Your footage stays on your computer.
Hey Archi is footage of real people, often kids, so here is plainly what it collects and what leaves your computer. The short version: the website and the app collect feedback words, and nothing else.
What stays on your computer
Your videos, photos, music, thumbnails, speech transcripts, descriptions, face data, stars, tags and collections live in your library folder on your own computer (or on the computer running The Archive, if your team shares one). Finding, listening and describing run there. Hey Archi only reads your originals. It never changes, moves, deletes or uploads them.
Faces are off unless an admin turns them on for a folder. They are never uploaded, and nobody is named unless a person names them.
What the website collects
heyarchi.app has no accounts and no ads. The only thing it collects is what you type into the feedback form: what kind of feedback it is, a one-line summary, your details, which part of Hey Archi it is about, and a name if you choose to give one. Please leave out children's names, file paths and anything private. The form can't take screenshots or footage.
Like any website, the pages are served by a host, and fonts load from Google Fonts, so those services can see your address and browser when you visit. Hey Archi doesn't get that information from them.
What the app sends
Feedback sent from The Archive or by Archi is words only: your message, the part of Hey Archi it is about, the name you use in Hey Archi, the version, and whether it is a Mac or Windows. Folder paths are shortened first, and footage, thumbnails, faces and library data are never included. Archi shows you the draft and sends it only after you say yes. Feedback that can't be sent waits on your computer and goes with the next one.
Feedback goes to a small relay, which files it as an issue on GitHub. The relay holds the key; the app and the website don't. Treat what you send as readable by the people who work on Hey Archi.
What goes to other services
Claude (Anthropic). When you talk to Archi through Claude, what Archi shows Claude goes to Claude, like anything in a chat: descriptions, transcripts, your requests, and the still frames it looks at to choose shots. Your video files stay on your computer. Anthropic's own privacy policy and your Claude settings cover what happens to chats after that.
ElevenLabs. Only if you ask Archi to compose a new song. It sends the words of the request (the prompt, style and lyrics) and nothing else: never your footage or your music. It uses your own ElevenLabs key, and Archi asks before composing because it costs money.
GitHub. Feedback is filed there, as above. Updating Hey Archi also fetches the latest version from GitHub, only when you ask it to. Nothing from your library is sent.
Model downloads. The first time it is needed, Hey Archi downloads its picture-understanding model from Hugging Face. Nothing from your library is sent.
Links you give it. If you ask Archi to study a video from a link, that video is downloaded to your computer. The link is the only thing that goes out.
Support and payments
If you support Hey Archi by card, Stripe takes the payment on its own checkout page, and GitHub Sponsors works through GitHub. Hey Archi never sees your card details. See Support Hey Archi.
Questions
Not sure about something here? Send feedback or email Nate.
This page describes how Hey Archi works today. If that changes, the page changes with it.