One of the best-known tools for sharing text online is Pastebin, but some restrictions in its usage policies and the need for greater security have led to the development of alternatives that offer encryption and anonymity at the same time. One of those alternatives is ProtectedText, and to protect user privacy it doesn't use any login or recovery system. In other words, if you lose the address or the password, the same will happen to the text.
Sharing text was a matter of sending an email until a few years ago. Then came collaborative document editing, writing notes on social networks, file transfer services, and several other options. However, when the word "privacy" enters the equation, many services that claim to be secure simply drown in promises. There is no longer any point in hiding it: several platforms have been compromised, sometimes without the developer's knowledge, and sometimes with their full involvement. As always, until the political class reaches an agreement (which would be a miracle), the first and last line of defense is the user, which means looking for more robust services that leave a lighter digital footprint.
How ProtectedText works
If you need to send someone a text quickly and securely, you should take a look at ProtectedText. The service has been around for a while, but it definitely deserves a bit more media attention for how well it works. It all starts with adding a name to a URL so that it becomes personalized. Then the browser presents a simple notepad where you write/paste the text to send. Once finished, the user saves the content and assigns a password. For greater security, it is recommended that the URL and the password be shared through different channels so that they cannot be associated. And in essence, that's it.
The text is encrypted, and there is no kind of login or additional identification on the site. If for some reason you lose the password or the URL, the content cannot be recovered, and the people in charge of ProtectedText don't have the means to do it either.
Open source and trust
If that doesn't seem enough to you, you should know that ProtectedText's code is available to anyone interested in studying how it works, or in developing another similar service using it as a base. These are the new rules of the Web, ladies and gentlemen. Whether for business, advertising, or national security, someone out there wants our data, and the idea of "having nothing to hide" is a fallacy of no value. Each user gives their information the priority it deserves, and if what you need to share is important, you should use a tool like ProtectedText.
