Privacy Policy

Last updated: 7 October 2026

Your Closedhand assistant runs on a computer you control. Your conversations, settings, connected-service credentials and Context Brain are stored there. When you choose a hosted AI provider or connect an external service, the content needed for that work is sent to it.

What this policy covers

This policy describes the local, open-source version of Closedhand and the website services that help you reach its web chat and dashboard. The website does not host Closedhand or its conversation database.

What stays on your computer

Closedhand stores conversation history, preferences, Pinned facts, Context Notes, task results and searchable content from connected services in its local database. Files you upload or generate and website sessions saved on the sandbox computer can also remain on that computer. Connecting a service gives Closedhand the permissions you approve, including access used by enabled background features such as Pulse.

Local storage is not a promise that every file is encrypted. Protection at rest depends on that computer's disk encryption, backups and configuration. The dashboard password set during setup is stored as a salted hash. Someone with administrator access to the computer can still access or change local data.

On a rented server, the hosting company provides the machine. Choose one you trust and turn on disk encryption where it offers it.

AI models and connected services

You choose the models and providers Closedhand uses. Hosted models receive the messages, retrieved content, images or other information needed for their role. Their retention, training and privacy terms apply. Closedhand cannot promise that every provider or account tier excludes training. A model running locally can process its role on your own hardware, but web searches, chat apps and other connected services still communicate externally.

Third-party services retain data under their own policies. Disconnecting a service from Closedhand does not delete the account or copies held by that service.

Your Closedhand account and the public website

Your Closedhand account holds your personal URL, and you sign in to it with Google or Microsoft. It keeps only what your personal URL needs: which sign-in owns which name, the email address that sign-in gives, and the connection details that carry the address to your computer. It never gets your password or anything on your computer, and none of your own mail: the only email that passes through here is mail to and from Closedhand's own email address, if you turn it on (below). Everything your Closedhand assistant knows about you stays on your computer and never comes here. The address works whenever that computer is awake and online. The name is two random words and a number, never taken from your name or account.

You can delete your account in Settings on your computer, or at closedhand.com/account if you no longer have it. Deleting it takes the personal URL down and forgets your sign-in straight away. The name then stays unavailable for six months, with nothing linking it to you, so an old bookmark can never open someone else’s computer. When you rename your personal URL, the old name sends visitors to the new one for 30 days and stays reserved to you until six months after the rename. A personal URL whose computer hasn’t connected for 90 days is released, and its name is kept for you for six months. A sign-in that holds no personal URL is forgotten after a day.

Remote dashboard traffic passes through Cloudflare and the configured access service. HTTPS protects the connection in transit, but this is not end-to-end encryption that hides dashboard traffic from the infrastructure providing that connection. Website and connection providers may process IP addresses, request metadata and operational logs. Web pages may also load fonts or scripts from third-party hosts. A local dashboard password protects dashboard access; knowing the link alone does not grant access when that password is configured.

On a phone, the website can email you the link to get Closedhand on your computer. It’s optional: Closedhand downloads without an account or an email address. If you use it, your address goes to Amazon Web Services, which sends that one email and keeps its own delivery records. The website doesn’t store your address. To stop the form being used to send someone repeated emails, it keeps a scrambled form of the address in memory for up to a day, then forgets it.

Closedhand's email address

Turning on Closedhand's own email address is optional. Mail sent to it arrives through Amazon Web Services, which receives and sends email for closedhand.com. closedhand.com locks each message with a key only your computer holds, deletes Amazon's copy, and keeps the locked copy until your computer collects it, for 14 days at most. Its replies go out the same way: your computer hands each one to closedhand.com, which sends it through Amazon and clears it once sent, within 14 days. To run the address, closedhand.com keeps the address itself, the email of the account that owns it, who wrote to it and who it wrote to with each message's ID and whether it was delivered, and monthly usage counts. Addresses that bounce or report spam are not mailed again. Removing the address or deleting your account deletes all of this. Amazon keeps its own delivery records.

Mac Bridge and sandbox computer

The optional Bridge app is available for Mac. It connects the Mac features you allow, such as files, apps and screen access, to Closedhand. Content used in a request may be passed to your selected model. You can change Bridge permissions or disconnect it.

The standard local setup includes Closedhand's sandbox computer, a separate space for browser and code tasks on the computer running Closedhand. Its files and website sessions can persist until you remove them. If you use a sandbox computer hosted elsewhere instead, that host's policies and storage settings also apply.

Google and other connections

The provider's consent screen lists the permissions requested. Google connections can support reading and searching mail, working with drafts, sending messages, reading and updating calendar events, and finding, reading or creating Drive files. Use the connection controls and email-confirmation setting in your dashboard to choose how Closedhand acts.

Mail, calendar and Drive data travels from Google straight to the computer running Closedhand and is stored in its local database. closedhand.com doesn’t receive or keep it. If you open your web chat or dashboard through your personal URL, those pages pass through Closedhand’s relay on Cloudflare on the way, without being kept. Closedhand sends it to the AI model you chose only as needed for what you ask or turn on, such as Pulse.

Closedhand's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Google data is used to provide the connected features, not for advertising or training general-purpose models. Choose processing services whose terms support those requirements.

Skills, tools and bug reports

Skills and external tools can extend what Closedhand does. Review their permissions and the services they contact; a security scan is not a guarantee of safety. Ordinary local bug reports are sent to Closedhand only after you agree to share them. Shared reports may include the diagnostic details you approve and are separate from your local conversation database.

Deleting data and revoking access

Use the dashboard to manage connected services, Pinned facts, Context Notes and stored data. You can also revoke access directly in the connected provider's account settings. Local deletion does not remove your own backups or data already held by a chat app, model provider or other service. Sandbox computer files and browser sessions may need to be cleared separately.

For personal information held by the public website or personal URL service, contact Closedhand to request access, correction or deletion. Applicable privacy rights are not changed by storing the main application locally.

Contact

For questions about the public website or personal URL service, email [email protected]. If someone else runs the Closedhand assistant you use, contact them.