--- title: "Private by default, not by promise · AssistantGeneral" description: "Local-first, no mandatory telemetry, encryption at rest, a tamper-evident log and backups only you can open." url: "https://royalsoftworks.com/products/assistant-general/security/private-by-default/" source: "https://royalsoftworks.com" format: "markdown" note: "Markdown rendering of the HTML page at `url`. Same content, same canonical URL." --- Security & privacy · 1 of 4 # Private by default, not by promise. Local-first, no mandatory telemetry, encryption at rest, a tamper-evident log and backups only you can open. AES-256 Encryption at rest, on by default 0 Mandatory telemetry calls 100% Core capability available fully offline Append-only Audit log, tamper-evident ## Local-first by default The default model runs on your hardware via llama.cpp. Cloud providers are opt-in, per task — never required. ## No mandatory telemetry No usage tracking. On its own the app only checks for updates and, with a paid licence, re-checks its key — Offline mode stops even that. What you do on your machine stays on your machine. ## Encryption at rest, and a PIN that means it On by default. Settings and chats are encrypted with AES-256-GCM under a key held by your Windows account, and your documents and their search index with Windows file encryption (EFS). Where Windows cannot do that — Home editions, some drives — Options says so plainly and points you to BitLocker. Between an office's computers and its admin server, everything travels over TLS. The optional launch PIN is enforced by the part of the app that holds your data, so nothing — not even your settings — is handed over until it is entered. ## Tamper-evident audit log Each entry is chained to the one before it, so an edited or deleted record shows up as a break. Always on for organisation installs; on a single machine, switch it on in Options. Retention is automatic, so you keep only what you need. ## Backups only you can open Scheduled backups are sealed with a password you choose — not a key stored on the computer — so an archive still opens after the machine that made it is gone, and nobody else can open it at all. [Previous Security: all 4 pages](https://royalsoftworks.com/products/assistant-general/security/) [Next Kept at arm's length, and offline.](https://royalsoftworks.com/products/assistant-general/security/contained/) [All of AssistantGeneral security](https://royalsoftworks.com/products/assistant-general/security/)