Privacy overview
Your devices sync with each other, and nothing passes through us.
Start a line with // to ask the AI, and HootBook sends the open note to the provider you chose. Apart from a daily check for updates, which you can turn off, nothing leaves a device unless you set it up or start it.
Your notes never pass through a server of ours, because there isn't one. We hold no copy.
Nothing to sign up for. A new device joins when your first device approves it with a six-digit code.
No analytics and no crash reports. The app's log stays on the device.
Your AI keys and sign-ins stay on the device where you set them up. They never sync.
| What leaves | Where it goes | When | Your control |
|---|---|---|---|
| Between your own devices | |||
| SyncYour notes and their attachments, encrypted, and your devices' names. | Your other devices, over your own private Tailscale network. | While HootBook is open, whenever there's something to sync. | You add and remove devices. Sync never reaches a device outside your network. |
| To the AI providers you chose | |||
A // askWhat you typed, the open note, any text you selected, any link or picture you pinned for it, the standing instructions you've switched on, and your recent asks in that note, with their answers shortened. |
Claude through your Claude Code sign-in, ChatGPT through your Codex sign-in, or the OpenAI, xAI or MiniMax API with your key. HootBook asks the OpenAI and xAI APIs not to store it. Your provider may run web searches based on it. | Only when you make a // ask, on a computer. |
A new install has no provider until you choose one. |
| A rewrite or a summaryText you choose to Fix grammar, Rephrase or Shorten, with your standing instructions, or a transcript you choose to summarize or translate. A translation adds excerpts from related notes if you allow them. | Your AI provider. | Only when you choose one of those. | You choose each time. |
| A finished transcriptAnd, if you allow it, short excerpts and names from related notes. | Your AI provider. | After each transcription, if you turn on transcript refinement. | Off by defaultSettings › Transcription. Excerpts go only if you also allow related notes. |
| A calendar questionYour question, text from the note you're in, and the calendar details needed to answer it. | Your AI provider. | Only when you ask the calendar assistant. | You choose each time. |
| A voice conversationYour voice, the assistant's name and instructions, the open note's title, any notes it searches or reads, and its web searches. | xAI or OpenAI, with your key. If the assistant hands a question to your // provider, the open note and any selection go there too. |
Only during a voice conversation you start. | Off by defaultTranscription itself runs on the device. |
| To other services, one job each | |||
| A check for a newer versionA request with no cookie and no identifier. GitHub sees your IP address and HootBook's version. | GitHub. | Once a day, and when you press Check now. | On by defaultTurn off Check for updates daily in Settings › About. |
| A speech model downloadA request for a speech-recognition model file. Hugging Face sees your IP address and which file. | Hugging Face. | The first time you transcribe with a model that isn't on the device yet, or when you download one ahead of time. | You choose the model. Each file is checked before it's used. |
| A link previewThe link's address, then the page's preview picture and icon, requested with no cookies. | The website the link names. | When you open a note with a link on its own line, if Preview links is on, or when you preview one link. Never on a phone. | Off by defaultSettings › Editor & appearance. Never for addresses on a private network. |
| A remote pictureA request for a picture that a note links to on another website. | The website hosting the picture. | Only after you choose Load remote images in that note. | Blocked by defaultOne note at a time. |
| Wherever you hand it | |||
| An email draftA draft you save from a note. | Apple Mail on your Mac, which may sync drafts to your mail server. | When you save a draft. | You choose the account. |
| Whatever you shareA note or file you hand to another app. | The app you pick in the share sheet. | When you share. | You pick the app. |
| Google Calendar Only in builds that include it | |||
| Your calendarRequests to read your calendars and events, and the changes you confirm, one at a time. | Google Calendar, through your Google sign-in. | Only if you connect it, on a Mac or an Android phone. | You connect it, and you can disconnect it at any time. |
| Everything else | Stays on your device. | ||
Legal
Effective October 10, 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how KUON.ai collects, uses, and protects information when you visit hootbook.ai, contact us about HootBook, or use the HootBook app. The HootBook and Google user data section covers information HootBook receives from Google.
We may collect information you provide directly, such as your name, company, email address, how you would use HootBook, and other information submitted through our contact form or communications.
Our website and hosting providers may also collect basic technical information, such as IP address, browser type, device information, referring pages, and server logs needed to operate, secure, and improve the site.
We use information to respond to inquiries, evaluate and deliver requested services, operate and protect the website, improve our offerings, maintain business records, and comply with applicable legal obligations.
The site or its service providers may use cookies or similar technologies that are necessary for site functionality, security, or basic performance measurement. You can control cookies through your browser settings.
We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described above, including legal, accounting, and operational requirements. We use reasonable safeguards, but no internet transmission or storage system can be guaranteed completely secure.
You may ask us to access, correct, or delete information you have provided, subject to applicable law and legitimate recordkeeping requirements. You may also opt out of non-essential communications at any time.
Our website and services are not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.
HootBook is a notebook app from KUON.ai for Mac, Windows and Android. It can connect to your Google Calendar so you can ask about your schedule and add or change appointments from a note. Google Calendar is available on Mac and Android, only in builds that include it. This section explains what HootBook does with information it receives from Google. It applies in addition to the rest of this policy.
When you connect Google Calendar, HootBook asks Google for three permissions:
calendar.calendarlist.readonly). HootBook reads each calendar's name, ID, time zone and your access level, so you can choose which calendar HootBook works with. Your primary calendar's ID identifies the connected account.calendar.events). When you ask a calendar question in a note, HootBook reads events on the calendar you selected, such as titles, times, locations, descriptions and guests. When you ask HootBook to create or update an appointment, it shows you the exact change first and writes it only after you confirm. HootBook does not delete events.calendar.events.freebusy). HootBook checks free and busy times on the calendar you selected when you ask it to find a time.HootBook uses this information only to provide the calendar features you ask for in the app.
HootBook runs on your devices. KUON.ai does not operate a server that receives your Google data, and we have no access to it.
Calendar requests are answered by the AI service you select in HootBook, for example Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI or MiniMax. When you make a calendar request, HootBook sends that service your request, text from the note you are working in, and the calendar information needed to answer, such as the matching events or free and busy times. Nothing is sent until you make a request. Where a service's API supports it, HootBook asks the service not to store the request.
HootBook does not send Google user data anywhere else. KUON.ai does not sell it, use it for advertising, or transfer it to data brokers. No person at KUON.ai reads it. HootBook has no analytics or crash reporting that could carry it off your device.
KUON.ai does not use Google user data to develop, improve or train generalized artificial intelligence or machine learning models. If you connect HootBook to an AI service through your own account or subscription, that service's terms and your data settings with it also apply.
HootBook's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The effective date above indicates when the current version took effect.
For privacy questions or requests, contact KUON.ai through the contact form available on this website.
HootBook is in early access in the US, for Mac, Windows and Android. Tell us a little about how you'd use it, and we'll be in touch.