Leaving is allowed to be easy. This page explains exactly how long your data lives in the Service, how to take a complete copy with you, and what happens — step by step — when you delete your account.
What we keep, and for how long
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Synced email | A rolling window you control (default 30 days) — your mail provider remains the permanent archive; Ask Nell holds a working copy |
| Calendar events | Synced continuously while the connection is active |
| Conversations with your assistant | Kept until you delete them or your account |
| Notes, tasks, and vault content | Kept until you delete them or your account |
| Voice audio | Not stored — audio is streamed for live transcription and playback only |
| Usage metering (AI request counts and costs) | Kept for billing and plan operation |
| Server logs | Short operational period, for security and troubleshooting |
| Anonymised, aggregated statistics | May be retained indefinitely — they identify no one |
Export a complete copy of your data
Settings → Security → "Download your data" builds a ZIP containing your entire vault (mail, calendar, notes, tasks as markdown), your full conversation history, your usage data, and your settings. The download link lasts 24 hours. You can request an export whenever you like — and it's a good habit before deleting an account.
Deleting your account
Go to Settings → Security → "Delete account…", confirm with your password, and that's it. Here's precisely what happens:
- Immediately: your account goes dormant. Syncing stops, and the assistant stops working for the account.
- For 30 days (the grace period): everything is retained, dormant. If you sign back in during this window, your account reactivates with everything exactly where you left it — the deletion is cancelled.
- After 30 days: your data is permanently purged from our systems — vault, conversations, connections, tokens, the lot. Any active subscription is cancelled. This is irreversible.
The grace period exists because "I changed my mind" is human, and because an account deleted in anger on Tuesday is sometimes wanted back on Friday. If you want your data gone faster than 30 days, email privacy@asknell.io and we'll action it.
What deletion doesn't touch
Your actual mailbox and calendar are never deleted by Ask Nell — we hold a synced working copy, and your provider (Google, Microsoft) keeps the originals. Deleting your Ask Nell account has no effect on your email or calendar at your provider. You may separately wish to revoke Ask Nell's access in your Google or Microsoft account settings, though purging our stored tokens is part of deletion anyway.
Related reading
- Privacy Policy — the full picture of data handling
- Security — how data is protected while it's here
- Terms of Use — the agreement this sits inside