Privacy Policy

This policy explains what information Nota ("Nota", "we", "us") collects when you use the Nota website (nota.macdeer.com), the Nota apps for iPhone, iPad and Mac (whether you get them from an app store or from our website), the nota command-line tool, the Nota connector for AI apps, and Nota X (notax.macdeer.com) and its apps for iPhone, iPad and Mac; how we use it; and the choices you have.

The short version

We keep what you save to Nota (your files, folders and templates) and the account details needed to sign you in.
Your prompts, conversations and code are never uploaded. When you type /nota or ask a connected AI app to save, only the file it writes is saved.
What you publish on Nota X is public. Everything else stays private unless you share it.
Nota runs no AI models on your data, shows no ads, contains no analytics or tracking, and never sells your data.
You can delete your account, and everything in it, at any time in Settings.

1. Information we collect

Account information

Email address, used to sign you in with a one-time code and to contact you about your account.
If you sign in with Apple: an identifier from Apple; the email address Apple gives us, which may be a private relay address; your name, if you choose to share it the first time you sign in; and a token from Apple that lets us revoke the connection when you delete your account.
Display name, if you set one. People you share files with see it ("[name] shared this with you").

What you save

Your files (title, type, content, language and topics, and the images and files attached to them), every saved version with who saved it (you, or which AI) and its note, your folders and templates, and items in your archive and trash.
When the nota tool or a connected AI app saves a file: the file, its type, title, language, topics and folder (or a suggested folder and the reason for it), and an optional note about the change.
When you paste something into Nota: which AI wrote it, if you say so.
When you type /nota, the first word you type after it is sent so that we can match it to one of your templates. Nothing else from your conversation is sent.
Tidy-up proposals your agent prepares, and which of them you choose to apply.

For each link: its name, access setting, passcode, the email addresses allowed to open it (for links that require sign-in), its expiry date, whether it takes feedback, how many times it has been opened and when it was last opened.
To stop passcode guessing, we keep a one-way hashed key derived from the link and the visitor's IP address, together with the number of wrong attempts.

Feedback on shared files

If you leave feedback on a file someone shared with you, we keep what you wrote, the passage you picked, the version you read and which account wrote it. The file's owner sees your name and email; other people who can open the link see what you wrote with your name.

Nota X

When you publish: your author name and when you last changed it, and what you publish (the version you chose, its title, topics and language, which AI wrote it, and the images and files it uses). All of this is public.
Before a version goes public, we check its text, and your author name, for words that almost only appear in content our terms don't allow. If an article matches, we keep what it matched, and a person at Nota reviews that version before anyone else can read it.
When we take an article down, we keep which rule it broke and when, with the notice that replaces it, so that we can apply the publishing rules (for example, a third time within 90 days stops an account from publishing). If your account is stopped from publishing, we keep that and why. Each decision is also a notice for you in your account, shown under Published: what happened, which rule, and how many times in 90 days. We don't email it.
When someone opens an article you published, or an AI app reads it through its link, we count one read for that article. We record which article it was and where it was read (its page, the Nota X app, Nota, or an AI app) — nothing about the reader. Your own reads and those of automated programs aren't counted. Only you can see your articles' counts, for the last 30 days.
When someone reports an article: the reason they chose, any details they add, and a one-way hashed key derived from the article and their IP address, so the same person can't report it twice. We don't keep the IP address.
If you're signed in and choose to stop seeing an author, we keep the list of authors you hid in your account, so that their articles stay hidden on all your devices. The author isn't told; we're told that someone hid an author, not who.

Suggestions you send us

If you send us a suggestion from Settings, we keep what you wrote, together with your account and the app version, operating system and language your app or browser reports, so that we can read it and reply by email. It doesn't include anything from your files.

Purchases

If you buy through Apple's App Store or another app store: we receive confirmation of the purchase from the store, such as the product, whether it's active and when it renews. We don't receive your payment details.
If you buy from us directly: our payment provider collects your payment details and billing information. We receive what we need to provide and manage your purchase, such as the product, its status, the price paid, your country and the email address used. We never receive your full card number.

Connected computers, AI apps and sessions

When you connect the nota tool, we store your computer's name to label that connection, and a token that lets the tool act for you. You can disconnect it with nota logout.
When you connect an AI app, such as Claude or ChatGPT: the name it gives for itself, when you connected it and last used it, and tokens, stored hashed, that let it act for you. You can disconnect it in Settings.
For each signed-in session: the IP address and the device or browser description (user agent) reported when it started, and when it expires.
The apps and the nota tool send their version and operating system with each request, so that we can keep them working together. Apps downloaded from our website also check our servers for updates, which sends the same information.

Technical data

Our servers log requests (time, the address requested, the result and a request identifier) to run, secure and fix the Service. Security-relevant events, such as sign-ins and account deletion, are also recorded in an audit log with a hashed IP address.
We count usage in aggregate, for example how many files are saved and published each day and how often people come back, to manage capacity and cost and to improve Nota. These counts don't identify you.

