For journalists
For reporters, and the people who trust them
Your notebook holds contacts, drafts, and things a source risked a great deal to tell you. A phone can be lost, seized at a border, or subpoenaed. Arcalox keeps that notebook encrypted, accountless, and offline, so a device in the wrong hands does not become a source burned.
What it does for your work
Keep the record without keeping a trail
No account, no trail
No email, no phone number, no login and no server. There is no account record tying the notebook to you, and nothing for a company to hand over.
Encrypted, always
AES-256 at rest from the first launch, derived through Argon2id. A seized device yields ciphertext, not your notes.
Decoy for a border stop
In the installed app, a duress passphrase opens a realistic, mundane decoy and can wipe the key to your real vault, for the moment you are told to unlock.
Offline by default
No outbound network calls. Nothing syncs to a cloud a court can reach. You move an encrypted file between your own devices, on storage you control.
Photo metadata stripped
Photos are stripped of location and hidden metadata before they are encrypted, so an image in your notes does not quietly reveal where it was taken.
Reader that cannot phone home
The note reader never loads a remote image or resource, so opening a note cannot signal anyone that you read it.
Capture in the moment
Voice, photo, and video notes taken right in the app and encrypted on the spot, so a source interview never sits unprotected in your camera roll.
Connect the threads
Wikilinks, backlinks, tags, folders, and full-text search tie names, dates, and documents together into a story, all inside the encrypted vault.
Bring your archive
Import notes from Joplin, Obsidian, Evernote, and Standard Notes, encrypted the moment they land, so your existing files come with you.
One layer, not a whole plan
Arcalox protects the notes you keep. It does not secure your entire device, encrypt your conversations with sources (use an encrypted messenger like Signal for those), or remove spyware from a phone that is already compromised. Treat it as one part of a plan you build deliberately.
For guidance made for newsrooms and reporters, start with Freedom of the Press Foundation's digital security guides, and for the fundamentals, EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense.
Start now
Open a private notebook in your browser
No account, no install. For the decoy vault and panic wipe, install the Android or desktop app.
Questions from the field
For reporters, answered plainly
What is a good notes app for journalists?
One that keeps no account trail, encrypts everything on your own device, works offline so there is no cloud to subpoena, and, for a seized phone, offers a decoy vault. Arcalox does all of that and is free and open source. Pair it with a full plan from Freedom of the Press Foundation.
How can I protect a source if my phone is seized or searched?
Keep contacts and notes in an encrypted, accountless vault, and use the duress passphrase in the installed app to open a realistic decoy while the key to your real vault is wiped. No single app is a complete defence, so also plan for how you carry and cross borders.
Can I record interviews and keep evidence in it?
Yes. Voice, photo, and video notes are captured in the app and encrypted on the spot. Photos are stripped of location and device metadata before they are stored. Video is stored as recorded, so treat imported clips as potentially carrying their own metadata.