Privacy

Last updated 12 November 2026

The short version

• This website has no cookies and no ads. We count visits in a way that uses no cookies and does not follow you to other websites or build a profile of you.
• The only thing you can send us here is a message. If you use the contact form, we get your name, your email address, the topic you picked and what you wrote. Nothing else on this site asks for anything.
• The app keeps your notes on your device, locked. As it ships today there is no account, no sign-up and nothing sent to us. We cannot read, unlock or recover your notes.
• Cloud storage and sync do not exist yet. When they arrive, one optional setting (account recovery) will change what we are able to do. We explain that plainly below, before it exists, so nothing here becomes untrue later.

In this page, "we" and "us" mean Stilos, the company that makes the Stilos app and runs this website.

This website

What the website collects

Nothing, unless you use the contact form. You can read every page and download the app without telling us who you are.

The website does not use cookies, advertising, tracking pixels or social media buttons. The fonts and pictures are served from this website itself.

To see how many people visit and which pages they read, we use Cloudflare Web Analytics, a service from the company that hosts this website. When you open a page, your browser loads a small script from Cloudflare and sends it the address of the page, the page that linked you here, and general details such as your browser type and country. It sets no cookies, does not store anything on your device, and is not used to recognise you on a later visit or on other websites. We see totals, not people.

The contact form

If you send us a message through the contact form, we receive:

• your name;
• your email address;
• the topic you chose;
• your message.

The form is delivered by FormSubmit (formsubmit.co), a separate company that turns a web form into an email. When you press Send, your browser sends the message straight to FormSubmit, and FormSubmit emails it to us. That means FormSubmit handles what you typed, along with the ordinary technical details any website receives when you connect to it, such as your IP address. FormSubmit handles that under its own privacy policy.

We use what you send only to reply to you and to act on what you asked for. We do not add you to a mailing list, and we never sell or share your message.

Please never put a password, a recovery key or the contents of a private note in a message to us. We will never ask for them.

If you would rather not use the form, write to [email protected] from your own email instead.

Server logs

Like every website, this one is delivered by a hosting provider. To send you a page, the host receives your IP address and ordinary request details, such as which page was asked for and when. It keeps these in short-lived logs to deliver the site and keep it secure. We do not use them to identify you, to build a profile of you, or for advertising.

Downloads

The download page links to the App Store and Google Play, and to installer files for Mac, Windows and Linux.

• The App Store and Google Play handle downloads, purchases and reviews under their own privacy policies. What they collect is between you and them.
• If you download an installer file directly, the host that delivers the file receives the same ordinary request details described under "Server logs". Nothing more is asked of you.

Downloading Stilos does not create an account and does not tell us who you are.

The Stilos app

The app carries its own Privacy Policy, which you are asked to accept when you set it up. This section says the same things in the same plain terms. There are two ways the app can work, and they give you different privacy, so we describe both.

On this device only: how Stilos works today

This is what Stilos is today, and what the free version will always be. The app runs entirely on your own device. There is no sign-up, no account, no cloud storage, and no server for the app to talk to. Nothing you write leaves your device unless you move it yourself.

In this mode we cannot read your notes, we cannot unlock them, and we cannot recover them. That is not a promise to behave. It is because the key that opens your notes exists only on your device. We hold no copy of it, there is no master key and no back door, and we have no server holding anything of yours to look at. There is nothing we could hand to anyone, however they asked.

What the app collects

Nothing. The app does not collect, store away from your device, or send:

• your name, email address or any account details. You are never asked for them;
• your notes, their titles, your checklists, drawings or attached files;
• what you type, including drafts;
• what you search for;
• which notes you open, how often you use the app, or for how long;
• crash reports, diagnostics or error logs. The app never sends these by itself (see "Problem reports" below);
• your IP address, device identifiers or advertising identifiers. The app itself never connects to us;
• your location.

There are no analytics, no tracking, no advertising, and no software from other companies in the app that reports back to anyone.

Problem reports

Problem reports are the one exception, and only when you choose to send one. If something goes wrong, Stilos keeps a short record of it on your device: the error message and where in the app it happened, when, the app version and the kind of device. It never includes your notes, their titles, your files, your searches, your password or your keys.

If you choose "Report a problem", Stilos opens your own email app with that report written out, so you can read it, change it or delete it before sending it to [email protected]. Nothing is sent unless you press Send in your email app. If you do, we receive it as an ordinary email, with your email address, and use it only to answer you and fix the problem.

How you can check

This is more than a promise. Every release of the app is put through an automated test that records every connection the finished app tries to make, and the release is stopped if a single one goes anywhere other than the app's own files. Fonts, icons and word lists are included in the download instead of being fetched from anyone. The same test then starts the app with the network switched off, to confirm it works with no connection at all.

How your notes are locked

Every note is locked on your device before it is saved. It is never saved in readable form first. This is true in both ways the app can work.

Your notes are locked with a random key made on your device. That key is never stored in the open. It is only ever stored locked, under one of these:

• your password, if you set one;
• a random secret kept on that device, if you chose to open Stilos without a password;
• your recovery key.

Files you attach are locked the same way, and so are their names and types. A file with a revealing name gives away nothing on your device except its size.

Secure notes are locked a second time, with a separate key behind their own password. While secure notes are locked, the app is not given them at all: no title, no placeholder, not even a count.

