Is it safe to put my bank account numbers or credit card passwords in Springnote?

Sometimes, people ask about putting their credit card numbers or passwords in Springnote.

We recommend that you should not write important personal information such as credit card numbers, passwords, and bank account numbers in Springnote. Even though service providers are trusted, all information on browsers can be exposed to others while sending to internet servers over the internet. And this is applied to all web-sites including Springnote and you probably have seen this kind of a warning when using instant messengers. The web sites that deal with personal and sensitive information encrypt those information on web browsers and their servers decode them using a secure channel communication. For example. the myID (myid.net) service uses the HTTPS secure channel communication for your security when you sign in.

Of course, even though secure channel communications are used, if a user's computer has a hacking program running, the information he or she enters through keyboard can be exposed to others. So web-sites like bank sites use additional security methods. However, some of web sites do not feel secure enough with these secure methods, they offer a virtual keyboard to type characters with a mouse instead of using a keyboard. The sites that handle highly sensitive information may use a privately owned network instead of using internet.

We know that it would be better if Springnote uses the security systems mentioned above. However, there is a problem of usability if security systems are heightened.

For example, if HTTPS is applied for channel security and an external image in an internet server that does not use HTTPS is attached in a page, a warning will appear on the browsers whenever the page is opened. If a hacking proof program is installed and run automatically, then the delay time will be longer when connecting a web-site as well as the resources in one's computer will be used excessively.

When we think about the key concept of Springnote "users can write whenever they have ideas and edit them fast," we believe that poor usability is not the answer in order to secure passwords or bank account numbers in Springnote.

Therefore, we recommend that you should not write your personal information such as passwords, bank account numbers and social security numbers on web-sites, emails, wikis and web blogs for your security.