Privacy & your data
Your notes stay yours — on your device, by default.
DumpDraft is local-first. There's no account required and nothing is uploaded unless you deliberately turn on a feature that does. Here's exactly what happens to your data.
Local-first by default
Every note — text, photos, and files — is stored only in your browser, on the device you captured it on. It is not sent to a server, and no account is needed to use the app. DumpDraft works fully offline.
This is deliberate. Your notes can hold private and sensitive details — customer names, unreleased plans, personal moments, caregiving records — and the safest design is one that never transmits them in the first place.
Because notes live in your browser's storage, clearing your browser data for the site — or uninstalling it without a backup — will remove them. Use export or encrypted backup below to keep a copy.
Optional end-to-end encrypted backup
If you want protection against losing a device, you can turn on encrypted cloud backup. It's off by default, and it's designed so the cloud never sees your notes.
- A snapshot is encrypted on your device (AES-GCM, with a key derived from your passphrase) before anything is uploaded.
- Only the encrypted blob is stored. Your passphrase never leaves your device, so a breach of the store reveals ciphertext, not your notes.
- A separate access key gates the backup so strangers can't write to your slot.
There is no passphrase recovery. If you lose the passphrase, the encrypted backup cannot be restored — that's the point of end-to-end encryption. Keep it somewhere safe.
What about AI write-ups?
The Generate draft option is fully offline and sends nothing anywhere — it assembles the document on your device.
The AI write-up options are different, because polishing prose requires an AI model:
- Copy AI prompt bundles your notes into a prompt that you paste into your own preferred or org-approved assistant. DumpDraft itself still transmits nothing; whatever you paste is governed by that assistant's terms.
- The in-app AI write-up (when signed in) sends the notes for that write-up to the AI service that generates it. Use it when you're comfortable doing so; use Generate draft when you want to keep everything on-device.
The choice is always yours and always per-action. Nothing is sent to an AI in the background.
Export, import & delete
You're never locked in. In Setup → Your data you can:
Export
Download everything as a JSON file — a portable copy you can archive or move to another device.
Import
Load a previously exported file to restore or merge your notes.
Clear
Delete an event and its notes from the device whenever you want. Deletions of your own notes are undoable in the app until cleared.
Quick summary
| Action | Does anything leave your device? |
|---|---|
| Capturing notes, photos, files | No — stored locally in your browser |
| Generate draft (offline report) | No |
| Export / import JSON | No — stays on your device / your files |
| Encrypted cloud backup (opt-in) | Only encrypted ciphertext; passphrase never leaves |
| Copy AI prompt | Only when you paste it into your chosen assistant |
| In-app AI write-up (opt-in, signed in) | Yes — that write-up's notes go to the AI service |