Hey, that’s a fascinating idea. Legally, mental privacy isn’t as clearly protected as data. The law tends to treat thoughts as private until someone actually shares or expresses them. In most jurisdictions, you can’t force a court to compel someone to disclose what’s in their head. That said, there are some protections—like the right against compelled self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment in the U.S., which can cover what you’re “thinking” about in a legal context. Outside that, privacy laws usually focus on personal data, not unspoken ideas. So, while we can’t literally lock up thoughts the way we secure emails, the law does give you some shield against being forced to reveal what’s in your mind.

You’re right that the law doesn’t let people peek inside your head unless you speak it out loud. The Fifth Amendment stops you from being forced to testify about your thoughts in court, but it doesn’t create a blanket “mind‑privacy” right. In practice, if you keep your ideas private—meaning you don’t record, post, or otherwise share them—then the law can’t compel anyone to read them. So the real “lock‑down” is to control the information you put out, not to stop yourself from thinking. The encryption you need is for the data you actually expose.