Keeping notes private while accessible from anywhere is a common need in the age of cloud storage. From personal journals to professional documents, sometimes you want the convenience of the cloud but without the vulnerability of being public. In recent years, a range of free personal cloud services have emerged as helpful options for securely storing and accessing private notes from anywhere. As much as we love the convenience of ubiquitous access to data, it does come with risks of exposing private information. Public clouds like Google Drive and Dropbox aren’t ideal for confidential data as the information is hosted on their servers. It means legal requests and subpoenas lead to third parties accessing those files without your consent. Even with security settings enabled, data breaches are still possible on public clouds.
Top free personal cloud options for private notes
- Tresorit
The most secured personal cloud today, Tresorit uses AES-256 and RSA encryption for user files along with PBKDF2 SHA-256 to protect encryption keys. Your notes remain encrypted on Tresorit’s Zero-Knowledge storage servers.
how do i make a private note? Tresorit’s Basic account (free up to 10GB space) allows hosting private notes and syncing them across devices. The Tresorit web app and mobile apps ensure your notes remain accessible without compromising privacy. They also offer selective sync and granular access control over shared files. The service is based in Switzerland which has strict data protection laws. For balanced security and convenience, Tresorit is one of the best personal clouds for private notes today.
- PCloud crypto
While pCloud offers robust backup features including up to 20GB of free storage, you’d want the pCloud Crypto upgrade for private notes. This client-side encryption creates an encrypted virtual drive on your device before uploading data to pCloud servers.
Along with zero-knowledge encryption, pCloud also enables two-factor authentication, remote deletion of encrypted files, and selection of users accessing shared files. Available on leading desktop and mobile platforms, the pCloud apps your private notes are always at hand. Based on user reviews, pCloud delivers better reliability than most personal clouds while matching the security standards of Tresorit and others. For moderately technical users, pCloud Crypto does the job perfectly.
- Sync.com
Developed by a private team originating from BitTorrent, Sync offers end-to-end encryption folders that remain securely accessible on mobile and desktop apps. Along with AES-256 encryption, they also utilize Perfect Forward Secrecy keys for robust cryptographic security. For private notes, Sync provides 5GB of free storage along with unlimited version history so you roll back to older copies of files if needed. Granular permissions be set on shared encrypted folders IP blocking and deletion requests for shared files.
While the interface is basic compared to Tresorit and pCloud, Sync is made up of strict security protocols and ownership of infrastructure and encryption keys. For Linux users especially, Sync offers better compatibility than other personal clouds.
- Mega
The Mega cloud service offers end-to-end encrypted storage up to 50GB free, making it quite useful for personal usage. File encryption is handled transparently and each file you upload has a separate encryption key. The zero-knowledge approach prevents even Mega employees from accessing your private notes. Available across platforms via desktop sync clients and mobile apps, Mega facilitates easy access to your encrypted cloud while ensuring only you control the decryption keys. Additional features include secure online collaboration with other Mega users, group chat on encrypted files, and snapshot backups of previous versions.