Standard Notes vs Norton

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.

Norton (Gen Digital) collects some of the most sensitive personal data of any consumer service — Social Security numbers, bank account details, driver's licence numbers, and mother's maiden name for LifeLock identity monitoring — while simultaneously running a targeted advertising business that shares user, device, and website data with advertising partners; network traffic and screen activity are monitored for security purposes; and data flows broadly across Gen Digital's corporate group, distributors, resellers, marketing partners, and analytics providers, all retained for vaguely defined periods.