olace

[ sync & privacy ]

Privacy modes

Olace is private by default. Local and paired conversations never reach Olace, paired connections are always end-to-end encrypted, and anything that syncs is encrypted with keys only you hold. On top of that default, each chat runs in one of two modes.

Standard Mode

The normal mode. Your model choice decides where inference happens:

  • On a local or paired model, the conversation stays on your devices.
  • On an Olace Cloud model, the turn runs on a zero-data-retention provider.
  • Tools that reach outward, like web search or Research on a cloud route, use the network to do their job, and the cost is shown before anything metered runs. Web access under Settings › Privacy & Data decides whether the model reaches for the web on its own; it is on by default and applies to every conversation. With it off, Web Search and Research still search when you ask for them directly.

Direct Mode

Direct Mode is the strictest setting, for conversations that must not touch anything beyond your own devices:

Direct Mode processes chats only with AI models on your devices. Olace is private by default, and paired connections are always end-to-end encrypted. Web access and tools are off in this mode.

Points worth knowing:

  • Direct Mode is chosen per chat and fixed once the chat starts. To leave it, start a new standard chat.
  • Web search, Research, and Create Image are unavailable in Direct Mode chats, whatever the Web access setting says.
  • It needs a local or paired model, so it is not available in the web app. A Direct Mode chat opened on the web is view-only.
  • Voice dictation in a Direct Mode chat is transcribed on your device. On Android this uses the system speech service's offline mode, so accuracy may dip slightly compared with standard chats.
  • Direct Mode chats still sync across your devices, always encrypted.

Toggle it from the composer's tool row or the chat header icon.

Your data controls

Under Settings › Privacy & Data:

  • Clear chat history, with a clear choice between deleting from the cloud and all devices or only from this device.
  • Date and time. Gives the AI your local date and time as context for answers. Turn it off if you prefer.
  • Help improve Olace. Sends anonymous reliability metrics, like crashes and connection health. Never conversation content, never identifiers. On by default; turn it off here any time.

Where data rests

  • On desktop and mobile, your conversations are stored on your device, protected by your device's own security.
  • In the web app, conversations are kept encrypted in the browser database, and your key stays in memory for the session. See Encrypted sync.
  • Anything stored in Olace's cloud (synced conversations and files) is zero-knowledge encrypted before it leaves your device.

Hosting on a machine you rent

Your host can be a GPU instance you rent, set up the same way as any other (Headless & cloud hosts). The cryptography does not change: the pairing is end-to-end encrypted, the relay routes only ciphertext, and Olace still cannot read your conversations. What changes is who holds the machine at the far end.

  • The turn runs in that machine's memory. Your prompt and the model's response exist there in readable form while it is generated, as on any computer running the model.
  • Anything stored on the host sits on the provider's disk. Your conversation is stored on the device you chat from, not on the host. If you also chat on the host itself, with the desktop app or olace chat, those conversations are stored there, and Olace keeps local conversations in the clear, protected by the machine's own security. On hardware you own, that is your disk encryption. On a rented instance, it is the provider's.
  • Shared folders are on the host. Anything you expose with Files from your computer lives on that disk too.
  • Direct Mode counts a paired host as one of your devices. It keeps inference on your own devices and turns off web access, tools, and cloud models, which is exactly what it promises. It cannot turn a machine you rent into hardware you control.

None of this is particular to Olace; it is true of anything you run on a computer someone else owns. It is spelled out because the rest of this page is written for a host you own. If your threat model includes the operator of the machine, host on hardware you control.

For the cryptography details, see Security & open source.