Your data stays yours.

Yo for Mac

Yo for Mac is the app you download from this site. It keeps your conversations, memory, routines and settings on your Mac. Its own computer (a Linux desktop with a browser, for Yo to work on) runs in a small virtual machine on your Mac, or on a home server you set up. Sign-ins are kept in your Mac's Keychain (as "Yo Safe Storage") and on Yo's computer, and are never written to logs.

Here is everything that leaves your Mac, and why:

Goes to	What	When
Your AI provider (Anthropic for Claude, OpenAI for ChatGPT, or xAI for Grok)	Your requests and what Yo needs to answer them: your messages, files you share with it, and what it reads while it works. They're sent by the provider's own app (Claude Code, Codex or the Grok CLI) on Yo's computer, signed in as you. That provider's privacy policy applies.	Whenever Yo works for you.
Websites and services	Yo's own browser visits the sites it needs for your request, like any browser would.	When a request needs the web.
GitHub	Yo asks GitHub whether a new version is out, and downloads updates and the software for its computer from GitHub. GitHub sees your IP address, as with any download.	Update checks, and setup.
Free setup tools	Homebrew, Colima and Docker download from their own sources when you (or your coding agent) install them.	Setup only.
Us, the developer	Nothing, unless you send a bug report. Yo shows it to you first. Passwords, keys, emails and personal folders are removed, and it's encrypted so only the developer can read it. When you send one from Report a problem, your recent chat (the last 30 messages and steps, with the same things removed) is included unless you untick "Include recent chat"; reports Yo drafts for you don't include it. We use reports only to fix Yo, and file them as issues to track the fix.	Only when you choose to send a report.
Things you turn on	Telegram (Telegram carries those messages), access to your Mac's Calendar, Reminders, Notes or Mail, and, once it's available, Yo Phone (below). Each is off until you turn it on.	Only after you turn it on.

To remove Yo and its data: quit Yo, delete Yo from Applications and the Yo folder in ~/Library/Application Support, and remove Yo's computer (in Terminal: colima delete yo). Your sign-ins with your AI providers stay with those providers; sign out there if you like.

This website

This site uses no cookies, analytics or third-party scripts, and its fonts are served from here. It's hosted on Vercel, which keeps standard request logs (like IP address and time) for a short time under its own policies. When you click Download, your browser asks GitHub for the newest version and downloads it from GitHub.

Payments

If you support Yo with the $10 a month subscription, Stripe bills you monthly until you cancel. Payments, cancelling and refunds are handled by Stripe on its own checkout and billing pages, under Stripe's privacy policy. We receive what Stripe shares with sellers, like your email address, the amount, your country and whether your subscription is active, and use it only for your subscription (receipts, cancelling, refunds and questions). We never see your full card number. See Payments, cancelling and refunds.

How Yo for iPhone works

Coming soon. The iPhone app and Yo Phone are in testing and aren't available to everyone yet. This part of the policy applies to them from day one.

Yo is a personal assistant that runs on your own computer: a Mac, or a home server you control. It uses your own AI subscription (for example Claude or ChatGPT), signed in as you. The iPhone app is a remote control for that Yo. It does not contain an AI model and does not talk to AI providers itself.

You pair the app with your Yo using your personal phone link, which Yo creates for you on your computer. The link holds a secret key. From it, the app and your Yo derive the keys that encrypt your messages. Messages travel through a small relay (a mailbox service), because your computer never opens itself to the internet: it only reaches out to the relay to pick up and drop off messages.

What data exists, and where

Where	What	How long
On your iPhone	Your phone link's secret, kept in the iOS Keychain. Your conversation history and small app settings (like Drive mode preferences), kept in the app's private storage.	Until you tap Forget this link or delete the app.
On the relay	Encrypted message envelopes waiting to be picked up, a mailbox ID (a one-way hash, not your name or number), a flag saying the mailbox is turned on, a message counter, and the time your Yo last checked in (so the app can show whether Yo is online). The relay never has your key and can't read your messages.	Envelopes expire after at most 30 days (most are picked up within seconds). The "last checked in" time expires after 10 minutes. Everything is deleted at once when you turn the link off.
On your Yo computer	Your messages, decrypted, and Yo's replies, as part of your conversation with Yo. A short label for your phone (like "iPhone") so you can see what's connected.	Under your control, on your own machine.

