Your screen, your voice, your data.

This policy describes how Buddy — a macOS assistant built by Monis Azeem — handles information when you use the Buddy macOS app or visit this website. Buddy is not a service that stores or analyzes your data on our servers; it is designed so that what is on your Mac stays on your Mac.

• Screen captures. When you hold Ctrl + Option, Buddy takes a screenshot of the display your cursor is on so it can answer about what you see. Screenshots stay in memory or in your local app cache and are sent to OpenAI only to produce an answer.
• Voice input.While the shortcut is held, the microphone records audio for transcription. Audio is sent to OpenAI’s transcription model and is not stored on our infrastructure.
• Answers and TTS. Buddy receives a written answer and a spoken summary from OpenAI and plays them back on your Mac. Conversation history is kept locally only.
• Permissions. Buddy asks macOS for Microphone, Screen Recording, and Accessibility access. These are required for the product to work and are managed by macOS, not by us.

Buddy supports two access modes, and they handle data differently:

• BYOK (bring your own key). Your OpenAI API key is stored in the macOS Keychain on your device. Requests go directly from your Mac to OpenAI using your key. Buddy never sees the contents of your prompts or your key.
• Hosted.Requests are routed through Buddy’s proxy, which forwards them to OpenAI using a Buddy-managed key. The proxy enforces per-day, per-month, model, and request-size caps. Request metadata (timestamps, model, size, success/error) is logged for abuse prevention and capacity planning. Prompt contents and screenshots are not stored beyond the duration of the request.

In both modes, OpenAI processes the data you send under OpenAI’s own privacy and data-usage policy.

When you purchase Buddy, our payments partner (Dodo Payments) processes the transaction. We receive a license identifier, the email you used at checkout, and basic billing metadata so we can issue and validate your activation key. We do not see or store your card details.

This website uses Vercel hosting and Vercel Analytics for aggregate, privacy-friendly usage stats (no cookies, no cross-site tracking). The Vimeo player on the homepage is loaded with Do Not Track enabled. If you submit your email to the waitlist, we keep it solely to email you about Buddy availability and updates.

• We do not sell your data.
• We do not retain screenshots, audio, or conversation contents on our servers.
• We do not use your prompts or screen captures to train any model.
• We do not run third-party advertising or behavioural tracking on this site.

• You can revoke Buddy’s Microphone, Screen Recording, or Accessibility access from System Settings at any time.
• You can switch between BYOK and Hosted access from inside the app.
• You can request deletion of your waitlist email or hosted license metadata by writing to monisazeem@gmail.com.

We may update this policy as Buddy evolves. Material changes will be reflected on this page with a new “Last updated” date.

Questions or concerns? Email monisazeem@gmail.com or reach out on X at @MonisAzeem.