EVERKEEP NOTES
Notes on keeping things safe.
From a decade of doing it. We write about privacy, offline storage, and the quiet work of custody — what we’ve learned, what breaks, and what actually keeps things safe.
WATCH · 29 SECONDS
Almost everyone has a secret. Almost no one has a safe place for it.
See how Everkeep keeps your most private data offline — numbered, sealed, and watched.
Start protecting — CAD 187/yrHe Searched "How to Hide Photos From My Wife" at 2 AM
The 2 AM search box is where unspoken worries go — and why cloud albums, family sharing, and hiding places inside a phone cannot answer them, while entrusting private things to people and a process can.
The Family Group Chat Is Not an Archive
A busy family group chat feels like a record, but it is a transmission channel — and photos expire, phones change, and storage clears. Real keeping starts when someone gathers, labels, and takes charge of the memories.
The Divorce Lawyer's Hardest Question: "Where Is the Evidence?"
Screenshots are not evidence — chains are. Why cloud accounts, phones, and home storage fail as evidence preservation, and what a real third-party offline chain of custody looks like.
Pinduoduo Deleted Your Photos. Google Deleted Pinduoduo.
In March 2023, Pinduoduo was reported deleting users' photos and Google removed it from Play for malware. The real lesson: app permissions are capability lists — and anything you can't afford to lose shouldn't live where someone else can touch it.
Baidu Cloud Is Slow on Purpose. And That's the Least of It.
Baidu's throttling is its published business model, but review takedowns, account suspension, and real-name registration are the heavier rules — and the real reason something that must never be found does not belong on anyone's cloud.
A Letter to Your Child, to Be Opened in 2046
A letter for your child's eighteenth or thirtieth birthday needs two guarantees — that it arrives on the day you chose, and that it reaches only the person you named. A timed capsule with advance notices, a veto window, and a trigger ledger turns that promise into a process.
Your Company Laptop Is Not Yours. Neither Is What's on It.
On your last day, the work laptop goes back — with your photos, messages, and personal files still on it. Why deleting doesn't help, and what a real public-private line looks like.
Telegram's "Secret Chats" Aren't Where You Think
Telegram's reputation says secure, but ordinary chats live on its servers by design, Secret Chats must be started manually, and self-destruct can't stop a screenshot. Where your data lives matters more than what the app is called.
The File Transfer Helper Knows Too Much: Why the Most Convenient Place Is the Worst Place to Hide Anything
WeChat's File Transfer Helper feels private but keeps files inside a chat app governed by platform policy and device sync — why things that must not be found need offline, sealed, professionally kept custody instead.
The Shoebox Letters Your Grandmother Kept — and Why "Leaving Them Alone" Is Not Keeping Them
A shoebox is not an archive: paper fades, moves and clear-outs scatter family letters, and phone photos scatter further. What survives is recorded and formally kept off-site, by someone responsible.
23andMe Sold the Map of You. Twice.
First breached, then bankrupt: your genetic data became an asset to be sold. Why irreplaceable material cannot rest on a company's fortunes — and what certainty actually looks like.
Google Photos Knows Every Face in Your Life
Face grouping, location timelines, and content recognition mean your cloud library understands your life — and what it understands, you cannot delete. Why true privacy needs a place no system can search.
Sold Your Old Laptop? Your Files Went With It
Factory reset clears the index, not the data. Why your old laptop, phone, or trade-in can still give up its files — and what a proper retirement looks like.
Her Children's Childhood Is Scattered Across Three Dead Phones
Backed up is not the same as kept. Why family photos scattered across old phones, full cloud accounts, and half-migrated chats need one gathered, numbered, sealed archive.
Apple Wanted to Scan Your Photos. Everyone Said No. Then What?
In 2021 Apple planned to scan photos on your device, then shelved the plan. But the capability never went away. Why "can they look?" matters more than "will they look?" — and where looking is physically impossible.
A Phone Repair Shop Sees Everything. There's No Curtain.
Handing over your phone means handing over your whole life — photos, messages, everything — to a stranger with no curtain between you. Why the answer isn't a better promise, but never putting what must never be seen on a device you hand over.
Your NAS Is Online. That's the Whole Problem.
