Answers
Can a digital journal be subpoenaed?
Architecture, not advice.
This page is not legal advice; it's architecture. But the architecture matters, because legal process follows the copies.
When a journal lives on a company's servers, that company can be compelled to produce what it holds. Many will resist overbroad requests; all must comply with valid ones. Your entries can enter a discovery process, a divorce proceeding, or an investigation without your cooperation, because the cooperation being compelled is the company's, not yours.
The Sealed Journal removes that path entirely. There is no server-side copy, so there is nothing a court can order us to produce. We could be handed the most forceful order imaginable and the truthful response would be the same: we do not have this person's journal, and never did.
What remains is you. A court can compel an individual to produce their own records, and how encrypted or passphrase-protected material is treated varies by jurisdiction and circumstance. We won't pretend otherwise. What the design guarantees is narrower and worth stating exactly: your journal cannot be obtained from anyone but you, and it cannot be read by anyone without your passphrase.
The Typewriter Experience
The cursor stays. The text moves.
In Write mode, your cursor remains exactly at the centre of the screen. The page rises up to meet it. Past words fade into soft shadow at the edges, leaving the present sentence in clear focus. Switch to Read mode and the entry flattens into an evenly lit document — the fade is for writing; the flat light is for returning.
Radical Privacy & Encryption
AES-256-GCM, in your browser, with a key only you derive.
- ·PBKDF2 key derivation at 600,000 iterations — the OWASP 2024 recommendation. Existing journals upgrade transparently on first unlock.
- ·No accounts, no telemetry, no analytics, no cookies, no third-party scripts.
- ·IndexedDB storage with a localStorage fallback. Encrypted before it touches the disk.
- ·The file is not minified. You can read the source. We'd rather you trust it than us.
What It Does Not Do
- ✕No word counts chasing you across the screen.
- ✕No formatting toolbar wrestling your thoughts into neatness.
- ✕No cloud sync. No distant servers. Your words stay yours.
- ✕No social sharing. Your vulnerability is not content.
- ✕No AI assistant finishing your sentences.
- ✕No streak counters. No guilt. No gamification.
- ✕No subscriptions. No mood trackers. No noise.
Licensing & Gift Copy
One purchase covers up to three of your personal devices. It also includes a second untouched copy of the file — meant to be given to one person you trust. Lifetime updates. 30-day, no-questions refund. If you run a clinic, school, or workplace and want a copy for everyone, ask us about a site licence.
One Purchase. Yours Forever.
The price is $24 today. It will become $29.
One-time payment
Get The Sealed JournalQuestions
So the company can never hand over my entries?
Correct, structurally: no copy of your entries ever reaches us, so there is nothing to hand over.
Could I personally be ordered to produce my journal?
Individuals can be subject to legal process for their own records; how that plays out depends on jurisdiction and circumstance. Speak to a lawyer for your situation — this page describes the software, not the law.
Does deleting an entry really delete it?
Yes, on your device — there is no server or sync history retaining copies. Your own OS backups are yours to manage.
More in Answers
See all →Are journaling apps actually private?
A bedroom with the door ajar.
Will my journal be used to train an AI?
What you write here feeds nothing.
A journal that locks because it's encrypted, not because it asks nicely.
A curtain, or a key.
The diary with a lock, grown up.
The statement, and the substance.
How encrypted journaling actually works.
A short list of things you have to trust.
How to back up a journal no one else can read.
Not a cloud account — a routine.
You might also read
Use Cases
A locked notebook for the working notes you'd rather keep off a server.
Not a substitute for source-protection workflows — a quieter place for the notes that don't need to be there yet.
By Location
GDPR-friendly by architecture, not by paperwork.
Most apps meet the GDPR with a stack of documents arranged around an unavoidable fact: they collect data. We arranged the software so there is nothing to document.
Core
A private, offline journal that asks nothing of you.
One file. One password. Yours forever. No accounts, no cloud, no algorithms reading your three-in-the-morning thoughts.
Core
An encrypted journal where the passphrase never leaves your device.
AES-256-GCM with PBKDF2 key derivation at 600,000 iterations — the OWASP 2024 recommendation. Done in your browser, not on a server.
The cursor will be there when you return.
Centered. Blinking. Patient.
Start Writing