Privacy

The short version

Kai (TheHand.app) is local-first, not local-only. It has no accounts, doesn't sell or share your data, and doesn't track you across other apps or websites. Everything Kai remembers about you is stored on your Mac. Some work happens on your Mac with Apple's on-device AI; when a request needs a cloud model, only what that request needs is sent, through Kai's server. This page says exactly what goes where.

What happens on your Mac

• Transcribing your meetings and (by default) your push-to-talk voice, and working out who said what, with Apple's on-device speech models.
• Meeting summaries and action items, using Apple's on-device language model when your Mac supports it (macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence) and the meeting is in English. In Private mode (menu bar → On-Device AI) these are never sent to the cloud; if the on-device model can't do it, you get nothing rather than a cloud result.
• Listening for a request not to be recorded while a meeting is being recorded. That live listening is on-device.
• Storing your notes, tasks, projects, people, memory, recordings (audio and video), transcripts and consent records. Secrets live in the macOS Keychain.

What Kai sends off your Mac, and where

• A random device ID. Generated on first launch, stored in the Keychain, never tied to your name or email. Sent with requests so Kai's server can apply per-device usage limits. The server keeps monthly usage counters and (once paid plans exist) your plan against that ID, and logs per-request usage such as counts and token totals — not your content.
• What you ask Kai. Chat and voice messages go to Kai's server, which forwards them to an AI provider (Groq for plain chat, Anthropic's Claude when Kai uses tools such as Gmail, Calendar, web research or actions on your Mac) to write the reply. The request includes the context needed to answer — for example your open tasks, nearby calendar events, and relevant notes or people — not your whole library. Nothing is stored on the server after the request.
• Kai's spoken replies. With the default Natural Voice, the text of a reply is sent to Sarvam AI to be turned into speech. Choose System Voice (menu bar → Kai's Voice) to keep spoken replies on your Mac.
• Indian-language voice — only if you choose it. By default push-to-talk is transcribed on your Mac. If you pick an Indian language (or auto-detect) under Voice & Language, the short clip for that one request goes through Kai's server to Sarvam AI for transcription and isn't kept.
• Meeting text, only when needed. If the on-device model can't summarize a meeting (a non-English meeting, or an older Mac) and Private mode is off, the transcript text — never the audio or video — is sent to the AI provider for the summary.
• Screen glances and activity capture — off by default. If you turn on screen glances, Kai occasionally sends one screenshot to a cloud model to decide whether it has anything useful to say; it isn't kept. If you turn on activity capture, Kai reads each screenshot on your Mac and keeps the recognized text for 30 days; the screenshots themselves are deleted after 2 days. Excerpts of that text may be sent to the AI provider to summarize your day and organize Kai's memory. Kai skips password managers and any apps you exclude.
• Visits to this website — counted anonymously. We count page views so we know whether anyone is reading. No cookies are set. A visitor is only ever a one-way hash that changes every day and cannot be traced back to you; the page you came from is reduced to its site name. Only the site owners can see these totals, and nothing here is shown publicly. If your browser sends Do Not Track, you are not counted.
• Documents you drop on Kai — only when you give it a task. Kai reads the file (PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, text) on your Mac. When you then ask for something, such as a summary or presentation notes, the extracted text (up to about 14,000 characters) is sent to the AI provider along with your request. The file itself is never uploaded.
• Kai's browser and its questions. When you let Kai act for you, it browses in its own window on your Mac, and you stay signed in there only on your Mac. The text of the pages it reads is sent to the AI provider to decide the next step. Kai keeps the answers you give to its questions on your Mac and includes them in later requests so it can ask less.
• Gmail or Calendar content — only if you connect it. The specific emails or events a request touches pass through Kai's server into the same model call. Nothing is fetched unless a request needs it.
• Web research. When you ask Kai to look something up, the search or page address is fetched through Cloudflare's browser service, and what comes back is read by the AI provider.

Recording meetings, and sharing them

Kai only records when you start it. It offers to tell the other participants, listens for anyone asking not to be recorded and pauses at once if they do, and writes what happened into the meeting note. You are responsible for following the recording laws that apply to your meeting, including getting consent where it's required. Raw meeting audio and video stay on your Mac and are never sent anywhere for transcription.

The one exception is when you choose Share on a meeting. Kai then uploads the summary, the transcript, the attendees' names, and — if you include them — the recording and video to Kai's storage, and gives you a private link. Anyone you give the link to can open it. It works for 30 days or until you choose Stop sharing, which deletes everything that was uploaded. Video recorded by Kai is deleted from your Mac after 30 days.

The waitlist

If you join the waitlist on this site, we store your email address and the time you joined, and nothing else. We use it only to send you the download link and the occasional Kai update. We don't share it, and we don't use advertising or analytics trackers on this site. To be removed, email us and we'll delete it. To limit abuse the sign-up form briefly counts attempts per network address using a one-way hash that is discarded after an hour and never stored with your email.

What Kai's server keeps

Kai's server is mostly a relay and keeps no copy of your chats, notes or recordings. It does keep: usage counters and plan status per device ID, any meeting links you've shared (until they expire or you stop sharing), the waitlist, and standard request logs from our hosting provider.

Third parties

Groq and Anthropic generate Kai's replies. Sarvam AI provides natural voice and Indian-language transcription. Cloudflare provides web research and stores meeting media you choose to share. Vercel and Upstash host Kai's server and its small database. Google APIs are called for the integrations you connect and authorize. Each handles data under its own policy. Kai does not use advertising or analytics SDKs and does not sell or share data with data brokers.

Permissions Kai asks for

Microphone (push-to-talk and meeting recording), Screen Recording and the window picker (meeting audio and the video of the window you choose, only while you're recording), Speech Recognition (on-device transcription), Calendar and Contacts (so Kai knows who's who and what's coming up), and Notifications. All are macOS prompts you can grant or revoke at any time in System Settings → Privacy & Security.

Deleting your data

Your data lives on your Mac, so uninstalling Kai and removing ~/Library/Application Support/TheHand and its Keychain entries removes it. Stop sharing a meeting to remove it from our storage. Disconnecting an integration revokes its token immediately. To have anything we hold about you deleted — including your waitlist email — contact us below.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or a request to remove your email: afrid@bluemooninnovations.com.