I just came across this article on journaling in our local daily website (where I was trying to get info about the rains and floods here). Very interesting -- some good advice here, I think:

Journaling can be more than "Dear Diary" scribbles

Doug

Thank you Doug for that very nice link. I really enjoyed that sweet little article but I take exception to one point. Journaling is only private if, after you write your entry, you burn the page.
I can think of at least one person who did something in "private" only to have it splashed across the internet. True, she may have done that on purpose but one never knows. One thing's for sure though: if she ever contemplated entering a religious order, I don't think they'd take her...

You bring up something that seems to be one of the basic conflicts in journaling -- privacy. My own thinking on this is that we should be able to express what we really think somewhere. If we don't have a place to work out our "private" thoughts, then how do we even know what we are really thinking? We should all allow each other that privilege of privacy for some things, like journals. I'd make some kind of exception and allow violation of that only if the person were a suspect in some kind of extremely anti-social activity (psycho murderer or that sort of thing). It's not a place where we hide ourselves, it's a place where we work out who we are. And in private, like all the other stuff we do in private. That's part of what the 4th Amendment is all about -- I think, anyway.

Of course, I live by myself and don't have to worry about someone snooping through my stuff when I'm not around...

Doug

Doug:

I think the second quote above sums up my concerns nicely. Let's assume that, for whatever reason, something my wife did recently really grated on me and I journaled something along those lines, venting let us say to the extreme. It could be one of those events that married couples have that really set there teeth on edge for a night or a day but then becomes a non-issue. But let's say that my wife happens to read my venting - then what? At the very least I've hurt someone that I love and have no wish to hurt. At the worst?

So Yes, the journal should be something that we use to express ourselves, but some of us need to be prudent. What I've decided to do is to have a pad of paper handy and if I feel I need to vent about my spouse I shall do so but then I shall immediately shred it. It should serve the same purpose and I will not run the risk of hurting someone I dearly love.

Bruce

Well....I have journaled about that kind of thing - but, I usually end up writing down pretty much what I've already expressed out loud to my partner. If he came upon it, it wouldn't be anything new. Actually, I am fairly sure he is somewhat deterred from ever looking in my journals. As he would say "what - and get in s**t twice?"

Ah. There's the difference. To keep the peace I sometimes (note - "sometimes") don't fully say what I have in mind.

I used to use codewords. My girlfriend's son was "UU2" for Unemployed Unit 2. Don't ask me who UU1 was.

Doug

I just ran across an ingenious solution to privacy concerns by our captnemo in another thread:



I've asked him to post some step-by-step instructions when he has the time.

Doug

For me, this somewhat defeats the purpose of keeping the journal on paper (though not completely), but it *is* definitely the most secure way to keep it, and the only way with a reasonable chance of staying secure should a persistent and well-funded inquirer come round.

On Windows, you have to install some things -- I recommend GPG4Win. That should include all the pieces you need to encrypt individual files. (GPG is the freeware Gnu-software version of PGP.)

On linux, it may already be installed for you, so just:

% gpg --encrypt --symmetric -o filename-you-want-for-encrypted-version filename-of-plain-version

It will prompt you for a passphrase to be used in encrypting (and later decrypting!) the file. Do not forget it! If you lose the passphrase there is NO WAY to recover it.

After it's encrypted you should securely delete the original. "shred" on linux will overwrite it, and there are various utilities for Windows ("Eraser" is a decent one) for securely deleting files. These should be good enough against anyone short of well-funded three-letter-agencies. (Against those, you probably need to really, thoroughly destroy the media with the plaintext copy on it. Thermite works well, I hear. )

For my level of everyday use, GPG and "shred" or "Eraser" are quite secure enough, and easy to use. If anyone wants more detail help getting them going, feel free to drop me a note, I'll be happy to try to help.

I had another thought... Macs allow you to create an account that automatically encrypts the contents. I don't know how secure the encryption is, but it should be enough to deter "accidental" discovery by the average household member. Theoretically it would be pretty simple: Set one of the doofus buttons on the scanner so all you have to do is drop a "secret journal" page into the scanner and press the button. You'd have to be logged into your "journal" account, but Macs will allow you to be logged into several accounts simultaneously. After the scan, dump the page. Your private journal will be the scans in your secured user folder.

This may seem kinda dumb, but I really think there is some psychological value in writing what's really on your mind, and writing it by hand.

Of course, the other thing is that I have a bunch of really nice Private Reserve inks that I no longer use because they are the opposite of waterproof. I could use these inks for my private journal, then just wash the words away. No shredding necessary.

I'm nuts enough to try this out. I'll give it a go and report back.

