Evernote to get to Saferoom.  It would be a mistake to put the unencrypted pdf into Evernote. (IOS with no local folders)

I don't see a seamless solution, other than encrypting the pdf outside of Evernote. It's too bad, I liked the single master key feature of Saferoom.

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26 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Is it possible you're thinking about Adobe Acrobat on other platforms?

Yes.  I was referring to Adobe Acrobat on the Mac and Windows.  It wasn't clear to me that @Boots workflow was restricted to iOS devices.

Since you used the term "Adobe Acrobat", and did NOT refer to "Reader", it meant the full version, not the Reader version.

Checking just now, it appears (but I cannot confirm) that Adobe Acrobat Reader iOS can't even read encrypted PDFs, much less create them:
See Does Adobe Reader for iOS and Android Support Encryption 

What a joke!  Just one more reason I don't do any significant content creation on iOS devices.  I'll stick to my MacBook Air for my mobile computing.

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17 hours ago, Boots said:

From within the scanner app, I do have the ability to 'open in' - but this does not include 'Saferoom'

Yes, we will enable this possibility in 1.9.5 (mid February). It is already working here on our test devices, but I want to run additional test (to simulate your workflow) with some 3rd party scanner apps. In our tests we share PDF from iCloud or from local storage using Saferoom Share extension. I just want to make sure that it will work with scanner apps.

Then you will have Saferoom in "Open in.." menu (or Share menu) - you won't have to go through local saving procedure.

I will try to post an example video here.

And in general, @Boots, thanks a lot for posting a good question - we are always looking forward to improve Saferoom, and getting more information about different workflows is essential for us. So thank you once again.

 

 

3 hours ago, JMichaelTX said:

Checking just now, it appears (but I cannot confirm) that Adobe Acrobat Reader iOS can't even read encrypted PDFs, much less create them:
See Does Adobe Reader for iOS and Android Support Encryption

Interesting... While it is clear for me about the support of PKI in iOS (we are working on that, but it is difficult), I don't understand why Acrobat have no support of encrypting on mobile. I think there are some technical issues, maybe Adobe uses own library for AES-256, or something. Or maybe they want to charge for that in some premium version.

Ilia

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2 hours ago, ilia5101982 said:

Yes, we will enable this possibility in 1.9.5 (mid February). ...

That is good news.

I also have another issues (it never stops ?)

My preference is to have the encryption displayed as in item 1 below

  1. Currently an encrypted pdf shows like this
    569ce2ead0232_ScreenShot2016-01-18at4.58
     
  2. With your product, the encryption show as
    569ce2f239e67_ScreenShot2016-01-18at5.01

 

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16 hours ago, JMichaelTX said:

It wasn't clear to me that @Boots workflow was restricted to iOS devices.
Since you used the term "Adobe Acrobat", and did NOT refer to "Reader", it meant the full version, not the Reader version.

I have edited my post to clearly indicate the platform and product I was referring to.
Sorry for the confusion.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 18 January 2016 at 11:06 AM, ilia5101982 said:

 

On 17 January 2016 at 5:18 PM, Boots said:

From within the scanner app, I do have the ability to 'open in' - but this does not include 'Saferoom'

Yes, we will enable this possibility in 1.9.5 (mid February). It is already working here on our test devices, but I want to run additional test (to simulate your workflow) with some 3rd party scanner apps. In our tests we share PDF from iCloud or from local storage using Saferoom Share extension. I just want to make sure that it will work with scanner apps.

Then you will have Saferoom in "Open in.." menu (or Share menu) - you won't have to go through local saving procedure.

I will try to post an example video here.

 

Hello,

This is the example of the functionality which I've added to upcoming Saferoom update  - I am using Samsung Mobile Print scanner app. In general, you can now encrypt different files from other apps directly to Saferoom.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/32seg8bvonmz0jl/saferoom_EncryptPDFFromScanner.mov?dl=0

Please, post your comments here or send me a message.

Saludos,

Ilia

 

 

 

 

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35 minutes ago, KV3333333 said:

Linking Saferoom to my Evernote accounts prompts Evernote to tell me that Saferoom wants access to be able to retrieve (any and all of) my notes. How is granting this full access compatible with the advertised "zero knowledge"?

