Privacy policy
Draft — under review. A lawyer hasn't checked this yet, and it may change before Homeling launches.
The short version
- Homeling runs on your Mac, and it works offline. Online extras are optional.
- Today we keep the email address you give us for the waitlist. Once the app is out, it also sends us anonymous usage statistics: which features get used, how fast it is and how often something crashed, never what you write. One click turns them off, and the Mac App Store version asks before sharing any.
- Sharing examples to help improve Homeling is up to you. It's off unless you turn it on, and you see each one before it's sent.
- Backup is yours to choose: “Keep my history safe” saves your history to your own iCloud, encrypted so only you can open it. Sync, which would keep your history on our servers so it's on your iPhone too, is coming later. Both are off unless you turn them on.
- Homeling asks before it sends or buys anything for you, unless you tell it not to ask.
- When you talk to Homeling, your speech is turned into text on your device, and the audio isn't kept or sent anywhere.
- We don't sell your data, and there are no ads.
- This website has no cookies, no analytics and no trackers.
This website
There are no cookies, no analytics and no trackers on homeling.ai. The site loads nothing from other companies: no fonts, scripts, pixels or videos.
Our website is hosted by Cloudflare. Like any website host, it handles the technical details that come with every visit, such as your internet address and the kind of browser you use, to deliver the site and protect it from attacks (see their privacy policy). We don't use those details to find out who you are.
The waitlist
- What we keep
- Your email address and the date you joined. Nothing else.
- Why
- To email you when Homeling is ready to try, and about early access. Only that.
- Where
- With our website host.
- Stopping spam
- To stop fake sign-ups, the site briefly keeps a scrambled code made from your internet address. It's deleted within an hour, and it can't be turned back into your address.
- Who sees it
- Only the people building Homeling. We never sell it or share it for anyone's marketing. If we use an email service to send the launch email, we'll name it on this page first.
- How long
- Until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it, and no longer than we need the list for Homeling's launch.
- Your choices
- Every email has an unsubscribe link. To see, correct or delete your address, write to [email protected].
The Homeling app
Homeling runs on your Mac, and so does its AI. The things you use it for every day work without our servers, and keep working when you're offline. Today your messages, email, calendar, contacts, photos, files, notes and chats are kept on your Mac. If you link your iPhone, it talks to your Mac directly over your home network.
What the app sends us
- Anonymous usage statistics. Once a day: which features and kinds of tools were used, how quickly Homeling answered, how often something crashed, and a rough size of your Mac's memory. Never what you wrote, read or asked. Each yes-or-no answer is randomly flipped some of the time, so no single report says for sure what you did, and the report carries no name or account, only a code that changes every 30 days. In the version from this website they're on unless you turn them off: tap “Turn off” on the first notice or use Settings → Privacy. The Mac App Store version asks once instead, with Share and Don't share, and sends nothing until you answer; Settings → Privacy changes your answer. Turning them off deletes the code and anything waiting to be sent. On our side, the code in each report is scrambled again with a secret only our server has, so it can't be matched to the code your Mac made. We keep each daily report for 90 days, then delete it; after that we keep only totals, such as “about 12% of active Macs used voice input on 3 October”. We don't keep your internet address, and nothing about your Mac beyond what's listed here and the Homeling version.
- Examples you choose to share. Off unless you turn it on. An example shows the shape of one conversation (which tools ran, how long they took, whether they worked), not what you wrote. Including what you asked is a separate choice, with email addresses, phone numbers and other details masked. Nothing is shared until you've seen it and approved it. Examples you share are kept until you delete them; deleting one removes it from our server as soon as the request reaches us, and Homeling shows you the confirmation.
- Notifications on your iPhone. When the iPhone link is on, your Mac sends our notification service a code for your iPhone so it can tell the phone something is waiting: what kind of thing and how many, never what it says.
What Homeling sends to others, and when
- Things you ask it to do. Messages, emails, purchases and posts go out only after you approve them, or, if you've told Homeling it doesn't need to ask, with a note after each one.
- Weather and “near me” searches are off until you turn them on. For the weather, your rough area (about 10 km) goes to the weather service Open-Meteo; for “near me”, what you're looking for and your rough area go to Apple Maps.
- Web pages. When Homeling opens a web page to answer you, that website sees the visit, as it would from your browser. If you set up web search, your search words go to the search service you choose.
- Online AI isn't offered yet. When it is, Homeling will use an online AI service only if you turn it on with your own account, and will tell you each time.
- Paid links open in your browser when you click them. The store learns that you came from Homeling, and nothing else about you. To credit Homeling for a purchase, the store or its affiliate network may set a cookie in your browser when you click; nothing is set until you click, and Homeling itself doesn't track you. The affiliate disclosure will name the networks we work with.
- Downloads, like the AI Homeling runs on and app updates, send nothing of yours.
Voice
When you talk to Homeling on your Mac, or with the microphone in the iPhone's chat, your speech is turned into text on the device as you speak; the audio isn't saved or sent anywhere. A voice note on the iPhone's Capture tab is recorded briefly, turned into text on the phone, and the recording is deleted once it's transcribed; only the text goes to your Mac. Spoken replies, if you turn them on, use your Mac's built-in voices, on the Mac.
Backup
If you choose “Keep my history safe”, Homeling backs up your history every night while your Mac is on power and idle (and when you ask): your conversations, the people it knows, its memory of you, your settings, the activity log, your closet photos and the files you added. Everything is encrypted on your Mac with a key kept in your iCloud Keychain, and the encrypted copy goes to your own iCloud Drive. We never see the key or the contents, and nothing is sent to us. A new Mac signed into the same Apple Account can restore it. It's off unless you turn it on, and you can delete your backups in Settings.
Coming later: sync
To keep your history on your iPhone even away from home, or to get it back if you lose your Mac, Homeling may offer to keep your history on our servers. It will be off unless you choose it, everything works without it, and this page will say exactly what's stored before it launches.
What we never do
We don't sell your data, and there are no ads in Homeling. Some suggestions may include a marked paid link; the affiliate disclosure explains how those work.
Children
Homeling and its waitlist aren't for children under 13, or the minimum age in your country. We don't knowingly collect anything from them.
Who we are
Homeling is made by a small team. The company behind it is being formed, and its name and address will appear here. For anything about privacy, write to [email protected].
Changes
If this policy changes, we'll update the date at the top. If a change affects how we use your waitlist address, we'll email you before it applies.