anytype-docs-data-how-we-keep-your-data-safe.md
For the complete documentation index, see llms.txt. This page is also available as Markdown.
Most modern software runs on corporate cloud servers, where companies can view your data, monetize it, and lock you out at will. In those systems, you're effectively asking permission to access your own digital life.
Anytype is fundamentally different: you are the sole, permanent owner of your digital world. Digital sovereignty isn't a feature of Anytype — it's a core design principle.
Anytype's architecture ensures privacy is mathematically enforced in code, not promised in a policy. In practice, this means:
You control access. Only you can access your spaces and grant access to others — not even Anytype can see your content.
No permission required. You don't need anyone's approval to access your data, not even Anytype's.
You can leave anytime. Your data goes with you, and Anytype can't stop you.
Local key generation. Your cryptographic Key is generated locally on your device when you create your Vault. It's never transmitted over the internet or stored on Anytype's servers — only you have it.
No master recovery. Because Anytype holds no keys to your account, we can't reset your password or recover your account if you lose access. Losing your key means losing access to your data permanently.
Blind data sync. All your content is encrypted before it syncs across devices, so Anytype only ever acts as a blind messenger — passing encrypted data along without being able to read it.
Only share sensitive spaces with people you trust who are also using secure devices. Each additional member you add to a space widens its potential attack surface.
Anytype encrypts your data using a layered key system, so that even the infrastructure helping sync and back up your data can't read it. In practice, this means:
Objects are encrypted at rest. Your objects are stored — both locally and on syncing nodes — in an encrypted format that can only be decoded with encryption keys. Your keys are generated locally on your device and never sent to Anytype.
Indexes stay local and unencrypted. In order to search your documents efficiently, Anytype builds local indexes from your encrypted objects, decrypting them on the fly with your keys. These indexes are stored separately from the encrypted data itself and aren't encrypted — this assumes your local device hasn't been compromised.
Indexes never sync. Your indexes remain only on the device that created them. If you use two devices, each maintains its own independent index storage.
While Anytype has robust encryption, it ultimately assumes the device you're using is safe. If a device is compromised, local encryption offers limited protection against many attacks. We recommend taking your device security very seriously:
Require a device password.
Enable disk encryption.
Lock your device every time it is unattended.
Don't share access to your device.
#Technical Details
Anytype stores the history of changes for each object you’ve created.
Every object’s change has 2 encryption layers with different keys.
The first layer is used to connect changes within an object, e.g. "all this encrypted data belongs to the object with id <abc>".
The second layer is used to encrypt the actual data. We use AES with stream encryption with CFB mode.
When you create a new change for an object, we periodically send it to our backup node (with only the first-layer key). More info about sync here.
Anytype backup nodes have access to the first layer key, so it can group changes for the object and send them in one pack when you want to restore your data.
Anytype backup nodes have no access to the second layer, so it can’t read the actual changes to the data.
For more technical details, please see here.
Keep your devices secure. The security of your devices — and your habits while using them — is the first and most important line of defense when using Anytype.
While your content is always private and encrypted, Anytype does collect limited anonymized product usage data to understand how the app is used and to guide development. This telemetry data is entirely separate from your actual content.
In practice, this means:
Content is never part of telemetry. No object titles, document contents, chat messages, or files are ever visible through telemetry. Your spaces remain private to you and those you share with.
Usage data is anonymous and viewed in aggregate. We can see high-level signals, but not the specifics. For example, we can see how many users created custom Types but not what the Types contain or how it was used.
Data is compartmentalized. Product analytics and email tools are kept separate, with no linking of identifiable data between them. Emails collected on the website or during onboarding are not tied to your Vault or product telemetry in any way.
Data is abstracted. Extra care is taken to make telemetry as abstract as possible, such as creating synthetic Channel IDs rather than using real IDs. This further obscures any ability to interpret the activity happening in any space.
Nothing is sold. Usage data is never sold to third parties — it's used solely to inform internal product decisions.
Anytype accounts are permissionless and created using a seed phrase—no email required. When emails are collected (via support requests, newsletters, or website sign-ups), we take measures to isolate then from your Vault and our tools.
Strict Compartmentalization : Email tools and product analytics tools are separate and do not share data.
No Cross-Linking : Even if analytics show 1,000 users have stopped using Anytype, our systems aren't connected, so we cannot send them re-engagement emails.
We take precautionary measures to minimise any anonymity loss, however it's advised that users take their own measures.
Email Aliases: Use services like SimpleLogin or DuckDuckGo when contacting support.
VPNs: Mask your IP address during node syncs.
Self-Hosting: Run your own infrastructure to keep sync data entirely off Anytype nodes.
For GDPR-related requests, i.e. data removal from other services, please contact us at: [email protected]
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