CovertNotes allows for storage and retrieval of format free personal data. A personal record or a note is defined here as a relatively short message that has a title, body and an optional date. The note body can be encrypted for storage and decrypted for display. The TEA algorithm is used for encryption and decryption.

A dated note has a year-month-day associated with it. Many everyday events are related to a specific date, for example how old is the battery in my car, or how long to this year's vacation. When viewed, a dated note displays the time difference between its data and today's date. Encrypted notes are necessary for protecting sensitive data such as computer accounts, bank accounts, etc. A key is specified at initialization for encrypting and decrypting. CovertNotes does not save this key in any manner. The key must be typed when entering the encrypt mode. When displaying note titles, flags indicate whether the node is dated (t flag) or encrypted (e flag). For simple notes the flags are set to (--).

CovertNotes features a command line user interface. Commands are typed and the responses appear in the area below. A mode indicator shows whether the program is in "Cleartext" or "Encrypt mm:ss" mode. The ecnrypt mode lasts up to one hour.