Private by default, clear about the rest
SILONotes keeps your writing on your device. AI is optional, and you always decide what leaves the page. Here is exactly how it works.
Last updated 8 October 2026
The app, by default
- Notes, audio, images, library books, and settings live in a plain database on your device.
- No account is required to write, record, or read.
- Nothing is uploaded in the background.
- The desktop app checks once a day whether a new version is out, by reading one small file from silonotes.app. The site's host sees your IP address, as with any web page; nothing about you or your notes is sent. Untick it when you first open the app, or turn it off later with "Don't tell me again" on the notice or in Settings.
- No analytics kits and no marketing trackers are in the app.
- Backups are files you create and keep wherever you choose.
There is no SILONotes server
- We do not run a model, a proxy, or a relay your writing passes through.
- Every AI request goes from your device to the destination you configured, and nowhere else.
- There is nothing for us to see, even if we wanted to.
- A hosted AI option is coming for people who would rather not manage keys. It will be optional, and this page will say exactly where its requests go before it is switched on.
When you turn on AI
- AI is entirely optional, and the app is complete without it.
- Point at a model on your own machine, through Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM or llama.cpp, and nothing leaves the machine at all: the question, the notes and the answer never touch a network.
- Or use a provider you already have an account with and already trust. It is your endpoint, your key, and your relationship with whoever is on the other end.
- Only the text for that one run is sent. Your library is never uploaded, indexed elsewhere, or copied.
- A token count and a context inspector show you what was sent.
What SILO Sam sends, and what it does not
- Sam does not upload your library. The searching and the reading happen on your device, against the same local database your notes already live in.
- The search runs on your device. What Sam finds goes only to the model endpoint you chose.
- What travels with your question is a short list of matches (title, date, SILO and a few lines of preview) and the full text of the notes Sam opened. Never the whole library.
- The trace line under every answer names what it searched and how many notes it read, so the boundary is printed under the answer rather than promised on a page.
One thing does work differently here, and it is worth being plain about. Everywhere else in SILONotes you pick the notes yourself, so you know exactly what will be sent before you send it. With Sam you ask a question and Sam chooses which notes to open, a few of them, then sends those, with a short list of matching titles and previews, along with your question to your model. That is a delegation of selection and nothing else. It is still your device, still bounded by limits in the code, still your endpoint, and the trace line tells you afterwards exactly which ones it opened. If you would rather choose them yourself, the other chat modes still work that way.
When you turn on web search
- Web search is off until you turn it on and choose one of three doors.
- Your own SearXNG instance: the query goes only to a server you run.
- Your own Brave Search key: the query goes to Brave, under your key.
- Your model provider’s search: the query goes to that provider and its search partner.
- Results appear under their own heading and are never mixed into what your notes say.
Syncing between your devices
- Sync runs device to device through a folder you choose. There is no SILONotes server in the middle and no account.
- What gets written into that folder is an encrypted archive, not loose notes.
- If you point that folder at a cloud drive, that drive holds the archive under its own terms. That is your choice to make, and we would rather you made it knowingly.
- Nothing syncs until you set this up.
When you let an AI agent use your notes
- Agent access is off until you turn it on in Settings, under Agent access, and the app shows a warning first. It is on the desktop only.
- An agent can see only the SILOs you grant, and SILONotes itself sends nothing anywhere. The agent reads those notes on your computer and then sends what it read to its own AI provider, which may keep it under its own terms.
- While access is on, any program running as you on that computer can use the command. Your notes file was already readable by such programs; the command makes it easier.
- An agent can never delete a note or change what you wrote. Every change it makes is saved in the note’s History first and listed in Settings.
Dictation and reading aloud
- The built-in reading voice runs on the device, with nothing sent anywhere.
- Voice typing on Android uses the phone's own speech recognizer. Unless you turn on "Keep device dictation on-device" in Settings, under Speech, Android may send that audio to Google to turn it into text.
- If you connect a speech server, the audio or text for that one request goes to the server you chose.
- A speech server that stops answering is given fifteen seconds, and then SILONotes says so and reads on in the device voice.
Who runs this, and how to reach us
- SILONotes is published by SILO Apps LLC.
- The waitlist stores only the email address you enter, in a private database.
- Your email is never sold or shared.
- The waitlist is the only cloud touch on this marketing site.
For anything about this policy, or about your data, write to support@silonotes.app.