Security

Where your data goes.

This page is written for the person in your company who has to sign off on new software. It says exactly what stays on the laptop, what leaves it, who can see it, and for how long. No marketing, no vague promises.

What stays on your laptop

KChat is a desktop application with its own database running inside it. Everything you create is written to that database, or to the app's data folder, on the computer where you use it.

Chats. Every message you send and every answer you receive.
Files. Documents you upload, and the text extracted from them.
Memory. Facts KChat remembers about you and your work. You can read, edit and delete each one in the app.
Projects and prompts. The reusable context and instructions you save.
Settings and preferences.
Your local session. Kept in the desktop app's browser profile.

We run no server that holds a copy of this content. There is no sync, no cloud backup by us, and no way for our staff to read it. If you want a backup, use the app's export button or your normal machine backup.

What a model request contains

To answer a question, KChat sends a request from your laptop to our gateway, which forwards it to a model. A request contains only what that one answer needs:

The message you just typed.
Earlier turns of the same chat, up to a size limit.
The text of a file you attached to that chat.
Memories that apply, if memory is switched on for that chat.

A request never contains your other chats, your file library, your name or your email address. The model does not know who is asking.

What the KChat gateway keeps

Our gateway sits between the app and the model provider. It hides which model is used, holds the provider keys so none of them ever sit on a laptop, and counts usage for your plan. It stores:

Your account identifier and email address.
Your plan, its monthly allowance and how much of it is used.
For each request: the time, input, output and cache token counts, and its cost. Not the text itself.
One key per signed-in device, so you can sign a lost laptop out.

Prompt and answer logging is switched off at the gateway and verified in our tests. These usage records support your allowance and billing. The production gateway is hosted by Hetzner in Helsinki, Finland. Per-request usage rows are kept for 30 days; daily billing totals and required financial records are retained for the periods described in our Privacy Policy.

What the model provider sees

Requests go through OpenRouter and may be handled only by our approved GLM-5.3-Flash endpoints at Modal, Baseten, DeepInfra or Novita. Every request requires zero data retention, denies data-collection endpoints and refuses fallbacks outside that list. If no permitted endpoint is available, the request fails instead of being sent elsewhere. Processing location can vary by endpoint.

The same retention and no-training standard applies to the separate embedding route used for memory. The current provider boundary is also documented in our Privacy Policy and Trust page.

Web search

Web search is off by default. When you switch it on for a chat, KChat sends your search terms from our gateway to public search engines through our self-hosted SearXNG service. There is no search-vendor account or API key, and pages are read on our gateway. The search engines see the terms, not your chat, and they are not covered by the model provider's zero data retention promise. The app tells you this whenever search is on.

Encryption on your disk

KChat does not separately encrypt its local database. It relies on your operating system's disk encryption to protect data at rest: FileVault on macOS and BitLocker on supported Windows editions. Please turn it on. A company laptop policy may already require it.

Disk encryption protects the drive's contents while the computer is locked or powered off. Without it, someone with physical access to the drive may be able to read the database, as with other desktop software.

Crash reports

Crash reports are off unless you opt in. If enabled, KChat sends only the app version and technical stack frames. Chats, prompts, files, account details and device information are never included. KChat asks before enabling them on first launch.

You sign in with a verified email address. The sign-in screen opens in your normal browser and returns you to the app. In your account you can see every laptop signed in and sign them all out at once. The app never handles payment; that happens in your account, in the browser.

Questions

Send security questions, questionnaires or disclosure reports to support@the-karya.com. We answer them ourselves.

Last reviewed September 2026. This page changes when the product does.