Thank you!

If Saferoom (the app,  not the company) doesn't have access to your notes it can't access them to encrypt them or save them in encrypted form afterward. The permission doesn't mean that anyone can view your notes,  just that the app needs the access to work at all.

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51 minutes ago, KV3333333 said:

Linking Saferoom to my Evernote accounts prompts Evernote to tell me that Saferoom wants access to be able to retrieve (any and all of) my notes. How is granting this full access compatible with the advertised "zero knowledge"?

I think "zero knowledge" is a specialized term related to encryption.

I was also concerned about giving access to Evernote. 
I just want my note text encrypted/decrypted; not this overhead.  
Something similar to a pdf - I don't have to grant Evernote access to have it encrypted or decrypted.

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Hi, I just purchased Saferoom for iOS. Trying to set it up to work with 1password. When I press on the keyhole icon, then the 1Pasword icon, I get this message: "no login found for com.secomsoft.saferoom." I have created a login within 1Password with that login and my Saferoom password. I can locate it manually then use it, but that doesn't seem right. Thanks. 

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If I understand what is being asked for - not sure that it is feasible within Evernote?  In order to achieve this - you would need to perform either of the following:-

- Create the note in Evernote, select the content (e.g. Attached file) - then 'open in' Saferoom to encrypt (similar for decrypt )

or, Create 'note' in aother app - open in Saferoom - save the file and this encrypted file can then be uploaded into Evernote.

If I understand correctly - if you follow the first route the by creating the toe in Evernote - it will be uploaded to the Evernote servers before it is encrypted, although the encrypted version will then be sent - you still have the old version in the cloud.

It is the second scenario that I had requested Safefoom to streamline - in my case, I scan a document and then wanted to be able to encrypt it and save directly into Evernote - and for this action - what ever is doing the saving needs access to be able to save the file.

In the PDF solution above - it would be similar to opening a PDF app to create the document and getting this to save the note in Evernote - that app would need similar access to Evernote.

As far as I can tell, there is no way to stop Evernote uploading an 'unencryted' version of a note unless it is encrypted before you save it in Evernote - Giving Saferoom (application) access to your Evernote app lets it do this.

I'm no expert, just a user of Evernote & Saferoom - so of course all of the above may be totally wrong :) (and other than Saferoom am not aware of any other option that gives encryption, seamlessly across all of my devices).

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20 minutes ago, Boots said:

I'm no expert, just a user of Evernote & Saferoom

...but I think (and I'm just a user too...) you're -almost- right.  Evernote will hold an unencrypted version of your note in 'Note History' but if you move your note between notebooks,  I beleieve the history is deleted;  so if you have a notebook for Unencrypted notes,  process them there,  and move to another notebook for storage,  you'll 'lose' the history version and the only online copy will be the encrypted one.

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4 hours ago, Boots said:

If I understand correctly - if you follow the first route the by creating the note in Evernote - it will be uploaded to the Evernote servers before it is encrypted, although the encrypted version will then be sent - you still have the old version in the cloud.

If we're talking about notes to be encrypted - you should not be working in a sync'd folder - use either a local folder or work outside Evernote.

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1 hour ago, Boots said:

you can not have a local folder (non-synced) on iOS devices

Thats true, and I think its why the process is different on IOS

For example, Evernote doesn't provide encryption/decryption on IOS; they provide a popup window to view encrypted text.
Likewise, Saferoom has a differnt process.

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19 hours ago, KV3333333 said:

Linking Saferoom to my Evernote accounts prompts Evernote to tell me that Saferoom wants access to be able to retrieve (any and all of) my notes. How is granting this full access compatible with the advertised "zero knowledge"?

Thank you!

@gazumped answer is correct. The term “zero-knowledge” is about encryption (in a nutshell, your encryption key, e.g. password, is  stored on your local device). 

Saferoom asks for full access because this how Evernote has structured it’s developer token permissions - you either ask for a full access or receive serious limitations. 

