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Signal vs Standard Notes

Both score similarly on privacy — see the category breakdown below for nuances.

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CategorySignalStandard Notes
OverallA · 87/100A · 87/100
What they collectPositive (88)Positive (90)
Who they share it withPositive (88)Positive (84)
What you can doMixed (78)Mixed (72)
What they promisePositive (86)Positive (82)
In plain English — Signal

Signal is a nonprofit that genuinely cannot read your messages or listen to your calls — the encryption is architectural, not a promise — but it requires a real phone number to register, is subject to US law, and its privacy policy is conspicuously sparse: it hasn't been substantively updated since 2018 and lacks the specific retention periods, GDPR rights, or DPO contact that more thorough policies provide.

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In plain English — Standard Notes

Standard Notes is an end-to-end encrypted note-taking app that genuinely cannot read your notes; analytics are self-hosted via Plausible with no IP retention, apps collect zero usage data or location, and the subprocessor list is short and transparent — the main weaknesses are US jurisdiction and AWS hosting, the absence of published security audit reports, a thin policy that lacks GDPR rights language, and email marketing enabled by default.

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