Independent since 2014

Calm infrastructure for an unpredictable internet.

Fieldnote Systems builds private, resilient connection tools for people who need to work and communicate across borders.

Our mission

Make digital privacy practical—not mysterious. We design safeguards that feel quiet in daily use, remain legible under pressure, and respect the person on the other side of the screen.

The beginning

How the first field test became a company

A notebook, a train station, and one unreliable network.

Our founders met while documenting communications blackouts for a regional research project. Existing security tools were either too brittle for patchy networks or too opaque for ordinary teams.

They sketched a smaller, clearer system: encryption that could recover gracefully, explain itself plainly, and never turn attention into a commodity.

“Trust grows when a product tells you what it is doing—and what it refuses to collect.”
A decade in the field

10 years of Fieldnote Systems

Lessons from the teams and communities who shaped our work.

Read the field journal
Where we are now

Built for movement, designed for steadiness

Small teams. Broad horizons.

We are an independent group of engineers, researchers, writers, and support specialists spread across nine time zones. The range of our lived experience keeps the work honest.

42team members
17languages spoken
9time zones
Work beyond the product

A safer, more open internet takes shared effort

01 / Access

Community relay grants

We fund independent groups that keep essential communication available during network disruption.

02 / Research

Open resilience lab

Our applied research and threat models are published for peer review whenever safety permits.

03 / Education

Privacy field guides

Free, translated guides help newsrooms and non-profits make informed security decisions.

04 / Accountability

Independent audits

Outside reviewers examine our applications, infrastructure, and data-handling commitments each year.

Our manifesto

Technology should expand human freedom, quietly.

choicedignityfreedomcuriosityprivacyagency

Freedom is a design constraint.

People should be able to think, learn, organize, and create without being profiled along the way. That principle guides our business model as much as our code.

We minimize the information our systems can see, document the difficult trade-offs, and put clear controls within reach.

Reliability is a form of respect.

A private tool is only useful when it works on an old laptop, a crowded network, or a long journey. We test for the uneven conditions that polished demos tend to ignore.

Progress means fewer hidden decisions, fewer anxious moments, and a service that earns its place every day.

Independent recognition

The trust we keep earning

Selected notes from researchers and product reviewers.

One of the rare privacy products that explains advanced safeguards without hiding behind jargon.

Mara Levin · Pattern Review

A measured, humane approach to resilience—especially strong when connections become unreliable.

Owen Park · Relay Journal

Fieldnote’s audit trail is unusually candid, with decisions and limitations presented side by side.

Priya Banerjee · Signal Ledger
Guidance from the field

Our independent advisors

Portrait of Rafael Mendes — photo by Korede Adenola on Pexels

Rafael Mendes

Network resilience researcher and former public-interest technologist.

Portrait of Jun Lee — photo by Ben Khatry on Pexels

Jun Lee

Security engineering leader focused on verifiable systems.

Portrait of Omar Sayeed — photo by Prince on Pexels

Omar Sayeed

Digital rights counsel working across borders and institutions.

Portrait of Elena Navarro — photo by Jake Nackos on Unsplash

Elena Navarro

Product operator and advocate for accessible technology.

Careers

Do work that holds up in the real world.

Join a distributed team that values patient craft, plain language, and responsibility for the details.

See five open roles
Common questions

A few things people ask us

Who owns Fieldnote Systems?

Fieldnote Systems is independently held by its founders and employees. We do not sell personal attention or activity data.

Where does the team work?

We are fully distributed, with colleagues across Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific region.

Why the name Fieldnote?

Early product decisions lived in battered research notebooks. The name reminds us to observe real conditions before designing for them.