Saferoom is a client based app, there are no servers, no infrastructure, on Windows it doesn’t work with Evernote servers at all, and on MacOS it is sandboxed in such way that it is allowed to work only with Evernote local app, all other connections are blocked (by Apple actually, not by our code). Hence, we have no idea about our users and your data, and we intend to keep it that way. Saferoom does not work in the background, does not have any analytics, it just encrypts and decrypts, nothing else.

Now, on Android and iOS we could not achieve sufficient level of usability with limited permissions - mainly because the most important functions of Evernote SDK became blocked. Therefore we decided to ask for full permissions, and accept a "no trust" risk. From this moment we started to build this trust relationship. And it will be a long way, which we will go step by step. We have been accepted to Evernote App Centre, and they did a serious check that Saferoom does not harm or use those permissions illicitly. 

Additionally, we integrated 1Password/LastPass or even manual password entry for encryption and decryption to increase your protection even more. 

However, I still understand your concern and it is fine with us if you choose not to use Saferoom mobile.

19 hours ago, DTLow said:

Something similar to a pdf - I don't have to grant Evernote access to have it encrypted or decrypted.

This is what we are also thinking about - for users who require only file encryption, we will extend Saferoom functionality to provide file based encryption. 

It will work like this - you choose a file, then open it in Saferoom, Saferoom encrypts it (without any access to Evernote or other services) and then you save wherever you want. 

I think it can solve many trust issues.

7 hours ago, Boots said:

If I understand correctly - if you follow the first route the by creating the toe in Evernote - it will be uploaded to the Evernote servers before it is encrypted, although the encrypted version will then be sent - you still have the old version in the cloud.

Well, remember also that there many backups besides notes like server OS and etc. One of the reasons that we don’t allow encryption of existing notes in our mobile apps is that we have no any idea how many copies of original notes are there and how this note possibly was indexed. In case of doubt better not to trust =).

Waiting for more questions.

Ilia

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12 hours ago, KV3333333 said:

"I beleieve the history is deleted"

I hope so, but until all these details we are discussing are made crystal clear by Evernote and Safe Room, I can't use Evernote / Safe Room for confidential files.

I think Saferoom has been pretty clear. As mentioned above, zero-knowledge is usually used to mean that no third party has access to your encrypted stuff. The third party doesn't keep the passwords, and even if they were forced to turn over their data, or had their servers hacked somehow, the content will still remain encrypted (there is, of course, no guarantee that a state-sponsored hacker couldn't eventually decrypt the files, but that is another issue having to do with the state of encryption technology). Saferoom implements this approach as much as possible. As you correctly noted, and as the developer confirmed, Evernote's API is set up in a way that requires third-party apps to have access to everything. This is a serious limitation in the Evernote service, in my opinion, but it is nothing that we can do anything about -- you'll have to trust Saferoom's developers. They've provided explanations and been as transparent as they can be, but we are all working within this Evernote API limitation (there was talk a few years ago on these forums about having some kind of way to restrict access to certain parts of accounts, but nothing came of it). 

Evernote has also been pretty clear. When notes are deleted, that data is immediately gone from a user's perspective, though it may linger in Evernote's servers / backup servers for a year or so (I think this was mentioned in the forums somewhere -- it appears that it might be extremely difficult to access at that point, but it is a risk).

https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2010/04/14/new-premium-features-note-history-and-50mb-notes/

  • If you delete the note and then empty your trash, the note, along with its history, will be permanently removed. Remember that emptying your trash doesn’t affect your quota in any way, so the only reason to do it is if you want to permanently remove the note and all of its previous history.
  • Remember that any notes that you create in “local only” notebooks on our desktop Windows and Mac versions never leave your computer, so we won’t keep past versions of those. Also, If you move a note from a synchronized notebook to a local notebook, we will remove the note from our servers, along with any older versions.

The takeaway? Don't put something on the cloud unless you are OK with anyone in the world reading it. If you feel a little hesitant about that, encrypt it first, or keep it in a local notebook. iOS makes this a lot more difficult to do, and that is one reason why I use the iPad a lot less these days for content creation, but it can be done. Ideally, though, you'll work with a laptop.

