Privacy Policy - Scripta

Last updated: 2026-09-29

Scripta is a note taking app for Android and Windows, with folders, tags, images, tables, code and reminders inside the notes.

What is saved

The app keeps, on your device only:

• the text of your notes
• the folders you create, which folder each note is in and the tags of each note
• the pinned mark and the dates of creation, change and deletion
• images inserted into the notes
• reminders written in the text (date and time), used only to schedule a notification on the device itself
• app preferences (theme, language, font size, sorting, whether the welcome screen was shown).

Where your data lives

Everything stays in the private storage of the device. Scripta has no account of its own, has no server of its own and does not sell data. No note ever reaches the developer. The only time the app itself sends your notes off the device is Google account sync, which is optional and only works after you connect your account (see below).

Sync with your Google account (optional)

In Settings › Sync you can connect a Google account to sync your notes between your devices through Google Drive. None of this happens unless you connect.

When you connect, Google shows a screen asking for two permissions:

• see your email address, used only to show in the app which account is connected
• see, edit, create and delete only the Google Drive files that Scripta creates (the drive.file scope). The app cannot see any other file in your Drive.

What the app writes to your Drive, in a folder named Scripta:

• one file per device with your notes, folders, tags, reminders and app preferences (the same content as folder sync)
• the images and attachments of your notes, in the images subfolder
• automatic backups, in the backups subfolder, if you turn that on
• a notice file asking you not to delete the folder.

The data goes straight from your device to Google's servers over an encrypted connection (HTTPS). There is no Scripta server in between, and the developer has no access to your account or your files. There, the data is kept by Google, under Google's privacy policy. With note encryption turned on (see below), each device's file is encrypted with the app password; images and attachments are not encrypted.

The sign-in stays on the device: the access key Google returns is kept in the system vault (Android Keystore or Windows DPAPI), and the email in the app preferences. It never leaves the device.

To stop: use Disconnect in Settings › Sync, which removes the sign-in from the device and revokes access. You can also remove Scripta's access at any time at myaccount.google.com/permissions. To delete the data stored in Drive, delete the Scripta folder; your notes stay on your devices.

Scripta's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the [Google API Services User Data Policy](https://developers.google.com/terms/api-services-user-data-policy), including the Limited Use requirements. Scripta uses this data only to sync and store your notes, does not use it for advertising, does not sell it and does not share it with anyone.

Checking for updates (Windows only)

The desktop app has a "Check for updates" button in Settings › About. It only runs when you click it: Scripta never checks on its own, has no timer for it and does nothing in the background.

When you click, the app asks the project's public releases page (api.github.com) which version was published last and compares it with the installed one. Nothing from your notes, your device or any account is sent; GitHub, like any website, records the IP address of whoever makes the request. If you never click, that request is never made. On Android there is no such button: the Play Store handles updates.

Images

To insert an image you pick a photo through the system photo picker or take a new one with the camera. The image is copied into the private folder of the app. The app does not read any other photo from your gallery and does not ask for a media reading permission.

Notes with a password

When you protect a note, its text is encrypted on the device (AES-256-GCM, key derived from the password with PBKDF2) and stays encrypted in the backup. The password is never stored or sent anywhere; without it, the note cannot be recovered. Images of that note stay in the private folder of the app, without encryption.

Encrypting the notes on this device

Under Settings > Lock you can store the notes file encrypted (AES-256-GCM) with a key derived from the app password. The key stays in memory while the app is open and, if biometrics are on, in the system vault (Android Keystore or Windows Hello), so your fingerprint can open the app. With biometrics on, the key of each password protected note you open is kept in that same vault too, so your fingerprint opens that note next time; turning biometrics off erases those keys. Without the password or the biometrics, that file cannot be opened by anyone, including the developer.

With that option on, the same key also encrypts the file this device writes into the sync folder, and the manual backup can be created encrypted (see below). The format is always the same: an NPX1 signature, the salt of the password, a fresh nonce for every write and the content in AES-256-GCM.

What is encrypted: the notes file on the device, the file this device writes into the sync folder and the protected backup (.scripta).

