Sovernity

Sovernity Ursa

Privacy policy

What Sovernity Ursa keeps, where it keeps it, and the few things that do touch the internet.

Effective 2026-10-08Applies to Sovernity Ursa for Mac, Sovernity Ursa for iPhone, and the Ursa pages of sovernity.com.

In short

  • We collect nothing from the app. Sovernity Ursa has no account, no analytics and no crash reporting of its own, and it sends us nothing. On the App Store this is labelled "Data Not Collected".
  • Ursa is an AI. Everything stays on your Mac.
  • Your chats and what Ursa learns are stored encrypted on your Mac. Your iPhone shows them while it's connected and keeps only an encrypted draft of a message you haven't sent yet.
  • One download touches the internet: the AI model, about 7 GB, from Hugging Face, once at setup. Hugging Face sees your IP address, as with any download.
  • Your iPhone talks to your Mac over your own network, encrypted, with no server of ours in between. If you use Tailscale away from home: Tailscale can see that your devices exist, never what they say.
  • You can delete any of it in the app, or all of it at once.
Contents
  1. Who we are
  2. What Ursa stores, and where
  3. What touches the network
  4. Other companies involved
  5. What we can see
  6. If you email us
  7. Deleting your data
  8. Children
  9. Health information (Washington)
  10. California and Do Not Track
  11. Changes to this policy
  12. Contact

01Who we are

Sovernity Ursa is made by Milo Shieber, doing business as Sovernity ("we", "us"). There is no company behind it beyond that, and no company-run servers. This policy covers the Mac app, the iPhone app, and the Ursa pages of this website.

02What Ursa stores, and where

On your Mac

  • Your chats, the facts Ursa learns about you, and its understanding of you (what you see in What I know about you).
  • Your Introduction answers, if you did the Introduction.
  • Your settings and the list of iPhones you've paired.
  • The AI model files.

Everything except the model files is kept in one database, encrypted with SQLCipher. The key is a random one that Ursa makes on your Mac and keeps in your Mac's Keychain, set so it stays on that Mac. The model files are public and aren't encrypted.

On your iPhone

  • The pairing with your Mac: the keys that let your iPhone and Mac recognise each other, and the addresses where it can reach your Mac. These are in your iPhone's Keychain.
  • An encrypted draft of a message you haven't sent yet, kept until it's sent or you unpair.
  • Your settings, such as whether Face ID locks Ursa.

Your iPhone shows your chats and What I know about you while it's connected to your Mac. It doesn't keep a copy of them.

Files you choose to make

  • Backups are one file locked with a password you choose, saved wherever you pick. Ursa never uploads them.
  • Exports are a readable copy of your chats and profile, saved wherever you pick. Exports are not encrypted.

If you save either one in a folder that syncs, such as iCloud Drive, it travels with that service like any other file you put there.

How long: Ursa keeps your data until you delete it (section 7). Nothing is sent to us, so we hold no copy.

03What touches the network

The Ursa app on your Mac has no permission to use the network; macOS enforces that. Two small helpers inside it do, and each has one job:

HelperWhat it doesWho it talks to
Model downloadDownloads the AI model once, at setup, from fixed addresses, and checks every file's size and checksumHugging Face
Phone linkListens for your paired iPhone, on your home network or your own Tailscale network, and nothing elseOnly your paired iPhones
  • The link between your iPhone and your Mac is encrypted (mutual TLS 1.3), and your devices check each other's identity every time. You confirm the pairing once by checking that three words match.
  • Ursa doesn't check for updates, send usage data or load anything from the web.
  • Check it yourself: watch Ursa with a network monitor such as Little Snitch or LuLu. You'll see the model download, then only your iPhone.

Keyboard dictation is Apple's. If you use your iPhone keyboard's dictation, that is Apple's feature, and Apple may process the audio to turn it into text. Ursa doesn't add dictation of its own.

