The BIGGEST Problem With Notion (and most productivity apps)

Notion has a big issue. In fact, nearly every productivity app faces a major flaw that may be enough for some of us to stop using them.

I never thought much about data privacy before, but recently, I've started to learn more and more about this topic. While we are all aware that companies like Google and Facebook know a lot about us already, what about note-taking apps? They may know more about us than we think. In today's video, I'm going to explore one of Notion's BIGGEST problems, and explore what we, as users, can do about it.

〰️ my links 〰️

〰️ disclaimer 〰️
I want to highlight that I'm not telling you to stop using Notion altogether, since the issues presented here are not at all unique to Notion. In fact, they are the norm across nearly every application that we use. So, I hope this serves as a reminder to be careful of what you put online, regardless of the platform.

〰️ relevant links 〰️

〰️ timestamps 〰️
0:00 - Intro
1:28 - Background
2:53 - End-to-End Encryption Explained
4:18 - Notion's Approach
6:41 - What This Means
8:14 - The Universal Problem
10:39 - What now?
12:16 - Conclusion
12:55 - Bloopers

〰️ connect 〰️
🍳 Cooking YouTube - @souschefharshibar

〰️ music 〰️

〰️ disclosure 〰️
This video is not sponsored; all opinions shared are my own. Some of the links above are affiliate links. Using these links is the best to way support me and my everlasting desire to find that Indian parent approval 🙃

〰️ editing effects 〰️

#harshibar #notion #exposé

[harshibar]

Wow, thank you for all your support on this video!! I know a lot of you were asking about more secure alternatives to Notion. Here are the apps I have on my radar, and video links if I've tried them out:

- AnyType (not yet released)
- Standard Notes
- Joplin

[isipisi]

Me panicking at my personal information being stolen while I am taking school notes and the names of the kdramas I saw on notion.

[xmeerzx]

always had nightmares about Notion staff looking at my diary entries and just laughing

[adnuserg]

Summary: Don't put sensitive information in apps, just things that you could chat with anyone without blushing/feeling unsafe after that.

[tvoody]

If you don‘t pay for the product, you are the product

[CHEFPKR]

Dearest Notion Staff,
I write my recipes in Metric.
Figure it out.
-chef

[henriquecampolina]

OMG! a notion employee will see that I haven't done nothing of my to do list for 2 months!

[elliotmoore]

I think E2E encryption is important, however when using Notion for my school notes and daily planning, the data I store in the app isn’t really sensitive. If someone wants to look at my A level physics notes then I don’t really mind lol. As long as they’re backed up in the cloud, I have no problem really. My worry would be more about my data being lost, not intruded on

[kcarl]

I want to leave notion now....but I spent hours making my dashboard look all pretty ✨💁‍♂️

[kristinas]

I hope Notion enjoys reading my Math notes written in my native language. I’m interested in data privacy but... I seriously just use it for school notes.

[sarkar_ma]

I dare the hackers to snoop around my data. They're gonna cry with me when they go through my paper's literature reviews. Maybe they'd pay me some bitcoin to appreciate the amount of references academia requires 😂

[amira]

WHAT THEY GONNA DO W MY SCHOOL SCHEDULE, BOOK LIST, MANGA AND ANIME LIST, AND MY DAILY THINGS TO DO LIST?

[bournejason]

If you work in public company, be careful if you decide to put work stuff into notion or other productivity tools, you might get sued by the company

[toolfinderhq]

This is such a marvellous exploration into privacy, so well explained! Thank you Harshibar!

[shellyarnold]

Knowing this helps decide 'what to' and 'what not to' capture in Notions. It still seems worth using despite the issue.

[xanaduzhang]

Rule #1 : Always keep sensitive information in encryption.

[dudahelena]

I first panicked, but then I thought that I only put my academic notes and my dream diary there, so I'm ok with it 😂
Google and Apple knows worse and more detailed things about all of us

[Zeddd]

Great video. IT guy here, I think you did a great job researching, however I wanted to point a few things out:
TLS (Transport Layer Security) does not protect data at rest. Notion does state that their data is also encrypted at rest (on their servers) and they mention that in spite of not being end-to-end encrypted, they do periodic third party penetration testing. All that said, you should encrypt your hard drives/SSDs if you are worried about encryption on your end.
Having read their security page, it does seem that they do take security seriously - perhaps in part thanks to you, so thank you.
My conclusion (based on the information on their security page): it is safe to use and they do appear to take their security seriously.

[roupingong]

This is why for me I will never share any personal info (my finances, passwords, address) on any apps! This is something you should def be concerned about whenever you use any apps.

[MariaFernanda-gtgm]

yeah but what are they going to do with my books list