Note titles, note text, previews, checklists, recipe details and handwriting are all inside the locked part.

What is not locked

Being accurate here matters more than sounding impressive. So that Stilos can list, sort and filter your notes without unlocking every one of them, a small amount of information is kept beside your notes in readable form:

• folder names, each folder's icon, color and position, and which folder a note is in;
• reminder times you set. The time only, never what the reminder is about;
• the dates and times notes and folders were created, changed or deleted;
• whether a note is pinned, a favorite or archived, and whether it is a secure note;
• the random internal labels the app gives notes, folders and files, and the size of each attached file;
• your password hint, if you wrote one. So never put your password in the hint;
• app settings such as your theme, list style and sidebar layout.

Someone who can get into your device, or into the app's stored data, can read the items in that list. They cannot read anything you wrote.

If you lose your password and your recovery key

Your recovery key is made on your device, shown to you once, and never sent anywhere. We never see it and we keep no copy of it.

If you lose your password and your recovery key, your notes cannot be opened. Not by you, not by us, not by anyone. There is no reset link and no identity check, because there is nothing to reset against. The lock is doing exactly what it was built to do.

Write your recovery key down and keep it somewhere safe, away from the device. If you chose to open Stilos without a password, the key that opens your notes lives in that device's own storage. Clearing that storage, resetting the device or moving to a new one leaves your recovery key as the only way back in.

Backups and things you export

Backups are always locked. Stilos has no option to save an unlocked backup. When you choose "Save a backup", the file holds the same locked notes that are on your device, plus the readable details listed under "What is not locked". "Restore a backup" needs your password or your recovery key.

Anything you choose to export in another form, such as saving a single note as a plain text file, is not locked. Once a file leaves Stilos that way it is outside the app's protection, and looking after it is up to you.

Your device and other software

Reminders use your device's own notifications. When a reminder goes off, the notification shows the note's title, unless it is a secure note, in which case it only says "Secured note". That happens entirely on your device.

To run, Stilos keeps its own data in the storage your device sets aside for the app, and the web version keeps what it needs to work offline. None of that is a cookie, none of it tracks you, and none of it is ever sent to us.

Planned: cloud storage, sync and account recovery

Not yet available

Cloud storage and sync do not exist yet. No version of Stilos you can install today uploads anything, and nothing in the app is for sale. The plan and pricing screens inside Stilos describe a service that is still planned. We are describing it now so that you know what the deal will be. We will update this page and change the date at the top before any of it is switched on.

Sync is designed so that a paying subscriber can also set up account recovery: a way to get back into your notes on a new device using a link sent to your email address, without a recovery key. To make that work, we would keep a locked copy of your key on our systems.

That has a consequence we will not hide. While account recovery is switched on, Stilos would be technically able to unlock your notes. We will not claim to be unable to read the notes of someone in that position, because it would not be true. What follows from it:

• Your notes could be produced in response to a valid legal order, because we would hold the means to unlock them.
• A break-in to our systems could expose them, in a way that is not possible when everything stays on your device.
• You would be trusting our systems and our people, and not only the lock itself.

What would not change: your notes would still be locked on your device before being uploaded, we would still run no analytics or tracking, and we would still never sell or share your data. The readable details listed under "What is not locked" would stay readable, so read that list as "what our systems would also be able to see".

Turning account recovery off

Account recovery would be optional. A subscriber could switch it off, and switching it off would put you back in the position described under "On this device only": we delete our locked copy of your key, we lose the ability to unlock anything of yours, and nobody but you can ever open your notes.

The trade is real. With recovery off, if you lose your password and your recovery key, your notes are gone for good and no one, including us, can help you. That is the price of us being unable to help anyone else either.

When you write to us

Stilos is responsible (the "controller", in the language of some privacy laws) for the emails and contact form messages you send us, including problem reports. We receive your email address, what you write, and anything you choose to include. We use them only to answer you and fix what went wrong. Our reason for handling them is our legitimate interest in supporting the app, or the steps you ask us to take.

Email is handled by our email provider in the United States. We keep support conversations for up to 24 months after they are resolved, then delete them, unless the law requires us to keep them longer. We never sell or share them.

Your rights

Because Stilos keeps your notes on your device and the app sends us nothing, the only personal information we can hold about you is what you send us in an email or through the contact form. Wherever you live, you can ask us what we hold, have it corrected or deleted, or object to how we use it, by writing to the address at the bottom of this page. We will answer within 30 days and will not treat you differently for asking.

• In the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland, you also have the right to receive a copy of your information in a form you can take elsewhere, the right to restrict how we use it, and the right to complain to your local data protection authority.
• In California, Texas and other US states with privacy laws: we do not sell or share personal information, do not use it for targeted advertising or profiling, and do not process sensitive personal information. You may appeal any decision we make about a request by replying to it. If you are not satisfied, you may contact your state attorney general.

Children

Stilos is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13, or under the higher age set by the law where you live. The app itself collects nothing from anyone. If a child has written to us and a parent or guardian would like that message deleted, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to this page

If the website or the app changes in a way that affects your privacy, we will update this page and change the date at the top before the new behavior is switched on. If a change to the app is significant, the app will tell you and ask you to agree again before you carry on.

Contact

Questions about privacy, or a request about your information, can go to [email protected].