Stored on your device

The website keeps your preferences (language, reading font and app icon), unsaved drafts, passcodes for links you've opened, the version of a shared file you last saw, and how you last signed in, in your browser's local storage. The apps keep similar preferences on your device.
Your sign-in is kept in a secure, HTTP-only cookie on the website, in the system keychain in the apps, and in ~/.nota/credentials.json, readable only by you, for the nota tool.
We don't use advertising cookies or third-party trackers.

2. What we don't collect

Your prompts, your conversations with your agent or AI app, or the code in your projects.
Your contacts, location, photos or advertising identifiers.
Analytics or tracking data. The website, apps and nota tool contain no analytics, advertising or crash-reporting software.

3. How we use information

To provide the Service: sign you in, store your files and show them on your devices, keep their versions, deliver shared files to the people you choose, and show what you publish on Nota X.
To keep it secure: prevent abuse, limit request rates, protect share links from guessing, check what's published on Nota X, review reported and held articles, apply the publishing rules, and investigate problems.
To communicate with you: sign-in codes, important notices about your account or the Service, notices in Nota about decisions on what you published on Nota X, and replies to suggestions you send us. We don't send marketing email.
To comply with the law and enforce our terms.

We don't sell or rent your personal information, use it for advertising, or use your content to train AI models.

4. Legal bases

Where the law requires a legal basis (for example, in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom), we process your information:

to perform our contract with you, by providing the Service;
for our legitimate interests in keeping the Service secure and working, which don't override your rights;
to comply with legal obligations, such as keeping tax and accounting records for purchases; and
with your consent where we ask for it, such as sharing your name when you sign in with Apple. You can withdraw consent at any time.

People you share with. A share link shows the file, its title, its version and your display name to the people you allow.
Everyone, for what you publish. Articles you publish on Nota X, with your author name, can be read by anyone without signing in and may appear in search engines.
AI apps and agents you use. When a connected AI app, or your agent through the nota tool, reads or searches your files for you, what it reads goes to that app and its AI provider (for example Anthropic or OpenAI) and is handled under their terms.
Service providers. Cloudflare hosts the Service, stores your data and sends our sign-in emails. Apple provides Sign in with Apple and handles purchases made through the App Store. Our payment provider processes purchases you make from us directly. Pushover delivers notifications to our own phones when an article is reported or held for review, or a reader hides an author: they contain the article's title, its author name and the reason, never who reported or hid it, or what they wrote. These providers may use your information only to provide their services to us.
Legal reasons. We may disclose information when the law requires it, or to protect the rights, safety and property of our users, the public or Nota.
Business changes. If Nota is involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of it, and will remain protected by this policy.

Files can include images hosted on other websites. When you, or someone you share a file with, opens it, the browser or app loads those images from those websites, which can see the viewer's IP address.

6. Where your data is stored

Your data is stored and processed on Cloudflare's infrastructure. Our main account database is in the United States, and your files may be stored in a Cloudflare data center in another region. Where the law requires it, we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, for international transfers.

7. How long we keep it

Your account and files: until you delete them, or delete your account.
Files in the trash: deleted permanently after 30 days.
Share links: until you revoke them. Expired links are removed 30 days after they expire.
Feedback: until the file's owner deletes the file or their account.
Published articles: until you unpublish them, move the file to the trash or delete your account.
Reports on articles: deleted 180 days after we handle them.
Which rule a taken-down article broke, and whether an account is stopped from publishing: until you delete your account.
Notices about what you published: the latest 100, until you delete your account.
Authors you hid: until you show them again or delete your account.
Suggestions you send us: one year, or until you delete your account.
Tidy-up proposals: 30 days.
Sessions: until you sign out or the session expires.
Sign-in codes: a few minutes.
Purchase records: as long as needed to provide what you bought, and afterwards for as long as tax and accounting laws require.
Request logs: a few days.
Audit log entries: about 400 days in our database, then kept in an archive for security and legal purposes. They don't contain your files.
Backups: deleted data can remain in database backups for up to 30 days.

When you delete your account, we immediately delete your account, files, versions, folders, templates, share links, published articles, the authors you hid, suggestions, connections and sessions, and revoke Sign in with Apple. Feedback you left on other people's files stays with those files, without your name or email. Records of purchases are kept only as long as the law requires, as described above.

8. Security

All connections use HTTPS. Sessions, the nota tool's access and AI app connections can be revoked, passcode attempts are limited, and access to our production systems is restricted. No system is perfectly secure, so please protect your devices and your email account, and tell us if you suspect a problem.

9. Your rights and choices

View, edit, copy and delete your files at any time on the website, in the apps or with the nota tool.
Change or remove your display name in Settings.
Revoke share links, sign out of devices, and disconnect the nota tool and AI apps.
Unpublish anything you've published on Nota X.
Delete your account in Settings, on any of your devices.

Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to access, correct or delete your personal information, to receive a copy of it, to object to or restrict certain processing, and to complain to your data protection authority. To make a request, email support@macdeer.com. We'll respond within the time the law requires, and we won't treat you differently for exercising your rights.

If you live in California: we don't sell your personal information, or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

10. Children

Nota isn't directed to children under 13, or under the higher age the law sets where you live, and we don't knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we'll delete it.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. The version and effective date are shown with it. If a change is material, we'll let you know in advance, for example by email or in the app.

12. Contact

Nota: support@macdeer.com