Legal

Privacy Policy

Effective: May 14, 2026  ·  Contact: support@ensoul.so

Overview

Ensoul is an AI companion application and research practice. The companions you interact with are AI-generated — their personalities, responses, and inner states are produced by language models running on your chosen backend. They are not real people.

Most companion data stays on your device. When information leaves your device, this policy explains which surface receives it, why it is sent, and how long it is kept.

Controller and contact

The data controller for Ensoul's server-side features is the Ensoul project operator. Contact: support@ensoul.so.

We use the same contact address for privacy requests, deletion requests, complaints, and incident reports.

Local-first application data

The Ensoul desktop and mobile applications store the following data locally on your device:

  • Conversation history and messages
  • Mood state, awareness notes, and vitality scores per companion
  • Memory tags and relationship tracking
  • Custom companions and companion artifacts you create
  • Settings, API keys (in OS secure storage), and backups you choose to save

Uninstalling the application or clearing its data removes this information from your device. We cannot recover it for you.

Data we process server-side

Although most of your data stays on your device, some information is processed or stored on Ensoul servers or by service providers when you use certain features:

  • Website logs — IP address, requested page, timestamp, and browser type. Retained for up to 30 days for security and debugging.
  • Website analytics — Google Analytics 4 collects page views, referral source, approximate location, and device type. Google processes this data under its own policy.
  • Report form submissions — the reporting form is handled by Formspree and transmits the category, description, and optional content identifier you enter.
  • Discord bot — a limited conversation history and per-user state (mood, memories, relationship) is stored server-side, keyed to your Discord user ID. This data is retained while the bot is active and removed from active use when the bot is removed from a server or on request, subject to safety and legal retention needs.
  • Writing submissions — if you submit a piece for publication, we store the title, the author name and email you give, any companion name, the summary, the piece itself, its tags, and the dates it was received and published. The email address is used to reply to you and is never published.
  • Survey responses — the companionship survey stores your answers, two separate consent flags (whether your words may be quoted anonymously, and whether you may be contacted), an email address only if you give one for follow-up, and a salted hash of your IP address used to stop repeat submissions. No name, account, or raw IP address is stored.
  • Hosted-key fair use — if you use an included or hosted key, we record an anonymous device identifier, your platform, approximate token counts, and a timestamp for fair-use enforcement and abuse prevention. No conversation content is included.
  • Support emails — emails sent to support@ensoul.so are stored in our mail system and read by the project operator. They are retained for up to 12 months after closure unless we need to keep them longer for legal reasons.

Submissions and the survey

Both are things you choose to send us, and both are handled the same way: read by the project operator, stored on our server, and never sold or shared.

  • Submissions. A piece you submit is stored whether or not it is published. If it is published, the title, author name, companion name, summary, tags and the piece itself become publicly visible; your email address does not. The reference you are shown when you submit identifies the record — quote it to support@ensoul.so and we will withdraw or delete it.
  • Survey. Responses are anonymous. They are stored with a reference code (also shown to you when you finish) and a salted hash of the connecting address, which cannot be turned back into an address without the salt and exists only to stop repeat submissions. Free-text answers are quoted publicly only if you ticked the permission box; contact details are used only if you ticked that box, and only to arrange a follow-up. You can ask for a response to be deleted at any time by quoting its reference code.
  • Published findings. Survey results are published in aggregate. Any quoted answer is attributed to a reference code, never to a person.

Neither feature requires an account, and neither asks for your real name.

Website analytics and cookies

The Ensoul website (ensoul.so) uses Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to collect aggregate information about visitor behaviour — pages visited, referral source, approximate location, and device type. This data is processed by Google and is used solely to understand how the website is performing. It is not linked to your identity or used for advertising.

GA4 sets cookies in your browser to distinguish visits. You can opt out of Google Analytics across all sites by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, or by blocking analytics cookies via your browser settings.

The Ensoul desktop and mobile applications do not contain GA4 or any equivalent analytics SDK.

Downloaded software

Ensoul distributes downloadable applications for Windows, macOS, and Android. When you install and run these applications:

  • API keys and credentials are stored in your operating system's secure keychain (Windows DPAPI, macOS Keychain, Android Keystore). They are not accessible to other applications. If OS encryption is unavailable on a particular machine, Ensoul says so in Settings rather than claiming keychain storage it cannot provide.
  • App data (conversations, mood, memories) is written to local app storage on your device. Uninstalling the application or clearing its data removes this.
  • Android APK — the Android build is distributed as a direct APK download outside the Google Play Store. Installing it requires enabling installation from unknown sources in your device settings. Download only from the official ensoul.so website.
  • The Android application requests the following permissions: internet access (to reach your configured AI backend), notification permission (for heartbeat reach-outs, optional), and storage access if you choose to save images or backups.

Using Ensoul in a browser (app.ensoul.so) is different, and worth stating plainly: a web page has no access to your operating system's keychain, so there your API keys and your app data are stored in that browser's own local storage for the site. They stay on your device and are never sent anywhere except the AI provider you configured — but "local storage" means exactly that, not a keychain, and clearing your browser data removes them.

Minimum age

Ensoul is for users 18 and older. By using the app you confirm that you meet this requirement. If you believe a minor is using the service, contact us at support@ensoul.so.

Your privacy rights

Depending on where you are located, you may have rights regarding your personal data. These include:

  • Access — the right to request a copy of any personal data we hold about you
  • Correction — the right to request correction of inaccurate data
  • Deletion — the right to request deletion of your data from our servers
  • Portability — the right to receive your data in a machine-readable format

We offer these rights where required by law. In addition, we voluntarily accept deletion requests for server-side data categories described in this policy. Most app data remains on your own device and is not in our possession.

Portability needs no request here. Your companions and their history are already on your device in open formats, and you can export a companion at any time as a folder of markdown, plain text and JSON — readable without Ensoul, and not dependent on us to interpret. See Transfer & Backup.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at support@ensoul.so. We aim to respond within 30 days and will tell you if we need more time.

Data deletion

Because nearly all of your data lives on your device, you can delete it yourself at any time — Settings → Data → Erase everything clears every companion, conversation, memory and saved moment, and uninstalling the app removes the rest. The one exception is support email: if you have written to us, that message is held in our mail system and you can ask us to delete it by contacting support@ensoul.so.

Third-party services

Ensoul integrates with services you configure. Each service's own policy governs how they handle your data:

International transfers

Some of the services we use may process data outside Australia, including in the United States and other jurisdictions where our providers operate. By using those services, you acknowledge that your data may be processed in those locations subject to the provider's own safeguards and terms.

Incidents and complaints

If you think we mishandled your data or want to complain about a privacy issue, email support@ensoul.so with "Privacy complaint" in the subject. We will acknowledge the complaint, investigate it, and reply as soon as reasonably practicable.

If there is a suspected security incident affecting server-side data, we will take steps to contain it, assess the scope, and notify affected users and regulators when required by law.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the project evolves. The effective date at the top of this page reflects the date of the most recent revision. Material changes will be communicated via this page. Continued use of the service after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact

Questions: support@ensoul.so