Merrin is a private, local-first personal intelligence app.
This Privacy Policy explains how information is handled when you use the Merrin mobile application (“Merrin” or the “App”). It also covers our website, merrin.xyz; see Analytics on our website.
This Privacy Policy is available inside the App and is linked from our App Store and Google Play listings.
Our privacy principle
Merrin is designed so that its core personal intelligence operates on your device.
Your conversations, journal entries, memories, generated insights, embeddings, actions, voice transcripts, and related personal content are intended to remain on your device during normal local use.
Merrin does not require your private conversations or journal content to be uploaded to our servers for its core local AI features to function.
Some features require internet access, such as downloading AI models, processing purchases, checking configuration information, or using an optional online service. Those situations are described below.
Information stored on your device
Merrin may create and store information locally, including:
- Your conversations and messages.
- Journal entries and reflections.
- Voice transcripts.
- Memories you create or approve.
- Generated summaries and insights.
- Actions extracted from conversations.
- Embeddings and other local search indexes.
- App preferences and settings.
- Downloaded AI models and related configuration.
- Temporary audio required for speech processing.
This information normally remains within Merrin’s application storage on your device unless you deliberately back it up, export it, share it, enable a feature that sends it elsewhere, or your operating system independently includes application data in a device backup.
Voice data
If you use voice features, Merrin requires access to your microphone.
Audio may be processed locally for speech recognition and voice interaction.
By default, speech recognition runs on your device and your audio never leaves it. Settings also offers an optional “Phone speech recognition” mode, off by default, that uses your phone’s built-in recognizer. When you turn it on, your phone’s provider (Apple on iOS, Google on Android) may process your voice on its servers under its own privacy policy. Merrin asks before turning it on, and you can turn it off at any time.
Temporary voice recordings should normally be deleted after transcription unless a feature specifically allows you to save them.
Merrin does not claim ownership of your voice recordings or transcripts.
Photos, files, and attachments
If Merrin allows you to attach an image, document, or other file, the App may request access to the specific item you choose.
Merrin uses the system photo and file pickers, which give it access only to the items you choose.
If you turn on Remove from Photos, Merrin saves the photos you pick and then asks your device to remove the originals from your photo library. Your device asks you to confirm each removal. On iOS, this requires full access to your photo library, which iOS asks you to allow; Merrin uses that access only to remove photos you picked and does not read your other photos. On Android, no additional permission is needed. Removed photos go to your device’s trash, and copies kept by a cloud photo backup are not affected.
If you use Save to Photos, Merrin adds a copy of the image, without location data, to your photo library. On iOS, this may ask for permission to add photos.
Content that you intentionally attach becomes part of your Merrin data and is handled according to this Privacy Policy.
Information transmitted when using internet features
Using Merrin may result in limited technical information being transmitted over the internet.
For example, downloading an AI model or retrieving configuration data may expose ordinary network information such as your IP address, request time, app version, device platform, or requested file to the server or content delivery provider handling that request.
This information is used to deliver, secure, troubleshoot, and maintain those services.
Analytics and diagnostics
Merrin may offer optional analytics or diagnostic reporting.
If analytics or diagnostics are enabled, information may include events such as the App being opened, a conversation being started, a model download starting or completing, an insight being opened, application version, operating system information, performance information, or crash information.
Merrin is not intended to send your journal text, conversation text, memory content, embeddings, voice recordings, or generated insight content as analytics.
Where consent is required, analytics or diagnostics will be enabled only after obtaining the required consent, and you may withdraw that consent through the App where available.
Analytics on our website
Our website, merrin.xyz, can use Google Analytics to count visits and to see which pages people read and how they found us.
We use Google Analytics only on the website. The App doesn’t include it, and nothing you write, say, or store in the App is sent to Google Analytics.
Google Analytics runs only if you allow it. On your first visit, a cookie banner asks whether you’re happy with analytics cookies, and nothing is sent to Google unless you say yes. You can change your choice at any time with the “Cookie settings” link at the bottom of every page. If you turn analytics off, we delete the Google Analytics cookies from your browser.
If you allow it, Google Analytics sets cookies in your browser and collects information such as the pages you view, the site that referred you, your browser and device type, and your approximate location, which Google works out from your IP address. Google processes this information for us under Google’s Privacy Policy.
We remember your cookie choice in a cookie and in your browser’s local storage, so the banner doesn’t ask again on every page. This is strictly necessary for the banner to work and is kept for up to a year.
