How secure are plaintext files stored on local computer?

Question

I'm switching to another note taking software recently. The new note taking software emphasizes that it does not lock data and the data is stored locally by the user in .md format. Since notes contain a lot of sensitive data, it made me curious about a security question: how secure do you think is the local plaintext storage?If we are more specific: how secure is local plaintext on Mac and iPhone?Let's consider:1. If the device gets lost. I have opened FileVault on Mac and iPhone has a fingerprint lock and password. Is this secure enough?2. Do some software scan the local files? How big is this risk?3. Something like Spotlight on Mac does scan all the local plaintext, does this pose a security risk?4. Are there any other risks you could think of?

connordoner · Accepted Answer

Before you can answer this, you need to ask a more basic question: "What am I trying to secure against?".
Are they secure against an opportunistic thief? Sure.
Are they secure against a state actor with an unlimited budget? One word: LOL.

tianqi · Answer

The thing is: Local plaintext storage sounds beautiful, but is it really more secure than end-to-end encrypted cloud storage?

How secure are plaintext files stored on local computer?

Before you can answer this, you need to ask a more basic question: "What am I trying to secure against?".Are they secure against an opportunistic thief? Sure.Are they secure against a state actor with an unlimited budget? One word: LOL.

The thing is: Local plaintext storage sounds beautiful, but is it really more secure than end-to-end encrypted cloud storage?

Before you can answer this, you need to ask a more basic question: "What am I trying to secure against?".
Are they secure against an opportunistic thief? Sure.
Are they secure against a state actor with an unlimited budget? One word: LOL.