KV3333333

Quote

Given the security concerns,  the fact that this is a specific request that would not benefit a majority of users,  though it could require significant development resource,  and Evernote's normal reticence about sharing any development plans or delivery dates,  no-one can say whether or when EN might introduce a feature that provided more 'linkability'.

The above quote is an old comment so perhaps the person wouldn't make the same comment now. The comment certainly wouldn't make sense in light of how Evernote currently works. Evernote recognizes and allows many types of links -- e.g., if I drag an Omnifocus task into evernote, it will created a link back to the Omnifocus task. If I click on command-K to view that link, it shows that the link begins with omnifocus:///[etc.], and not with anything like http:///....   But if I try to manually create the very same link, Evernote won't allow it. Makes no sense to me.

I seriously doubt that it would be difficult to allow users to manually create these links, or to create them using copy-and-paste, since Evernote already allows these links to be created by the drag-and-drop method. Why is drag-and-drop so much more secure and easy than other methods that would produce the very same link with the exact same function?

In response to willysnax:

I certainly support customization features and other features that would make Evernote's settings easier to use/navigate based on individual preferences. 

But note that you do have 2 good options already:

(#1) While you are annotating (at least within the Mac desktop app), there's a checkbox at the bottom of screen where you can choose to turn annotation summaries off. Perhaps Evernote should make it bigger or more obvious, but it's there. It takes just one quick click. About 1 second of your time. Sorry you spent an afternoon on it, but you won't need to do that again now that you see the simple checkbox.

(#2) You suggest "mak[ing] the summary a separate page at the beginning of the pdf," but isn't this how Evernote already works? I just tested this (running Evernote on Mac desktop) by annotating a pdf, and the summaries appeared as a separate page at the beginning of the PDF, just as you suggest. Then if you go to print, you can easily exclude the first page (or any other page). (Or you can go back into the annotation and do option #1 above.

That said, having something in settings to set a default option (annotations on or annotations off) would certainly be useful as well!

"You can open any PDF in a Note on your iPad, tap the Annotate icon, and draw on the PDF to your heart's content, as well as use the other annotation tools (Stickers, Shapes, Arrows, Text).

"A small question: what if Saferoom would ask you to let it read only the notes that Saferoom has created? The permissions would be the same (read full notes), but only those created by Saferoom?"

This would be a step in the right direction, I think, but it doesn't totally solve the issue. Even if Saferoom only had access to certain notes, the notes in question would be precisely those notes that I want to keep most secure. 

"Because to work with encrypted notes Saferoom needs to read them obviously."

It depends what you mean by "Saferoom" in this sentence. If by "Saferoom" you are referring only to the Saferoom app/software that is located entirely on my iOS device and nowhere else, then yes, I understand that "Saferoom" needs access to my notes in order to encrypt them. But if "Saferoom" means anything more than that (e.g., the Saferoom company, the company's servers, etc.), then it's not true that "Saferoom" needs access in order to function and encrypt notes. 

So perhaps the problem is that when Evernote asks me to grant access to "Saferoom" to retrieve all my notes, it does not specify that I'm only granting access to the one individual installation of the Saferoom app that exists on my phone. It sounds like I'm giving the company access, and I don't want to give the company access. Of course, once the data is in your app, your company might have the ability to access it regardless of what I tell Evernote. At some point, I would just have to trust you. But I'd rather not try to increase my security by "just trusting" yet another company with my data. Better to limit the apps (and companies) that can access the data, where possible. So maybe there is no solution.... 

Thanks for engaging with me on this. 

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. 

"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.

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!

I love this feature. It's one of the best things about Evernote annotations in my opinion, though I can see why you and others might have a different preference. Fortunately it's optional to keep us all happy. When I open a pdf to annotate on my mac, there's a little checkbox that says "Include Annotation Summary." If you uncheck it, the summary goes away.

P.S. One thing I strongly dislike about Evernote annotations is that the program does not recognize text in a PDF, so highlighting is not efficient like it is with other programs. But I've raised that in other threads with no solution proposed....