What is not encrypted, on purpose: the images. They remain ordinary files in the private folder of the app and, when syncing, in the images subfolder of the shared folder. It is the same rule that already applies to images of password protected notes. Whoever can reach that folder sees the photos, but not the text of the notes. App preferences (theme, font, device name) are also kept in plain text.

The key for the files in the shared folder is derived from the app password plus a salt kept in the folder itself (the file scripta-sync.salt, 16 random bytes). A salt is not a secret: it only prevents someone from using a ready made table of passwords. It exists so that two devices with the SAME app password reach the SAME key and can read each other's files.

For that to work, the app password is kept in the system vault (Keystore on Android, DPAPI on Windows), the same way the key already was. It never leaves the device.

With different passwords, each device writes a file the other cannot open, and the app reports that as an ERROR, both in the sync icon and in the Sync screen, together with what to do about it.

App preferences (theme, colors, font, view mode, language, reminders, correction rules) travel along with the notes, in the same file and with the same encryption. What does not travel, because it is a decision of each device: the sync folder, the automatic sync switch, the device name and everything tied to file permissions or to the system vault.

Reminders and notifications

A reminder is a date and time written in the note. The app schedules a local notification, delivered by the system of the device itself; nothing is sent to any server. The notification permission (and, on Android, the exact alarm one) is used only for that.

Widget and sharing into Scripta (Android)

The home screen widget shows the titles of the five most recent notes, kept in the app preferences on the device. When you share text from another app into Scripta, that text becomes a new note; nothing is sent back.

App password and biometrics

The app password is a gate at the entrance: it is stored only as a derived verifier (PBKDF2 + SHA-256), never in plain text, and it does not leave the device. Unlocking by biometrics uses the Android system; the app never receives or stores biometric data, only the answer (recognized or not).

Links

A link in a note is only text kept on the device. When you tap it, the address is handed to the browser you choose; Scripta does not open the page and does not fetch the title, the image or any other data from the page. That is why the link card shows only what is written in the note: the label and the domain.

Sharing

When you use Share, the system lists the available apps and you choose the destination and the format (text, PDF or PNG image). What is sent is the text of the note and, if there are any, its images. Save as… and Save to gallery write a file only where you choose.

Backup

A manual backup creates one file with notes, folders and images, and you choose where to keep it (Google Drive, OneDrive, Files or any other app). Restoring merges that file with your current notes without erasing anything.

There are two forms of the same content:

• .json, in plain text (the way it has always been): it can be opened and read by any program, including the cloud service where you keep it. Notes with their own password stay encrypted inside it; the rest does not.
• .scripta, encrypted with the app password, when you turn on "Protect the backup with the app password" under Settings > Backup. In that case nothing inside the file can be read without the password, neither the notes, nor the folder names, nor the images, which in this case travel encrypted with the rest.

The protected backup keeps the salt of the password used at the time of export, and the key is derived from it when restoring. That way an old backup still opens with the password that was valid when it was made, even if the app password changed afterwards. Without that password the file cannot be recovered by anyone, including the developer.

Android may also include notes, folders and preferences in the system Auto Backup, without the images, if that feature is active in the Google account of the device.

Deleting

Deleted notes stay in the trash for 30 days and are then erased. Under Settings you can erase every note, folder and image at once.

Permissions

The app asks for no location, contacts or gallery reading permission. The internet permission exists only for Google account sync (and, on Windows, for the Check for updates button), and is only used when you turn those on. The camera is used only when you choose to take a photo for a note. The biometric permission is used only if you turn on unlocking by fingerprint or face.

Files: Scripta asks for no permission to read or write outside its own private folder. Folder sync and automatic backup write only to the folder YOU choose: on Android, through the system folder picker, which gives the app access to that folder alone (and which you can revoke at any time in the Android settings); on Windows, in the folder picked in the regular window. Sync, with automatic sync on, runs when the app opens, when you come back to it, shortly after an edit and every five minutes. The app does not scan your storage and does not read other folders. With folder sync, whoever carries that folder to the cloud, if you want that, is another app of your choice.

Contact

A question, a problem or a suggestion: folhaversosuporte@gmail.com. Scripta is published by Folhaverso, who answers at that address.

Writing is the only way back there is: the app collects nothing, has no account of its own and sends no crash reports, so nobody here learns that you ran into a problem until you say so.