What we, the developer, can see through the relay: nothing that identifies you and nothing you write. We operate the default relay, but its contents are encrypted with keys only your phone and your Yo hold. Yo signs its replies, so the app can tell a real reply from anything else and ignores anything that isn't signed.

The relay and our hosting providers

The default relay runs on Vercel (hosting) and stores mailboxes in Upstash Redis (a database). They process the encrypted envelopes on our behalf and can't read them either. Like any web service, the hosting provider receives your phone's IP address when it connects, and may keep standard request logs (such as IP address, time and the address requested) for a short time under its own policies. We don't use these logs to identify you, don't combine them with other data, and don't sell or share them. To protect the service, the relay counts requests per IP address in memory to limit abuse; those counts aren't stored.

Your Yo can be set to use a different relay (for example, one you host yourself). Then that relay's operator handles the encrypted envelopes instead of us.

AI providers

When you text Yo, your own Yo, running on your computer, may send your request to the AI service you chose when you set Yo up (such as Anthropic's Claude or OpenAI's ChatGPT), using your own account with that service. That happens on your computer, under your account, and that provider's privacy policy applies. The iPhone app never sends your messages to an AI provider directly, and we never receive them. Yo may also visit websites or use services you connected, as it does when you use it on your computer.

Permissions

The app asks for each permission only when you use the feature that needs it. You can say no and still use the rest of the app.

• Camera: only to scan the QR code of your phone link while pairing. Camera frames are processed on your iPhone and are never saved or sent anywhere.
• Microphone and Speech Recognition: only in Drive mode, to turn what you say into a text message for Yo. The app uses Apple's speech recognition on your iPhone when it's available. If your iPhone or language doesn't support on-device recognition, iOS may send the audio to Apple to transcribe it, under Apple's privacy policy. The app doesn't keep recordings; only the resulting text is sent to your Yo, encrypted, like any other message.
• Reading replies aloud in Drive mode uses the voices built into iOS and needs no permission.

What we don't do

• We don't collect personal information, contacts, location, photos or device identifiers.
• We don't use analytics, crash-reporting or advertising SDKs, and we don't show ads.
• We don't track you across other companies' apps or websites, and we don't sell or share data.
• We don't build profiles of you or use your data to train AI models.

If you choose to share crash reports with developers in your iPhone's settings, Apple may share anonymous crash data with us under Apple's terms. We use it only to fix bugs.

Deleting your data

• On your iPhone: in the app, tap Forget this link. This removes the link's secret from the Keychain and erases your conversation history from the phone. Deleting the app removes its stored data too.
• On the relay: in Yo on your computer, go to Settings → Phone and tap Turn off (or New link). Yo deletes the whole mailbox from the relay, and the old link stops working. You can also ask Yo: "Turn off Yo Phone." Even if you never do, mailboxes expire on their own once your Yo stops checking in (after about 30 days).
• On your Yo computer: your conversations are part of your Yo, and you can delete them there.

Yo Phone on the web

Yo Phone (yo-phone.vercel.app) works the same way, in your browser. The secret part of your link comes after the # in the address, which browsers never send to the website. The web app keeps your link and history in your browser's local storage on your phone, and Forget this phone clears them. Drive mode uses your browser's speech features, which are provided by your browser and operating system. The site uses no cookies, analytics or third-party scripts.

Demo mode

"Try the demo" runs entirely on your iPhone with made-up replies. It doesn't contact the relay or any server, and nothing you type in it leaves your phone.

Security

Messages are encrypted with AES-GCM using keys derived from your link's secret (HKDF), and Yo's replies are signed (Ed25519), using Apple's built-in cryptography. Your link is your key: anyone who has it can text your Yo as you, so keep it to yourself. If you think someone else has it, make a new link in Yo; the old one stops working right away.

Children

Yo is a tool for adults who run their own Yo. It isn't directed to children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country), and we don't knowingly collect personal information from children. Since we don't collect personal information at all, there's nothing for us to delete, but if you have a concern, contact us below.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR in the EU and UK, or state laws like the CCPA in California), you may have the right to access, correct or delete personal data about you. Because your data stays on your devices and the relay holds only encrypted envelopes we can't read or link to you, you can exercise these rights directly with the deletion options above. You can also contact us with any request or question.

Changes to this policy

If we change how the app handles data, we'll update this page and the date at the top before the change takes effect. If a change is significant, we'll also say so in the app's release notes.

Contact

See also: Support.