Optional remote AI or online services
Merrin’s core design is local-first.
If we introduce or provide an optional feature that sends your content to a remote AI provider or other online processing service, Merrin will identify that processing before the content is transmitted and obtain permission where required.
The relevant provider may process information under its own contractual and privacy obligations.
Merrin will not silently send a private conversation to a third-party AI service merely because you are using the ordinary local conversation experience.
Purchases and subscriptions
Paid features are sold as in-app purchases through the platform stores: the Apple App Store on iOS and Google Play on Android. We use the native in-app purchase systems those platforms provide, as their guidelines require for digital content and subscriptions.
Apple or Google processes your payment and manages your payment method. We do not receive or store your complete payment card or banking details.
To unlock and restore what you paid for, we receive purchase and entitlement information from the platform, such as the product identifier, transaction or order identifier, purchase and subscription status, receipt or verification data, and purchase date. This information is linked to a user or app installation identifier so your purchase can be associated with your use of Merrin and restored after reinstalling the App or using it on another supported device.
We and our service providers process entitlement and transaction records to validate purchases, apply and restore entitlements, prevent fraud, handle refunds or chargebacks, provide support, and meet accounting, tax, and legal obligations.
Where a subscription is offered, it renews automatically unless you cancel it in your App Store or Google Play account settings. Refunds, billing periods, and taxes follow the relevant store’s policies and your local consumer law. Deleting the App or your Merrin data does not cancel a subscription.
Payment processing, refunds, and subscription management are also subject to the privacy policies and terms of Apple or Google.
Notifications
If you enable notifications, Merrin may use the operating system’s notification services to provide features you requested, such as reminders or application information.
You can disable notifications through Merrin or your device settings.
How we use information
Where information is processed by the Company rather than solely on your device, we may use it to provide requested functionality, maintain purchase entitlements, distribute AI models and application configuration, provide support, diagnose failures, protect the App against abuse, comply with legal obligations, and improve Merrin using analytics you have permitted, and understand how people use our website if you allow analytics cookies.
We do not use the content of your private journal or conversations for targeted advertising.
We do not sell your private conversations, journal entries, memories, voice recordings, or other personal Merrin content.
Sharing
We may disclose limited information to infrastructure, hosting, content delivery, diagnostics, website analytics, payment, app-distribution, or other service providers where required to operate a feature you use.
Such providers receive only the information reasonably required for their function and are subject to their applicable contractual and legal obligations.
We may also disclose information where required by law, legal process, court order, regulatory requirement, or where reasonably necessary to protect legal rights, security, or users.
A corporate transaction such as a merger, acquisition, financing, restructuring, or sale may involve transfer of business records, subject to applicable law. Local data that the Company never possesses cannot be transferred by the Company.
Your content
You retain your rights in content you create or store using Merrin.
Merrin does not acquire ownership of your journal entries, conversations, voice transcripts, memories, or other personal content merely because you use the App.
If you deliberately use a remote feature that requires processing your content, you grant the Company and the relevant service providers only the rights reasonably required to operate that feature.
Information about other people
Your journal or conversations may contain information about other people.
You are responsible for ensuring that your collection, recording, storage, or sharing of another person’s information complies with applicable law.
In particular, you should not use Merrin to secretly record another person’s voice or conversation where consent is legally required.
Retention
Information stored only on your device remains there until you delete it in the App, reset Merrin, uninstall the App, erase the device, or otherwise cause the information to be removed.
Your operating system or device backup provider may retain independent backup copies according to your device settings and that provider’s policies.
Merrin backup files you create remain wherever you saved them until you delete them.
Temporary audio should normally be removed after transcription unless you intentionally choose to retain it.
Server-side technical, transaction, support, diagnostic, or security information, where applicable, is retained only for as long as reasonably required for the relevant purpose or as required by law.
Your controls
Merrin gives you controls for managing personal information stored within the App.
You can view, edit, delete, or exclude conversations, journal entries, memories, generated insights, and related data, save all of it in an encrypted backup, and delete or reset all of your data inside the App at any time. You can also copy an individual journal entry as text. These controls do not require an account and do not require you to contact us.
You can also disable memory, analytics, diagnostics, or optional network features.
If personal information held by the Company cannot be managed directly through the App, you can contact us at [email protected].
Encrypted backups
Merrin lets you create an encrypted backup of your conversations, journal entries, memories, people, insights, and settings, and restore it later on the same device or a new one.
