Context search and privacy

[jsrnephdoc 4]

I have difficulty understanding how this works. My understanding is that the search for contextually related external information will be done based on my search terms and some processing of what's in my own set of notebooks, but that I need not worry about the privacy of my own information, because none of it is ever sent to external providers of information. I can't understand how my query of my own information can yield enhanced search results UNLESS some of my own information beyond my own search terms is used for this external search.

 

I would be extremely grateful for simple examples of how this works.

 

I'll provide two theoretical examples of my own: first, one where privacy and security of my own perfectly legal and legitimate information is concerned.

 

One of the vendors in the Evernote Marketplace offers to populate my Evernote Database with statements from my financial services providers. Let's say I'm searching all my credit card statements to total all the purchases I've made from two different Rolls Royce dealerships (it would be a very quick search in my case, returning a goose egg). However, let's say I'm a ".00001 per center" who can't remember where I last saw my favorite Silver Wraith, so I'm using context searching to help locate it. Isn't it likely that after all my credit card statements are massaged and some AI applied, that the data retrieved from external sources might permit some of my private information to fall into someone else's hands?

 

Now, another example: let's say I'm managing my cannabis business using Evernote. I decide to search my Evernote database in novel ways to see where I might look for new wholesalers. Same concern.

 

Am I way off base regarding the intent of the context search, it's capabilities, and its risks?

 

Please don't reply "if you're worried, just turn it off." What I'm looking for is an enhanced (believe me, it won't be difficult to enhance it) understanding of just how safe it is to store things in Evernote that, if discovered, might lead to identity theft or fraud, and this "enhanced search" just sounds creepy to me. Talk back to me as if I'm your grandmother who just bought an iPhone Six Plus because the "keypad" numbers on the screen are big 

 

Thanks so much 

[gazumped 11,664]

Hey Granny.  First of all I'd wonder why you'd put your credit card statements online at all.  As far as I'm concerned,  the fewer people who know my account number and banking address,  the better.  However that aside,  'Context' tries to find stuff that's relevant to notes that you're editing,  or adding.  It's not personal,  so "Granny jsmephdoc" isn't one of the search terms used.  Rolls Royce might get a load of new hits from your IP address,  but that doesn't track directly back into an information share.  The details of your own note content isn't being shared around,  just the headlines of what you're writing about.  Cars,  recreational agronomy,  economics..  you'll get links that might lead to related content of interest,  but that hasn't been achieved by someone running around sharing anything other than the broad search terms.  Breaches of security don't come into it in this context (see what I did there?) although putting financial (or potentially incriminating) information online is probably terminally unwise.

 

If you're worried...  but mine's still on.

[jsrnephdoc 4]

Hey Granny.  First of all I'd wonder why you'd put your credit card statements online at all.  As far as I'm concerned,  the fewer people who know my account number and banking address,  the better.  However that aside,  'Context' tries to find stuff that's relevant to notes that you're editing,  or adding.  It's not personal,  so "Granny jsmephdoc" isn't one of the search terms used.  Rolls Royce might get a load of new hits from your IP address,  but that doesn't track directly back into an information share.  The details of your own note content isn't being shared around,  just the headlines of what you're writing about.  Cars,  recreational agronomy,  economics..  you'll get links that might lead to related content of interest,  but that hasn't been achieved by someone running around sharing anything other than the broad search terms.  Breaches of security don't come into it in this context (see what I did there?) although putting financial (or potentially incriminating) information online is probably terminally unwise.

 

If you're worried...  but mine's still on.

Thanks for responding. I still don't understand how context searching works, either in design or in practice. Let's forget for a moment the issues regarding whether it's wise or stupid to add credit card statements or bank statements to one's Evernote database. My question was meant to be about how Evernote (the company) parses my searches of my own database unless the search algorithms have access to the contents of my database.

 

Let me try another example. Let's say I'm a guy who's keeping records of his prescribed medications in Evernote (when the prescriptions are filled, how much they cost, whether they bother me, etc. I see a new doctor and he wants to prescribe a medication for me that I think gave me diarrhea a few years ago. So, I search my "medications" notebook for the medication and try to enhance the search by adding a boolean "or" for my pharmacy. Does Evernote do something to anonymize these search terms? If so, or if not, what search terms would be provided to the "Context" providers?

 

(Actually, I should ask something about the wisdom of storing credit card and bank statements in Evernote. There's a company in the Evernote Marketplace, "File This" whose entire business is based on doing exactly that. All the financial services firms, municipal utilities, etc., with whom I have accounts are constantly peppering me to "go paperless,"which means they want to send statements to me over the internet or provide ssl access to them via the web. Is it inherently more secure to do that than to allow "File This" to insert them into my Evernote database?

 

I must say that I'm quite surprised that my questions haven't engendered more discussion. I'd welcome even one sentence replies, but more nuanced responses would be preferred. I do understand that there's inherently more risk in any online communication than hand delivery of cash to pay my bills (depending on whom I pay, and for what I'm paying), but the option of burying precious metal in my back yard and accumulating stores of gasoline somewhere in the Mountains of Tennessee on the presumption that I'll be able to live off the land and my buried wealth once the great industrial and societal meltdown becomes reality doesn't interest me. I'd last about 3 minutes in an untethered predator vs. prey society, and I expect that except for the few seconds of pain accompanying the attack, I'd be happier not hiding out deep in the woods until discovered.

 

Bottom Line: Evernote is promoted as a great and acceptably secure way to keep one's personal and business data organized, as well as synchronized among devices that store that information. Context Search seems to me a fundamental violation of that promised security. Perhaps there's already somewhere online that Evernote (the company) has described the mechanism of context searching in more detail, but I haven't been able to find it. Let's go back to my original situation (the car collector), but cast it in a realistic situation. Let's say I belong to a brand-specific auto club and participate in their shows, member events, etc. If I search my database with terms designed to find out who shared parts with me for my 1973 BMW 2002 tii at the last Tennessee BMW club meeting and Evernote provides me "context enhanced" hits based on terms like "cars" and "Tennessee" how could that be of use to me?

 

Thanks so much. 

[Metrodon 2,184]

Evernote say that The Context device only takes place within Evernote and that anonymised data is then used with their partners to provide relevant information back to you.

Using medication as an example, the data I think you receive back will be generally about that drug and maybe type but with no 'context' (sorry) of your usage.

How much trust you put in Context or Evernote as a whole is completely up to you. I don't believe that any cloud service is secure, they are all constantly under attack and have either been breached or will be breached. But, I'm also not too precious about a lot of my data, frankly things with my name and address and even account numbers are spread out all over the Internet and I can never be 100% sure that everywhere I buy from or interact with isn't going to be breached. The reality is that they will be, so I just try to manage the risk a little, but not too much because you could spend a huge amount of time worrying about what is really a small danger.

For what it's worth I've switched Context off because it wasn't returning useful information to me, not that surprising when you look at the current small list of sources. But Evernote do seem to like to get functionality out into production early to see how users react and interact with it. They get plenty of criticism for this (some of the stuff is really half baked), but I'm pretty sure the Context data source list will grow.