Privacy

If you use Fennick without an account

Each notebook is a file on your device, in a folder you choose (in a browser, it is kept in that browser’s own storage). It works offline. Fennick does not send us your notes, and it does not send us any usage data, crash reports or analytics.

The Mac and iPhone apps load their screens from fennick.app, our web app’s address. Each time one opens, it asks fennick.app whether there is a newer version of those screens (a list of the files, and the main page). The request does not include your notes, your name or your email. Our host, Vercel, sees it the way any website sees a visit, including your IP address. The web app in a browser loads from fennick.app the same way.

The Mac app also checks for a new version of itself when it opens and once an hour after that. The check is a plain download of a public list of versions from GitHub (the fennick-app/fennick-mac releases). It does not include your notes, your name or your email. GitHub sees the request the way any website sees a visit, including your IP address.

If you join the waitlist

We keep your email, the answer you give to our one question (it is optional), which form you used, your place in line and the time you joined. We use it to send your invite and to email you about Fennick. We don’t email you about anything else, and we never sell or share the list.

To come off the list, use the unsubscribe link in any email from us, or write to privacy@getfennick.com.

If you sign in

Signing in needs your email. We send a one-time code or link to it, and you can add a passkey. We keep your email, your display name if you set one, your passkeys’ public keys and the dates you added them. We never see your passkey itself.

A notebook leaves your device only when it is synced to your account.

If you sync a notebook

A synced notebook is copied to our server so your other devices and the web app stay up to date. The copy holds everything in that notebook, with a record of each change and who or what made it (you, or an agent you connected). End-to-end encryption is coming as a per-notebook choice after the alpha. Until then our server can read synced notebooks.

We back up synced notebooks as they change: each change is copied to backup storage within moments, and a full copy of each notebook is made every day. Backups are encrypted before they leave our server, and they are kept for a fixed period, locked so they cannot be changed or deleted until it ends. Each day an automatic check restores the backups on a separate machine and compares them with the live copy, to prove they work. Nobody reads your notes as part of it.

People on the Fennick team look at a synced notebook only when you ask us to (for example, to help with a problem you report), when we must to keep the service safe and working, or when the law requires it.

Agents and AI

Programs you run on your own device, agents among them, can read a notebook file kept there, because the file is yours.

You connect an agent in Settings › Connections, and choose what it may do in each notebook, from No access to Full access, and where. An agent connected through our server, such as Claude or ChatGPT, reaches a synced notebook there: our server reads what the agent asks for and sends it to the service that runs the agent. An agent connected through the Fennick app reaches the notebooks on that Mac, and its key is kept in the Mac’s Keychain. Every change an agent makes is in the Op Log under its name. Agents you connect are your own: what they do with what they read is between you and whoever runs them.

AI follows the choice you make: No AI, On-device only or AI allowed. It is kept with your account, and a notebook can be set lower. If you skipped the question, it is No AI. An agent works only in a notebook where AI is allowed.

At On-device only or AI allowed, the Mac app finds related pages by meaning with Gemma, an open model from Google that runs on your Mac. Gemma runs on your Mac, so your notes aren’t sent anywhere for it to work. The model is downloaded once from Hugging Face, which sees the download the way any website sees a visit, including your IP address. What Gemma finds is kept in a file beside the notebook on your Mac. For a synced notebook, the Mac also sends it to our server, so your phone and browsers can show the same related pages: numbers only, with no words and no ids. At No AI, the file on that device is removed. If the notebook itself is set to No AI, our server’s copy is deleted too.

At AI allowed, Related asks Jev, a service run by TypeSafe, to put its top rows in order, through our server. It sends the opening words of the page and of up to 12 related pages (about 600 and 280 characters each), and no ids. Our server doesn’t keep or log those words.

Before a new AI feature sends your notes to a service, this page will say which service. We do not train AI on your notes.

Who helps us run Fennick

We use a few companies to run the service. Each one gets only what its part needs:

• Fly.io runs the sync server, in the United States (Virginia). It holds synced notebooks.
• Backblaze stores the encrypted backups.
• GitHub runs the daily check that restores the backups, and hosts the Mac app’s downloads and updates.
• Supabase handles sign-in and keeps the waitlist, in the United States (Virginia).
• Vercel hosts this website and the web app at fennick.app, and receives waitlist sign-ups on their way to Supabase.
• Google Fonts serves the typeface on this website (not in the app), so Google sees your visit to this site.
• TypeSafe runs Jev, which puts Related’s top rows in order at AI allowed. It gets the opening words described above, and nothing else.
• An email service sends sign-in codes and invites. It gets your email address and the message, nothing else.

We don’t sell your data, and we don’t use advertising or tracking cookies. This website sets no cookies.

Where your data is kept

Our servers are in the United States. If you use Fennick from outside the United States, your data is stored and handled in the United States.

Your choices

Get your notes out. You can export a whole notebook as Markdown, CSV or JSON at any time, and the notebook file opens in any SQLite tool.

Stop syncing or delete your account. Until there is a button for it in the app, write to privacy@getfennick.com from your account’s email, and we delete the account within 30 days. When an account is deleted, its synced notebooks and sign-in details are removed from our server. Copies inside the locked backups are removed when their locked period ends. Notebooks on your own devices are yours and are not touched.

Ask us. You can ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Write to privacy@getfennick.com.

Children

Fennick is not meant for children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their data.

Changes to this page

If we change what we collect or how we use it, we’ll update this page and the date at the top. If a change matters, we’ll say so in the app or by email before it takes effect.

Contact

Satyori, Inc. Email privacy@getfennick.com.

See also: Terms