What stays home, and what leaves
Walter lives on a computer you own. We don't run a cloud that stores your conversations. But an AI that thinks has to send words somewhere, so here is exactly where they go.
Stays on your device
- Listening for its name. The wake word is recognised on the device. Nothing is sent anywhere until you say its name (or reply right after it speaks, or talk in the first minute after it starts up).
- Speech recognition and its voice, by default. Your audio isn't uploaded.
- Its memory: notes about your household, lists, reminders, routines, settings and logs, as plain files on the box. You can read and delete them.
- Face and voice recognition, only if a person agrees to enrol. Stored as numeric templates, never photos or recordings; delete them any time.
- The camera, if you turn it on: it only checks whether someone is in the room, on the device. No frames are stored or sent. It starts switched off in the beta.
Leaves your device
| Goes to | What | When |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic (Claude), the AI brain you choose | The words of your requests, the memory notes it needs, and anything it reads for you (a calendar entry, an email, a web page) | Every time it thinks. Under your own Claude plan or API key and Anthropic's terms and settings, not ours. |
| OpenAI | Audio or text for cloud speech | Only if you switch on cloud speech with your own key. Off by default; a small cloud mark shows on the face while it's used. |
| Calendar, mail or files you allow | Only if you connect an account. Mail is read when you ask; drafts are never sent without your yes. | |
| Cloudflare | Encrypted phone-app traffic to your Walter | Only if you use remote access (Cloud Link or your own tunnel). |
| Weather, sports, podcast and video services | Your approximate location for weather, team names, search terms | When those features run. |
| Us | Nothing by default. Your waitlist answers; later, only what you choose to send for support | When you sign up or ask for help. |
What we never do
- We don't see your Claude login, and we don't resell or share Claude access.
- We don't sell data, show ads, or use your household's data to train AI models.
- This website has no trackers, no analytics cookies and no third-party scripts or fonts.
Being honest about the trade-offs
Walter is an AI agent that can run programs on its own computer and read things like web pages and email. Text on a page or in an email can try to trick an AI. That's why Walter gets a dedicated machine, asks for your spoken yes before spending money, sending messages or touching locks and alarms, and why admin access starts switched off. A more restricted permission mode is planned before public launch.
Read the full draft privacy policy.