Launching Cryptee
After 1,5 years of sleepless work, even switching continents and moving out of the U.S. as a coder/immigrant to make this project happen, it is at last ready for primetime!
All I wanted was a platform to encrypt photos and archive them. Then I thought maybe I should also encrypt documents / notes I use frequently. A platform that does all of this in a practical way didn’t exist, at least until now.
What is Cryptee?
Cryptee is an encrypted and secure home for your private photos, files, docs, and notes. It works on all your devices and provides a zero-knowledge place to keep all your sensitive digital belongings.
With on-device encryption, security and deniability at its core, Cryptee is a unified platform for all your personal privacy needs.
It uses a strong AES256 zero-knowledge encryption and of course has all the features you’d expect like live sync with unlimited devices,
rich document editing, todos, markdowns, hotkeys, code highlighting, latex, embeds, attachments, support for PDFs etc. And for those rare moments you might need, it has deniability features built in.
Encrypted Documents, Notes and Files
It has all the features you’d expect from your favorite document and note editing applications and more. Some of the highlights are:
- KaTeX math
- Code in 22 languages
- Markdown
- Inline # tagging
- To-do lists
- File attachments to documents
- Embed images, video, audio, PDFs etc.
- Live-sync
- Bulk import from other note apps like Evernote, Bearnote, Apple Notes and more.
Encrypted Photos
Because some photos are better kept private. Cryptee respects your privacy.
You can upload your photos in bulk, create albums albums, search in smart ways and view your encrypted photos on all your devices.
What makes Cryptee so special?
The feature I’ve spent the most time crafting is Ghost Folders available in both Documents and Photos. It essentially allows you to hide folders completely, and only be able to “summon” them (bring them back) if you know their names.
I think that this is going to be a great tool to fight power asymmetry in many different situations. (such as an abusive partner asking you to unlock your phone in front of them, or at work where you wish for others not to see certain folders / albums. etc.) I hope that this feature will provide some plausible deniability.
Cryptee is Cross Platform
Cryptee is a Progressive Web App. So you simply add it to your home screen from the website and it works just like a native app.
Advantage of this approach is :
a) There’s no need to worry about app store download history.
b) No need to rely on the timeliness of app stores for your app’s future safety.
c) It works on OS X, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, iOS & Android (and probably even windows phones)
Cryptee is Open Source
You can individually verify your safety and security by checking out Cryptee’s source code. I promise it’s an entertaining github repo and features memes and emojis.
Final Thoughts
Often friends ask me why they should use encrypted tools or privacy-focused services if they have nothing to hide. To them I quote what wise people over at ProtonMail said :
“It’s not just criminals who have curtains over their windows”.
— Protonmail
Everyone deserves a right to privacy, and your privacy matters. Privacy works just like electricity, water, and any other utility you’re accustomed to having in your life. It’ll make you feel very frustrated when you lose it, but probably won’t even think about it on a sunny day.
With all the privacy scandals, hacks, leaks, and security breaches, minding our privacy is now more important than it has ever been.
So I hope you’ll like Cryptee. It took a long journey from New York to Tallinn to bring Cryptee to life, and lots of sleepless but thoughtful nights spent in the making, so that you can sleep better knowing your privacy and data is protected.
Feel free to reach out with questions, thoughts, feedback, feature ideas and anything that may come to your mind. You can reach out using info {at} crypt [dot] ee, and pgp keys for this address is available on the website as well.
