Requires login to use | Voters

Requires login to use

complete

Nick Radcliffe

Not sure you'll agree it's a bug, but I wasn't expecting to have to sign in to use the app, and it makes me nervous. I'll do it, of course, but now need to look at what it's doing with my data :-(.

At the very least, I think the login page should explain why it requires you to log in.

March 30, 2022

Annie Sexton

As a note – I've added a privacy policy + a clearer signup form, but it's still on my list to include some kind of "Where is my data IRL?" info page of sorts. Haven't decided where that'll go just yet.

Annie Sexton

marked this post as

complete

https://typist.canny.io/changelog/privacy-policy-clearer-sign-up-form

Nick Radcliffe

Annie Sexton: Great! (I haven't read it yet, but just having it is a huge step forward. Thanks!

Annie Sexton

Sounds like some transparency around the reason for authentication would be valuable! Thanks for this feedback.
Re: why it requires login – your notes and folders need to be associated with an account in order to be synced to the cloud. Having an account means you can use Typist across multiple computers (and eventually devices, once I make the mobile version). 
If you'd like to learn more about Typist's syncing, the database Typist uses is called Realm, which is essentially MongoDB that syncs to an Atlas cluster. When syncing it uses TLS 1.3 to secure all connections to and from Typist.

Nick Radcliffe

Annie Sexton: Ah that, makes sense. I dug around in ~/Library/Application Support/typist and found 'realm' files (and some references to Mongo) but didn't know what realm was. I think clarity would be super-valuable. I guess you might (or might not) also want an on option for people not to do that if they don't want their stuff stored online? Another good thing to clarify would be: is the data encrypted in the cloud store, and if so, is it end-to-end encrypted so that the only keys are on the user's devices or does can people at Typist (you!) read the data? So in particular, if the FBI serves Typist with a warrant, can you give the data or not? ('Cos obviously, if you can, you would by definition have to do so. Same with Chinese govt for Chinese users etc.)