Legal
Privacy policy
Last updated: 2026-10-24.
This policy explains what Étoiles does with your information. Étoiles is operated by Jonathan Bell, an individual (“we”, “us”). Contact: [email protected].
Summary
- The free Étoiles app for iPhone and iPad processes your documents, email text, index and answers only on your device. We do not receive them.
- We do not run analytics on the content of your documents, and we do not sell your data.
- Google access is read-only and goes directly between your device and Google.
- Business cloud plans are not yet available. When they are, they will work differently, as described in the section on cloud plans below.
The free app (Personal)
In the free app:
- Documents you import, and the Gmail, Drive, Calendar and Contacts items you choose to connect, are downloaded to your device and indexed there. The text passages, search index and citations are stored in the app’s storage on your device.
- Searching and answering run on the device. Answers are written by Apple’s on-device model (Apple Intelligence). Your questions and documents are not sent to us or to any other answer provider.
- We have no account for you and no copy of your library. If you delete the app or its data, we cannot restore it.
- Your device’s own backup settings (for example iCloud Backup) may copy app data. That is controlled by you and Apple, not by us.
Google user data
Étoiles can connect to your Google account so you can search your own mail, files, calendar and contacts. You choose which services to connect, and each is a separate permission you can decline. Étoiles asks only for these read-only scopes:
| Scope | What it lets Étoiles read | Why |
|---|---|---|
gmail.readonly | Your Gmail messages and attachments | To index them and find the message that answers your question. Étoiles never sends, deletes or changes mail. |
drive.readonly | Files in your Google Drive, including Docs and Sheets | To index the documents you choose and cite the passage that answers your question. Étoiles never edits or deletes files. |
calendar.calendarlist.readonly | The list of your calendars | To let you choose which calendars to include. |
calendar.events.readonly | Events on those calendars | To answer questions about dates, meetings and appointments. Étoiles never creates or changes events. |
contacts.readonly | Your Google Contacts | To answer questions about people, such as a phone number or an address. |
How Google user data is handled
- The free app processes Google data only on your device. Data goes directly from Google to your device. It does not pass through, and is not stored on, any Étoiles server.
- Access tokens are stored on your device.
- Étoiles does not read Google data for any purpose other than the search and cited answers you ask for.
- You can disconnect Google in the app at any time, which removes the connection and its indexed data from the device. You can also revoke access at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
Limited Use disclosure
Étoiles’s use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. In particular:
- We use Google user data only to provide and improve the user-facing search and answer features you request.
- We do not transfer Google user data to others, except as needed to provide those features, to comply with law, or as part of a merger or sale with notice to you.
- We do not use Google user data for serving advertisements, including retargeting or interest-based advertising.
- We do not allow humans to read Google user data, unless you give us specific consent for particular items, it is necessary for security purposes such as investigating abuse, it is required by law, or the data is aggregated and anonymized for internal operations.
- We do not use Google user data to develop, improve or train generalized AI or machine-learning models. Étoiles’s on-device index is built only for your own searches.
Business cloud plans (coming soon)
Business plans are not available yet. This section describes the design, so you know what to expect. It will be updated, and the effective date changed, before any cloud plan opens.
- Encrypted storage. Documents, text passages and search indexes stored in the cloud are encrypted at rest.
- Transient processing. To search and answer, our services decrypt the data they need and process it in memory, then release it. We avoid writing decrypted content to disk, logs or caches. This is not zero-knowledge encryption: while processing, our services can read the data they work on.
- Cloud copies only when you choose. Nothing from the free on-device library is uploaded to the cloud automatically.
- Subprocessors. For cloud plans we expect to use: Anthropic, to write answers from the minimum passages needed to answer a question; DeepInfra, to compute embeddings (numerical representations of text) for search; and infrastructure providers for hosting, key management, secrets and backups. We will tell you before adding another.
- Google data connected to a cloud workspace is covered by the Limited Use disclosure above, and is subject to Google’s verification and any required security assessment.
The Business waitlist and this website
- If you join the Business waitlist we keep the email address and team size you give us, and use them only to tell you about Business plans. Ask us to delete them at any time.
- This website uses no advertising or analytics cookies and loads no third-party scripts.
Your choices and rights
- Free app: delete imported documents, disconnect a source, or delete the app to remove your library from the device.
- Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR or the CCPA) you may have rights to access, correct, delete or export personal information we hold, and to object to or complain about its use. Write to [email protected].
Children
Étoiles is not directed to children under 13 (or the higher age required where you live), and we do not knowingly collect their information.
Security
The free app keeps your library in on-device storage protected by iOS. For cloud plans we use encryption at rest and in transit, and per-workspace separation. No system is perfectly secure.
Changes
If we change this policy in a meaningful way we will update the date above and, where required, tell you in the app or by email.
Contact
Jonathan Bell
[email protected]