 

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11 hours ago, ilia5101982 said:

This is what we are also thinking about - for users who require only file encryption, we will extend Saferoom functionality to provide file based encryption. 

It will work like this - you choose a file, then open it in Saferoom, Saferoom encrypts it (without any access to Evernote or other services) and then you save wherever you want. 

Thats great news - I will look forward to using your product.

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14 hours ago, KV3333333 said:

"I beleieve the history is deleted"
I hope so, but until all these details we are discussing are made crystal clear by Evernote and Safe Room, I can't use Evernote / Safe Room for confidential files.

My understanding that these details have already been confirmed.

Can you explain, if your data is confidential and needs to be encrypted,
WHY!!! would you allow it to be sync'd unencrypted.

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On 13 February 2016 at 7:14 PM, Boots said:

Look forward to it going live, seems just what I am waiting for (iOS)

Martin

Martin,

I just submitted an update of Saferoom iOS to Apple Review, if everything goes fine, it will be available in 10-14 days.

This is how file sharing will look like (DTLow, it is not file encryption yet, but we are working towards it):

A small note - take a closer look at the video - I encrypt and decrypt notes without even opening Saferoom =)

Cheers,

Ilia

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On 14 February 2016 at 11:57 PM, Steven S said:

Hi, I just purchased Saferoom for iOS. Trying to set it up to work with 1password. When I press on the keyhole icon, then the 1Pasword icon, I get this message: "no login found for com.secomsoft.saferoom." I have created a login within 1Password with that login and my Saferoom password. I can locate it manually then use it, but that doesn't seem right. Thanks. 

Steven,

I am checking this with 1Password guys. Give us some time to figure out. 

As a fast check - change your login to "com.secomsoft.Saferoom" (capital letter in word "Saferoom").  Meanwhile I will delete all items and reinstall 1Password to do a clean test.

Thanks,

Ilia

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11 hours ago, ilia5101982 said:

Martin,

I just submitted an update of Saferoom iOS to Apple Review, if everything goes fine, it will be available in 10-14 days.

This is how file sharing will look like (DTLow, it is not file encryption yet, but we are working towards it):

A small note - take a closer look at the video - I encrypt and decrypt notes without even opening Saferoom =)

Cheers,

Ilia

Looking forward to giving it a go, cheers, 

Martin :) 

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18 hours ago, ilia5101982 said:

I just submitted an update of Saferoom iOS to Apple Review, if everything goes fine, it will be available in 10-14 days.

Thanks Ilia, looks like it solved that problem (opening directly in Saferoom to encrypt pdf)

It still looks ugly in Evernote. Prefer to be viewing a Saferooom object/attachment instead of the encryption jumble.

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Just tried the new version (iOS) and it does exactly what I wanted it to: scan document->open in saferoom->encrypt->upload to Evernote; without the need to save locally or open in another app,

many thanks,

Happy Customer :) 

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Re this comment: "Evernote's API is set up in a way that requires third-party apps to have access to everything. This is a serious limitation in the Evernote service, [but] .... you'll have to trust Saferoom's developers. ... we are all working within this Evernote API limitation"

This comment seems to suggest that we can or should trust Saferoom because the "serious limitation" in security (i.e. the fact that I have to agree to let Saferoom view all my Evernote notes as a condition of using the Saferoom app with Evernote) is not Saferoom's fault. But I don't care whose fault it is. I just want to know whether I can use Saferoom without affirmatively consenting to let Saferoom view all my Evernote notes. The answer is no, I cannot do that, because Evernote requires that I consent to letting Saferoom view (and "retrieve") all my notes if I want to use the Saferoom app with Evernote. Whether this limitation is the result of a flaw in Saferoom's design (which apparently it is not) or a flaw in Evernote's API (which apparently it is) does not make a difference to me. 

Saferoom seems to be saying, "We won't view any of your notes, but in order to use our service, you have to tell Evernote that it's OK for us to view your notes." This falls short of the sort of security guarantee that I'm looking for. Blaming the problem on Evernote rather than Saferoom is fine with me, but that does not eliminate the problem. 

Until the Evernote API limitation is fixed, I'll just keep confidential stuff out of Evernote. 

IMG_0884.jpg

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