04Other companies involved

We don't share or sell anything, because we have nothing to share. These companies can see something when you use Ursa or this site:

  • Hugging Face hosts the AI model files, in our repositories huggingface.co/SovernityHQ/gemma-4-12b-it-mlx-4bit and huggingface.co/SovernityHQ/qwen3-embedding-0.6b-mlx-4bit-dwq. When your Mac downloads them, Hugging Face sees your IP address and which files were downloaded, as with any download. See Hugging Face's privacy policy.
  • GitHub hosts this website (GitHub Pages) and the Mac download (GitHub Releases). When you visit these pages or download Ursa, GitHub sees your IP address and the usual details your browser sends. This site sets no cookies, runs no analytics, and loads nothing from other sites. See GitHub's privacy statement.
  • Apple
    • The App Store handles the iPhone download under your Apple Account. Apple's privacy policy covers that.
    • App Analytics: if you chose to share analytics with app developers on your iPhone, Apple gives us usage figures and crash reports in a form Apple says doesn't identify you. If you didn't, we get nothing.
    • Keyboard dictation, as above.
    • Calls and texts to 988 or 911 from Help in a crisis go through your phone and carrier, like any call. Ursa doesn't see or keep them.
  • Tailscale, only if you set it up. Ursa's "Use Ursa away from home" guide helps you install Tailscale under your own account. Tailscale can see that your devices exist, never what they say. Your Tailscale account is between you and Tailscale; see Tailscale's privacy policy.
  • Our email provider Apple (iCloud Mail), only if you email us (section 6).

05What we can see

  • Download counts. GitHub and App Store Connect show us how many times Ursa was downloaded, in total. They don't tell us who.
  • App Analytics, only from people who opted in (section 4).
  • Hugging Face may show us how many times the model files were downloaded, in total.
  • Email you send us.

That's all. We can't see your chats, what Ursa knows about you, whether you use it, or how often.

06If you email us

If you write to support@sovernity.com, we get your email address and whatever you write. We use it only to answer you, and we delete it within 30 days after your question is resolved. We never add you to a mailing list.

Please don't paste your conversations or include health details. Describe what happened in your own words, and leave out anything you'd rather keep to yourself.

07Deleting your data

There's no account to close. Your data is on your devices, so you delete it there.

  • One fact: in What I know about you, delete it or correct it.
  • One chat: delete it from your chats. Deleting a chat deletes the chat and the facts learned only from it. Your broader profile is managed in What I know about you.
  • Your Introduction: Settings › Data. This deletes what you told Ursa in it and the facts learned only from it.
  • Everything: Settings › Data › Delete everything. This deletes every chat and everything Ursa knows about you, including any earlier copy Ursa set aside when you restored a backup, and unpairs your iPhones. The model files stay, so you don't have to download them again. This can't be undone.
  • On iPhone: Settings › Your Mac › Unpair this iPhone removes the pairing and any unsent message from that iPhone. Deleting the iPhone app removes its files. Unpair first to remove the pairing from your iPhone's Keychain.
  • Uninstall from your Mac: quit Ursa and move it to the Trash. Then move the folder ~/Library/Containers/com.sovernity.ursa.app to the Trash. It holds your encrypted database, your settings and the model files. Ursa's keys stay in your Mac's Keychain; without that folder they can't unlock anything.
  • Backups and exports you saved are your own files. Delete them where you saved them.

08Children

Sovernity Ursa is for adults 18 and over. It isn't directed at children, and it collects nothing from anyone. If you believe a child under 13 has emailed us, tell us at support@sovernity.com and we'll delete the message.

  • For adults 18+. May not be suitable for some minors.
  • The first time you open Ursa, on your Mac and on your iPhone, it asks whether you're 18 or older. On iPhone it may then ask you to share your age range through Apple. Ursa keeps only the result, adult or under 18, on that device, and sends it nowhere.

09Health information (Washington)

What you tell Ursa may include things about your health. It stays on your Mac, and passes only between your own Mac and iPhone. We never receive, see or store it, and we don't collect consumer health data as Washington's My Health My Data Act defines it. If you email us about your health, see section 6.

10California and Do Not Track

  • California Online Privacy Protection Act: this page lists everything we could receive (sections 4 to 6), who else can see something (section 4), and how we announce changes (section 11). It's linked from every Ursa page.
  • California Consumer Privacy Act: in our reading it doesn't apply to us, as we're far below its size thresholds. We don't sell or share personal information either way.
  • Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control: this site doesn't track anyone, so these signals change nothing. Every visitor is treated the same.

11Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll post the new version here with a new effective date. If a change matters, such as Ursa starting to send anything new, we'll say so on the Sovernity Ursa page and in the release notes before the version that does it. We can't email you, because we don't know who you are.

Earlier versions stay readable in this website's public history on GitHub (github.com/SovernityHQ/sovernity-web).

12Contact

Milo Shieber, doing business as Sovernity · support@sovernity.com

Effective: 2026-10-08