Doug

You've covered it very nicely. Doug asked me to write up some pointers but I don't think I'm much help on that. I use regular PGP and have for many years and I'm not up on the latest tools out there.

In my original comment I suggested zipping and then encrypting but further thought on it makes me change my mind. Instead, I suggest encrypting and then emailing the files to a Gmail account you've set up for the purpose. Gmail gives you 3-plus GB of storage space, enough to store about 9,000 scanned 8x11 pages. Gmail can worry about backups and keeping it safe. The files are dated, easily retrieved, and available to you anywhere in the world. In modern parlance, they are "in the cloud".

Your encryption software wants to be something that's standardized and widely available so if your machine blows up you can easily download a fresh copy of the crypto software, fetch pages from Gmail, and as long as you remember your passphrase you're in business. You can recover and read your journal from any machine with access to the Internet. It would also be wise to choose crypto software that runs on Linux, Mac, and Windows. Then you are universal.


As far as scanning defeating much of the purpose of writing, it all depends on the individual. Some people think and compose better with paper and pen but are not so concerned about the paper itself after it's done. Sometimes, it's nice to have real paper. My daughter lives 2,400 miles away and she and I exchange handwritten letters and I enjoy getting the original paper written in her hand as she enjoys getting mine. But for some, the paper is not that important once the words are on it. In that case, scanning is a great solution. It can be encrypted. And you can make as many backups of the encrypted files as you want and put them in safe places, or email them to Gmail, or whatever.

Indeed. A perfect use for PR American Blue. All you have to do is SAY the word water and it disappears and though it was never there.

Thanks, Doug, for posting the link to the article as I'd missed it -- I took an illustrated journal workshop with Greg last summer and his own journals are amazing.

Interesting discussion. I note that some of us who might be "working out who we are" could very well write down some negative things (or things which would be taken as negative) but NOT write down correlative positive things. I know that I often journal when I feel whiny and depressed; but when I'm feeling great about life, I'm out on the boots hiking through the park. Someone who read my journal as the only evidence of my state of mind might conclude I was a cantankerous freak. That type of misrepresentation might take place with interpersonal issues as well.

Which brings up a question. What do you think about using supposedly "private" journals as evidence in a court case? I have written an awful lot of embarrassing stuff down, and I suspect that some of it might be construed as illegal in some manner or other. Yet I don't really feel that this stuff incriminates me in some way, since (after all) if I did the crime, the actual act of doing the crime is what incriminates me, right? I'm not proactively seeking to hide the actions, so it's not like I'm somehow making the crime worse by recording it.

And anyway, I'm not 100% sure it's criminal. Things like telling off my boss, or WANTING to tell off my boss, or stating just how angry I got when he took credit for my work; that sort of thing. Tendencies toward a desire to do violence. I haven't ever DONE violence, and chances are, that because I'm comfortable writing it down, I'm LESS rather than more likely to act wrongly, relative to someone with similar feelings but less of an opportunity to vent. Or, try this as an example. Driving ever so slightly over the speed limit. I do this all the time. Is the fact that I journal about it something which I need to keep secret? Should I start encrypting my scans and shredding everything?

Interesting thoughts.

I once noticed my girlfriend's journal open on the kitchen table. In a split second I noted mentally "My what nice handwriting" (she really did have great penmanship, a flowing cursive that said a lot about what a great gal she is) and "Nice pen" and then "Hey that's my name, what did she write about me?" Then I accidentally scanned about three sentences before my rational brain caught up with me and I realized it was meant to be private, and I slammed it shut. Does this mean I "read" her journal? If I had been warned at the outset that something which was meant to be private was going to be sitting on the kitchen table glaring me in the face, I guess I would thereby have known to avert my eyes before processing the word forms. But since it came as a surprise, I only engaged with it as long as was essentially inadvertent before realizing I should stop myself, at which realization I did stop myself cold.

Other interesting thoughts. Wonder what your thoughts are.

What about those old pages in my post-college journals, all about why I can't get a date / can't get laid / am having opportunities for sex only with women I think are physically unappealing and therefore I'm continuing to turn down sex. Embarrassing, now, to look back at how emotionally unequipped for human interaction I was, how desperately horny I was as a 22 year old. Also, the stories quite anger me, about how frivolously manipulative most young girls were. I basically perceive a level of decency among males of that age, at least at the schools where I was, that goes far beyond what was considered the norm for female behavior. Is this journal entry incriminating? Should I burn it? Some day it may "hurt someone I love" in the sense that the REAL manner in which I felt about someone I knew at the time might come out. Likelihood is quite slim; but still, a premise is a premise, and if the principle is to eliminate anything potentially hurtful even if it's emotionally truthful when considered as an aspect of "in the moment" behavior ...

