Privacy Policy
Last updated: June 23, 2026
The short version. Brief reads your messages on your own Mac to find
action items. The full text of your messages never leaves your device.
Only short excerpts and your routing decisions sync so you can review on your iPhone.
We never sell your data, never use it to train AI models, and never share it with
third parties for their own use.
Who we are
Brief ("we", "us") is a Mac and iPhone app that helps you turn the action items in your iMessages into reminders and a morning brief. Contact us at [email protected].
What stays on your device
- The full text of your messages. Scanning and on-device AI summarization happen entirely on your Mac. Full message content is never uploaded.
- AI summaries and Work/Personal classifications generated for the review queue are computed on-device and stored locally.
- Your API keys (if you add one for the premium brief) are stored in your device Keychain and never sent to our servers.
What we collect (and why)
- Short message excerpts — capped at 200 characters — for the items Brief surfaces, so you can review and route them on your iPhone.
- Routing decisions and item status (e.g. routed to Reminders, dismissed) to keep your queue in sync across devices.
- Your morning brief content (weather, news, scores, your overnight catch-up summary) so it can be displayed on your phone.
- Your email address, to create your account and send the sign-in link.
- A device push token, if you enable notifications, so we can tell you when your brief is ready or new items are caught.
- Subscription status (free or premium) and a monthly count of items you've actioned, to apply the free-tier limit.
How your data is stored
Synced data (excerpts, routing decisions, brief content, account info) is stored in our database provider (Supabase) and protected by per-user access rules so only you can read your data. Data is encrypted in transit.
Third parties
- Supabase — our database and authentication provider (data processor).
- Open-Meteo, ESPN, Yahoo Finance, and news sources — queried to build your brief. These requests don't include your personal message content.
- Your chosen AI provider (Perplexity, Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google), only if you add a premium key — used to generate your live brief with the topics you configure. Governed by that provider's terms.
- Apple — App Store purchases and push notification delivery.
What we never do
- We never sell your data.
- We never use your messages or any of your data to train AI models.
- We never share your data with third parties for their own marketing or purposes.
Your rights
- Delete your account and data at any time — email [email protected] and we'll remove your account and all associated synced data.
- Export your data — request a copy of the data we hold for you.
- Revoke access at any time by removing Full Disk Access from the Brief Mac app or deleting the apps.
Children
Brief is not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their data.
Changes
We'll update this page and the "last updated" date when our practices change.