A backup is a single file that Merrin encrypts on your device before writing it. It is protected by a recovery key that Merrin creates with your first backup. The recovery key is stored in your device’s secure storage, is not synchronized to other devices, and is never included in the backup file.
When you create a backup, Merrin passes the file to your operating system’s share options, and you choose where it is saved or sent, such as your device’s storage, a cloud storage service, or another app. Merrin does not upload backup files or store copies online, and the Company does not receive your backup files or your recovery key. A backup you save to a third-party service is held there in encrypted form, under that service’s terms and privacy policy.
To restore a backup, you open it in Merrin. On a new device, you also need to enter your recovery key. Restoring replaces the data currently stored in the App.
Because we do not hold your recovery key, we cannot recover it or decrypt a backup for you. If you lose the recovery key and it is no longer stored on your device, the backup cannot be restored.
A backup is not a readable export. It can only be restored in Merrin and is not designed to be opened or imported by other applications.
Deleting your data
You can delete or reset your data inside the App at any time. Merrin does not require you to create an account to use the App, so there is no account to close before you delete your information.
Depending on your version, the App lets you:
- Delete individual conversations, journal entries, memories, insights, and actions.
- Exclude a conversation from memory, or disable memory entirely.
- Delete all locally stored Merrin data, or reset the App to its initial state, from the App’s settings.
- Uninstall the App, which removes its application data from your device.
Deleting data in the App is immediate and permanent on your device. Your conversations, journal entries, memories, transcripts, and insights are stored locally, so deleting them removes the only copy the Company would normally be able to access. We do not keep a server-side copy that you need to request separately.
Your operating system or device backup provider may keep independent copies in device backups according to your settings. To remove those copies, delete the relevant backup or follow your provider’s instructions.
Deleting data in the App does not delete Merrin backup files you have saved. A backup created before you deleted something still contains it, and restoring that backup brings it back. To remove those copies, delete the backup files from wherever you saved them.
If the Company holds any personal information about you, for example support correspondence, purchase or transaction records, or diagnostics you consented to, you can ask us to delete it by emailing [email protected]. We will verify and complete deletion requests within the time required by applicable law, and normally within 30 days.
Purchases and subscriptions are processed by Apple or Google. Deleting the App does not cancel a subscription; manage or cancel it in your App Store or Google Play account settings. If you ask us to delete entitlement records linked to your user or installation identifier, we will do so, except where we must retain transaction records for accounting, tax, fraud-prevention, or legal reasons.
Privacy rights
Depending on where you live, applicable privacy law may give you rights concerning personal information processed by the Company, including rights to request access, correction, deletion, information about processing, withdrawal of consent, or other statutory rights.
Requests may be sent to [email protected].
We may need to verify a request before acting on it.
These rights apply to information the Company actually possesses. Information stored only on your device cannot be accessed or recovered by us if we do not possess a copy.
Security
Merrin is designed to use operating-system application isolation and appropriate platform security mechanisms.
Sensitive credentials, encryption keys, or tokens should be stored using secure platform storage where applicable.
No software or storage system can guarantee absolute security.
You are responsible for protecting access to your device, device credentials, backups, Merrin backup files and recovery key, and exported Merrin data.
Data loss
Because Merrin is designed around local storage, the Company may not possess a recoverable copy of your data.
Deleting Merrin, losing or damaging your device, resetting the App, deleting local data, or losing an encryption key or backup recovery key may permanently destroy information.
You are responsible for maintaining any exports or backups you wish to preserve.
International processing
Where an optional online service processes information outside your country, information may be processed in jurisdictions with different data protection laws.
Where required, appropriate legal mechanisms will be used for such processing.
Children
Merrin is intended for users aged 18 or older.
We do not knowingly design Merrin to collect personal information from children through Company-operated services.
If you believe a child has provided personal information to us, contact [email protected].
Third-party services
Your device operating system, App Store, Google Play, payment providers, model-hosting providers, or other services you intentionally access through Merrin may operate independently from the Company.
Their handling of information is governed by their own terms and privacy policies.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy when Merrin’s functionality, data practices, legal obligations, or service providers change.
Material changes will be communicated through the App or another appropriate method where required.
The effective date at the top identifies the latest version.
Contact
Data controller / application provider:
Lightrains
Email: [email protected]
For privacy requests, complaints, or questions about this Privacy Policy, contact [email protected] or use our support form.