Privacy Policy

Last updated: May 2026

Second Brain is self-hosted software. The app on your device connects exclusively to a server owned and operated by Dave Polly (davepolly.com). At this time, the service is hosted on Dave's personal servers. The app developers do not operate a separate infrastructure and have no ability to access your data independently of that server.

Who operates the server

The Second Brain backend is currently hosted on servers owned and operated by Dave Polly. All data you submit through the app — messages, journal entries, uploaded files, voice recordings — is stored on and processed by those servers. If you have been given access to this service, your data resides there.

What the app sends and where it goes

Every network request the app makes is sent to the Second Brain server at davepolly.com. Nothing is sent to any other third party by the app itself.

Specifically, the app sends:

Your login credentials (username and password) on first login, to obtain a Bearer token. The token is stored locally and used for all subsequent requests instead of your password.
Text messages you type or dictate in chat.
Audio recordings when you use voice input. Audio is sent to the server for transcription via Whisper — it is not sent to OpenAI or any external transcription service.
Photos or images you explicitly attach to a chat message.
Journal entries you create or edit.
Files you upload to the knowledge base.

Data stored on your device

The app stores a small amount of data locally:

Your Bearer token, saved in encrypted SharedPreferences.
Your server URL and display preferences.
A cached copy of your chat history list, used to populate the history screen while offline.
A queue of pending operations (e.g. unsaved chats) held locally until network is available.

No personal content (messages, journal entries, knowledge base files) is stored persistently on the device. It lives on the server.

Analytics and crash reporting

This app contains no analytics SDKs, no crash reporting services, no advertising identifiers, and no tracking of any kind.

Third-party AI services

When you send a chat message using an Anthropic model (Claude Haiku, Sonnet, or Opus), your message and relevant context from your knowledge base are sent from the server to Anthropic's API. This is a server-to-server call — it does not go directly from the app. Anthropic's own privacy policy governs how they handle API request data.

When you use Ollama, all inference runs locally on the server and no data is sent to any external AI provider.

Microphone access

The app requests microphone permission only for voice input features (voice mode and dictation). The microphone is used only while you are actively recording. Audio is sent to the server for transcription and is not retained by the app after the request completes.

Camera and storage access

Camera or gallery access is requested only when you choose to attach an image to a chat message. Images are sent to the server as part of that message and are not stored elsewhere by the app.

Children's privacy

This app is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect information from them.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted here. The most significant privacy decisions are governed by how the server is configured and operated.

Contact

Questions about this policy can be directed to dave@davepolly.com.