Very interesting questions, especially in this era of diminished privacy. I read recently where a woman was convicted of a homicide by the evidence of her Google record. (I swear that my searches for "needlepoint" were for pen nibs -- and I made sure to explain to the pharmacist that I needed a syringe to mix inks and ditto for the little bottles...)

But because of these intrusions into our privacy, we're generally apprehensive about writing down our real thoughts, impressions, and reflections. Where do we get to say what we are really thinking? And if we don't work them out somewhere, how do we know what we ARE really thinking, and what we really are about?

Even in my own journal I seem to avoid particular kinds of heavy psycho-archeological excavation. But that may be because I think I may spook myself. So yeah, interesting questions. Don't really know the answers but it's worth thinking about...

Doug

I'm not a lawyer, but it seems to me that generally intent alone is not a crime, unless there's evidence that the only reason you didn't actually do it is that you were prevented in some way beyond your control.

However, if a crime was committed, a journal may well be of interest as evidence of intent, motive, mental state, or other context. If someone's wife turned up dead, say, a journal talking about a one-armed man stalking her vs. a journal talking about how furious her husband was at catching her in an affair might be of great interest to a court.

Crime is a deliberate and culpable act. Intent is a huge part of it, but intent "alone" wouldn't be criminal in the absence of the act itself. My questions about journaling were directed more at the act having been committed, but generally overlooked by society at large. So the intent and the act are both there; but without the journal, the intent cannot be proven.

Hypothetical: Say I run the speed limit. Say I do so regularly. Say the cops let me get away with it regularly. Say I write these facts down in my journal. Say I THEN get a speeding ticket in the same context, maybe just because a trooper was below quota for the day. I resist, pontificate, get aggressive, and a judge throws the book at me. Subsequently, a warranted search of my home yields my journals, which describe constant speeding over the limit. All day every day, for the last seventeen years, my journals attest, I have been driving 60 in a 55 zone.

What then?

finalidid, do NOT see this movie:

Minority Report, at imdb.com

Doug

I have a standing deal with Soren -- and had the same one with my ex-husband, the Good Ex -- that if he really wants to, he can read any of the journals on the shelves. Thing is, he can't ask me about the contents, because they weren't written for him; and he can't read the current one, because that's too recent.

Neither Soren nor Mark has actually read any of my journals, unless I've shown them the entry, though. I don't know whether it's because the freedom to do so makes it less tempting, or because they don't want to try to decipher my tiny handwriting (particularly not the year when I wrote in yellow ink half the time).

re: Minority Report

Yes, the short story does a better job of narrative framing, but essentially the whole premise is, that intent alone creates the crime. Interesting sci-fi treatment of the subject. Too bad the movie just devolves to the car chase about 1/3rd of the way in, but when does Hollywood NOT cut to the chase?

And what, exactly, is your beef with someone being a cantankerous freak?! Haarrrrummph!


I've been scribbling away in journals of one form or another for more than 40 years now. It's a part of my life. I'm of the "keep the journals" school. I figure that if I get caught for committing some crime because of what I've written in a journal that's just life. I do try not to be stupid in that way, however. I'm sure that most of the crimes I've confessed to in my journals are way past their statute of limitations. So I figure that the risk/benefit ratio comes out to being in favor of keeping the journals.

It's good to keep these things. They can remind you of thoughts you'd had long ago. You can also keep track of some parts of your life this way. And I'm finding that they're very useful when memory fades a bit. I can rely on the fact that I did a certain thing in a certain year because I wrote it down and I don't have to rely on my memory for that data.

Hello, (...and please excuse my german-based English ...)

I am journaling for nearly 30 years now. The writing habits changed a lot, but I can always see the "red line" of my Inner Self.
In younger days it was immensly important to "keep the secrets". Today I don't mind, because there is nothing I could not also talk about with my best friends. So why should I worry about encrypted files?

"I 'm as healthy as my secrets are..."! And to say the truth: when someone reads other peoples journals (or letters) he/she should know that she/he has a big problem with either communication, relationship or psyche. The same with the idea that ones privacy has to be a "state secret" - something is wrong...he/she should take it serious and should take care about it, especially in intimate relationships.

Today I find some more "mature" inner dialogue in my journals. More consciousness for inner conflicts which I can reflect, regulate and keep in balance better. ("I hate you, piss off" versus "I love you and know more than this about you" = I won't kill you today (but maybe tomorrow... ).

The older I grow, the more reflection (politics, history, news, literature, music, friends, family, religion and faith, prayer....) I am writing down. It is fun to read it again.

Have fun! And open up, with yourself and to others - keeps us growing, I think!