Why Spaceduck Isn't End-to-End Encrypted

We care deeply about your privacy, and we know end-to-end encryption is one of the strongest ways to protect data. So why doesn't Spaceduck use it?

We want to explain that clearly and openly.

What End-to-End Encryption Actually Does

End-to-end encryption means your data is encrypted on your device before it ever leaves. No one, not even us, can read it. Only you hold the key. That's powerful, and it protects against all kinds of misuse.

If our only goal was to keep your data sealed and untouchable at all costs, we'd absolutely use it.

But here's the truth: end-to-end encryption comes with real tradeoffs and they would limit what Spaceduck can do in big ways.

Why We Made a Different Choice

We didn't skip end-to-end encryption to cut corners. We skipped it because it would break the kind of product we're trying to build. Here's how:

1. Integrations Wouldn't Work

Spaceduck is designed to capture ideas from everywhere, Social Media, bookmarks, articles, Youtube and more. But if your data was fully encrypted before it reached us, we couldn't process those inputs. Integrations would be impossible. No pulling messages. No forwarding notes. No quick saves from your browser. It'd cut off a huge part of what makes Spaceduck useful.

2. Search Would Be Terrible

We're building a tool that helps you find what you've saved, fast. That means indexing your content and running meaningful searches, across text, images, links, and more. With end-to-end encryption, we couldn't do that unless everything lived on your device and got indexed locally, which isn't practical. Especially on mobile. Especially at scale.

3. Our Intelligence Layer Would Be Gone

A lot of what makes Spaceduck powerful and what we're excited to build, comes from being able to run AI and search across your content. Things like surfacing connections, answering questions, generating summaries, and helping you make sense of what you've saved. If everything's locked away, we can't do that. And Spaceduck becomes less helpful.

So... What Now?

We know end-to-end encryption is a dealbreaker for some people. If that's you, we get it and we encourage you to use a tool that aligns better with what you need. We're not trying to hide that. In fact, we want to be super transparent about how we handle your data, and you can read more about that here.

Although we don't use end-to-end encryption, we implement strong security measures:

• All data is encrypted in transit using HTTPS and at rest on our servers;
• We use state-of-the-art security protocols and regularly update our systems;
• Access to user data is strictly limited and monitored; and
• We perform regular security audits to ensure the integrity of our systems.

While we've chosen not to use end-to-end encryption to provide you with a feature-rich, intelligent platform, we remain committed to protecting your privacy:

• We never sell your data;
• We collect only the data necessary to provide our services;
• We're transparent about our data practices; and
• we continuously invest in improving our security measures.
• We don't use analytics outside of our marketing website. Our web and mobile apps do not use any analytics. Instead, we use our Slack channel to gather feedback from the community and build new features.

If anything in here feels unclear or if you ever have a concern, just reach out. We'll listen. We're not here to hide anything. We're here to build something that lasts. contact@spaceduck.com

Thanks for reading, and see you next time!