Obsidian

A personal knowledge base and note-taking software application, with an optional syncing service.

6.2/10

How we calculate ratings →

Handling

Does the policy allow personally-targeted or behavioral marketing? Yes, but you may opt-out

4/10

Does the service allow you to permanently delete your personal data? Yes, using an automated mechanism

5/5

When does the policy allow law enforcement access to personal data? When reasonably requested

3/5

Does the service allow third-party access to private personal data? Yes

0/10

This may come in the form of outright data sharing or by using local third-party analytics software (such as Google Analytics, which collects a plethora of user information).

Note that whether the policy allows sharing aggregated user data does not affect this question.

If the personal data is encrypted when it passes through the third-party, it does not count as third-party access (as the data is inaccessible to that party).

If personal data has been made public by, for example, posting it to a blog, it does not count as private personal information (and is therefore not considered by this question).

Score

Yes

The policy allows sharing personal data with third parties (not just critical service providers), and does not explicitly list the third parties.

Yes, all parties specified (including non-critical service providers such as advertisers)

30%

Yes, not all parties specified (but only to critical service providers)

70%

Yes, all parties specified (only to critical service providers)

80%

100%

Citation

We employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Examples include fulfilling orders, delivering packages, sending postal mail and e-mail, removing repetitive information from customer lists, analyzing data, providing marketing assistance, processing credit card payments, and providing customer service. They have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but may not use it for other purposes. We may use service providers located outside of Canada, and, if applicable, your personal information may be processed and stored in other countries and therefore may be subject to disclosure under the laws of those countries.

Transparency

Does the policy require users to be notified in case of a data breach? Not necessarily

0/7

Is the policy's history made available? Yes, with revisions or a changelog

5/5

Will affected users be notified when the policy is meaningfully changed? Yes

5/5

Does the policy outline the service's general security practices? Somewhat

1/3

Score

Somewhat

The policy provides only a very vague overview of its security practices.

30%

Yes

60%

Yes, including audits

"Reviews," "monitoring," etc. also count as audits.

80%

Yes, including independent audits

Independent "reviews," "monitoring," etc. also count as independent audits.

100%

N/A

The service doesn't collect any personal information.

100%

Citation

We take steps to safeguard your personal information, regardless of the format in which it is held, including:

physical security measures such as restricted access facilities and locked filing cabinets

electronic security measures for computerized personal information such as password protection, database encryption and personal identification numbers. We work to protect the security of your information during transmission by using “Transport Layer Security” (TLS) protocol.

organizational processes such as limiting access to your personal information to a selected group of individuals

contractual obligations with third parties who need access to your personal information requiring them to protect and secure your personal information

Notes

Additional information involving end-to-end encryption for Obsidian Sync can be found at https://help.obsidian.md/Obsidian+Sync/Security+and+privacy

Collection

Is it clear why the service collects the personal data that it does? Yes

10/10

Score

Somewhat

30%

Mostly

70%

Yes

100%

N/A

The service doesn't collect any personal information.

100%

Citation

You will be deemed to consent to our use of your personal information for the purpose of:

communicating with you generally

processing your purchases

processing and keeping track of transactions and reporting back to you

protecting against fraud or error

providing product and services requested by you

recommending products and services that Dynalist believes will be of interest and provide value to you

performing statistical analyses of user behaviour and characteristics, in order to measure interest in and use of the various sections of this site so as to improve design and navigation and to gather marketing information. Only aggregated data from these analyses, not individual data, will be used for this purpose

complying with legal and governmental requirements

fulfilling any other purpose that would be reasonably apparent to the average person at the time we collect it from you

Does the policy list the personal data it collects? Yes, generally

7/10

Score

The policy does not claim to not collect personal data, but it also doesn't provide any meaningful insight into the types of personal data it collects.

Only summarily

The policy uses overly vague language to provide a summary of the types of collected personal data.

30%

Yes, generally

All general categories of collected personal data are listed, though not all types of personal data are explicitly mentioned (for example, the list might use a phrase like 'such as' when listing types of personal data).

70%

Yes, exhaustively

All types of collected personal data are listed specifically

100%

N/A (no personal data is collected)

100%

Citation

Dynalist does not receive or store personal content saved to your local device while using Obsidian.

For example, like many websites, we use “cookies,” and we obtain certain types of information when your web browser accesses Obsidian.md.

Examples of the information we collect and analyze include the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet; login; e-mail address; password; computer and connection information, such as browser type, version and timezone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system, and platform; the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through, and from our website, including date and time; cookie numbers; products you viewed or searched for; and the telephone number used to call our customer service number. We may also use browser data such as cookies, Flash cookies (also known as Flash Local Shared Objects), or similar data on certain parts of our website for fraud prevention and other purposes. During some visits we may use software tools such as JavaScript to measure and collect session information, including page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page.

Does the service allow the user to control whether personal data is collected or used for non-critical purposes? On an opt-out basis, for all non-critical data/uses

6/10

Some services allow users to opt-out or opt-in to of non-critical collection or use of personal data, such as collecting data for personalized advertisements.

Score

On an opt-out basis, but only for some non-critical data/uses

30%

On an opt-out basis, for all non-critical data/uses

60%

On an opt-in basis

60%

N/A (no data used for non-critical purposes)

100%

Citation

Please contact them directly for more information about their privacy practices. In addition, the Network Advertising Initiative offers useful information about Internet advertising companies (also called “ad networks” or “network advertisers”), including information about how to opt-out of their information collection. You can access the Network Advertising Initiative at http://www.networkadvertising.org.

Notes

Only applies to account users.

See the data collection list for what cookies collect and store.

Does the service collect personal data from third parties? No

10/10

Last Updated

June 16, 2023

Sources

Source #1 ↗

Contributors

doamatto