Does Outline support end-to-end encryption or client-side encryption?

[p44]

Hi, I’m evaluating Outline but need clarity on data encryption. Is there any built-in E2EE or client-side encryption for documents?

Here, on official Guide, I reed that "When use Outline, the transmission of information between your device and our servers is protected using 256-bit TLS Elliptical Curve encryption. At rest, Outline encrypts all data using AES-256."

Is not clear to me if this also work for self-hosted version.

Thanks for any insights.

[andreasdueren]

@p44 I'm not aware of any encryption at rest features built into outline. My guess is that the storage outline uses for it's hosting services use encryption which only does something if they shut down their servers.

[jenstoke]

Great question! Outline does not support end-to-end encryption (E2EE) or client-side encryption, even in the self-hosted version. The encryption it uses — TLS for data in transit and AES-256 for data at rest — applies at the server level, meaning the server (whether cloud-hosted or self-hosted) still has access to the unencrypted document contents. So, while data is securely transmitted and stored, it is not encrypted in a way that prevents server access, which is what true E2EE or client-side encryption would provide.