notegirl

What actually happens to your photo

You tap Send, the photo appears on the other screen, and nothing seems to have happened in between. Here is what did happen, in the order it happened, with the parts most tools leave vague spelled out.

1. Two browsers introduce themselves

When you open notegirl.com, your browser picks three words and tells Notegirl's introduction server, the hub, "if anyone asks for lemon otter cabin, that's me." When the other device types those words, the hub passes a few small notes between the two browsers: where each one can be reached, and a fingerprint each will use to check the other's encryption key. That is the whole job of the hub. It is a post office for introductions. It never receives a note, a photo or a file; all it holds is your three words, for as long as your tab is open.

2. The photo travels directly

Once introduced, the two browsers open a direct connection to each other using the same technology video calls use, called WebRTC. Everything on that line is encrypted end to end before it leaves your device, with keys the two browsers agree on between themselves; the hub only ever carried their fingerprints, so it could not read the line even if it wanted to. The photo is cut into pieces, sent across, and reassembled on the other side, byte for byte. There is no upload, no server copy, and no "processing". A 12-megapixel photo leaves as 12 megapixels and arrives as 12 megapixels.

3. Sometimes a relay carries it

A few networks, hotel Wi-Fi and some office and mobile networks among them, do not let two devices connect directly. When that happens the connection goes through a relay instead. The relay forwards the encrypted pieces without being able to read them; it sees scrambled bytes and the two addresses, and it keeps nothing. You will notice only that the transfer takes a little longer. You can tell it is happening when a big file moves slower than your Wi-Fi should allow.

4. Who can see what

What	Your two devices	Notegirl's hub	A relay, when used
The photo or note	Yes, in full	Never	Scrambled bytes only
Your three words	Yes	While the tab is open	No
Who you are	There is no account	Nothing	Nothing
Kept afterwards	Only what you press Save on	Nothing	Nothing

There is no sign-in, so there is no name, email or phone number anywhere in this. The hub knows a three-word code exists for as long as a tab is open, and forgets it the moment the tab closes.

5. What closing the tab does

While the tab is open

your three words answer when someone dials them
notes and photos sit on both screens
the link reconnects itself after a lock screen
none of it is on a server

When it closes

the three words stop working within seconds
that screen is empty, and stays empty
the other side keeps only what it pressed Save on
there is still nothing on a server

The three words are tied to the open tab. Close it and the hub drops the code within seconds; anyone typing it afterwards gets "nobody's using that code". The notes and photos on that screen are gone with the tab, because they only ever lived in that tab's memory. The other screen keeps what is on it until its tab closes too, and keeps permanently only what its owner pressed Save on. That is the one thing to remember: if your friend saved the photo, your friend has the photo, exactly as if you had handed over a print.

6. While you are connected

Both tabs keep a quiet heartbeat going so they notice within a few seconds if one side has gone, which is what phones do the moment the screen locks. When that happens, the side that is still awake waits and reconnects as soon as the other comes back, and anything that was mid-flight goes again from the start. A photo sent while your friend's screen was locked still arrives when they unlock it. You never need to resend by hand.

7. What Notegirl counts

To know whether the site is useful, it counts a few things anonymously: that a page was opened, that a connection happened, that a note or a photo was sent, the country, and which page brought you here. No addresses are stored, no codes are stored, and nothing about what was sent. The privacy page lists exactly what is and isn't collected.

Open Notegirl

Questions

Does Notegirl ever see my photo?
No. The introduction server only passes addresses and key fingerprints between the two browsers. The photo travels directly, encrypted, and a relay, when one is needed, forwards scrambled bytes it cannot read.

Is anything stored on a server?
Nothing. Not the photo, not the note, not the code once the tab closes. There is no account to store anything under.

What if my screen locks while sending?
The other side waits, the link reconnects when you unlock, and the transfer finishes on its own.

Can someone guess my three words?
There are over ninety million combinations, a code only exists while your tab is open, and the hub cuts any one connection off after a few dozen guesses a minute.