A home NAS means you became your own sysadmin — always online, always a target. Why offline custody, sealed and verified by professionals, is the only setup ransomware can't reach.
VHS Tapes Are Dying in Closets Right Now
Magnetic tape degrades whether you watch it or not, and the players are vanishing too. Digitizing is only half the rescue — the other half is custody: sealed, numbered, verified, and cared for by professionals.
When 360 Cloud Shut Down, "Your" Drive Stopped Being Yours
In 2016, 360 Cloud ended its personal service and gave users a migration deadline, not a choice. This article explains why cloud storage is rented access, not ownership — and why offline, sealed, professionally held custody is the arrangement that no platform announcement can end.
Japan Lost a Whole City's Data in a Bar. It Was on a USB Stick.
A USB stick with a city's records was lost in a bar in Amagasaki, Japan. Portability is losability: why a single drive, a home hiding place, or a safe cannot protect what must never be found, and what a proper custody process looks like.
Your Locked Drive Has a Second Key. It Isn't in Your Pocket.
BitLocker backs up your recovery key to your Microsoft account by default. More keys, more people who can open your lock — the trade-off nobody mentioned.
The BBC Built a Time Capsule in 1986. By 2000, Nobody Could Open It.
In 1986 the BBC stored a national survey on laserdiscs. Fifteen years later, no machine could read them. Stored is not the same as openable.
Your Spouse Won't Hack You. She'll Just Open the Family Album.
Shared albums, family sync, and 30-day deleted folders: why cloud photo sync is the real privacy risk at home, and what a truly private place looks like.
WhatsApp Promised Privacy. Your Backups Told Another Story.
WhatsApp encrypts chats, but cloud backups stayed unencrypted for years — the opt-in fix is off by default. The copy at rest is where people actually lose.
You Deleted Those Photos. Your Cloud Provider Didn't.
When iOS 17.5 resurrected long-deleted photos, Apple blamed corrupted local databases — proof that "delete" is a request filed with someone else's software stack. Why real deletion is decided at the level of physical custody.
MySpace Deleted 12 Years of Music. A Generation's Mixtape, Gone.
In 2019 MySpace admitted a server migration wiped out ~50 million songs from 14 million artists. A decade in digital custody on what "taking your memories seriously" actually means — people, process, and contract, not platforms.
A Datacenter Burned Down in France. Some Data Never Came Back.
The 2021 OVH Strasbourg fire destroyed SBG2 and proved the cloud is a building. Why the 3-2-1 backup rule's offsite "1" is the step that matters most.
Ransomware Doesn't Care That Those Are Your Kids' Baby Photos
WannaCry and NotPetya encrypted indiscriminately — Maersk lost ~$300M. Why connected backups get encrypted too, and why air-gapped copies are the gold standard.
They Didn't Hack iCloud. They Just Guessed Your Dog's Name.
The 2014 iCloud breach wasn't a hack — attackers answered security questions with public info. Why account recovery is cloud storage's hidden backdoor.
Your SSD Will Forget Everything If You Leave It in a Drawer for a Year
Flash memory stores data as electric charge. Unpowered, that charge leaks — it's physics, not a maybe. What JEDEC specs say about your drawer drive.
LastPass Got Breached Twice. Your Vault Was the Product.
LastPass was breached twice in 2022, and attackers copied customer vault backups — URLs left unencrypted, weak master passwords exposed to offline cracking.
A Nanny Took 150,000 Photos. The World Saw Them Only After She Died.
Vivian Maier's 150,000 negatives survived by pure luck. What your family archive needs is someone formally responsible — before the auction.
Will Your Photos Still Exist in 20 Years? Probably Not — Unless You Do This
Accounts close, companies fold, formats rot, drives die. What twenty years actually does to the photos and files you keep — and what it takes for them to still be there.
Why Cloud Storage Isn't Enough to Protect What Matters Most
The cloud is convenient, connected, and one password reset away from a stranger. Why the things you most need to keep private need a place with no front door at all.
Zero-Knowledge Storage, Explained in Plain English
Zero-knowledge means the company holding your data could not read it if it wanted to. How it works, in plain English — and why it is the only honest kind of custody.