Ask Nell exists to handle your correspondence, which means we're trusted with some of your most personal data. This policy explains — completely and in plain language — what we collect, why, where it goes, how it's protected, and the rights you have over it.
1. Who we are
Ask Nell is operated by otageLabs, a consultancy based in Melbourne, Australia. When this policy says "we" or "us", it means otageLabs. For data protection purposes, otageLabs is the controller of the personal data described here. Reach us any time through the contact page — it goes straight to the person who handles data requests.
2. What we collect
Account data. Your email address, display name, and a hashed password (we never store the password itself). If you sign in with Google, Microsoft, or Apple, we receive the email address and name your provider shares — nothing more.
Email and calendar data. When you connect a Google or Microsoft account, we sync your email and calendar into a private, per-user vault so your assistant can read and act on it. We access only the scopes you grant during the OAuth consent screen. Synced content is isolated to your account and is never shared with other users.
Conversations. Your chat and voice conversations with the assistant are stored so you have a continuous history and the assistant has context.
Voice audio. Voice conversations use ElevenLabs for speech-to-text and text-to-speech. Audio is streamed for live transcription and playback; we do not store voice recordings.
Usage and billing data. We meter each AI request (model, token counts, cost) to operate plans and billing, and we keep standard web-server logs (IP address, user agent, timestamps) for security and troubleshooting.
Payment data. Payments are handled by Stripe. We hold your subscription state and a Stripe customer reference; we never see or store full card numbers.
Support requests. When you contact us through the website form we keep your name, email address, message, and a hashed (non-reversible) form of your IP address for abuse prevention. When you report an issue from inside the app — yourself or by asking Nell to file it for you — we keep the report, any screenshots you attach, technical context (the page you were on, your plan, your browser), and, when Nell files it, a short excerpt of the conversation in which you raised the problem. Nell always tells you what she's attaching before she files. Support requests are readable only by our support staff — never by other users, and never by the assistant. They're included in your data export, and if you delete your account they are anonymised: your name, email, and any conversation excerpt are removed, while the technical description of the problem is retained.
3. How we use your data
- To run your assistant — reading your synced mail, calendar, and vault to brief you, answer questions, and draft on your behalf.
- To operate your account — authentication, security, plan limits, and billing.
- To communicate with you — transactional email (verification, password reset, receipts, security notices) and, unless you opt out, occasional lifecycle email. Every lifecycle email has an unsubscribe link.
- To improve the Service — using anonymised, aggregated statistics that do not identify you. We do not use the content of your emails, calendar, or conversations to train AI models.
Where GDPR applies, our legal bases are performance of contract (running the Service you signed up for), legitimate interests (security, service improvement with anonymised data), and consent (optional analytics cookies, lifecycle email).
4. Google user data
This section describes our handling of data obtained through Google APIs, as required by Google's verification programme.
What we request. When you connect a Google account, the consent screen asks for these scopes:
| Scope | What it lets Ask Nell do |
|---|---|
gmail.modify |
Read your inbox and mark messages read/unread, archive, trash, and label them — the day-to-day mail handling you see in the app. It does not allow permanent deletion or access to your Gmail settings. |
gmail.send |
Send the emails you approve. Every outbound email is drafted for your review first. |
calendar |
Read your calendars and create, update, or delete events when you ask. |
documents |
Read and create Google Docs when you ask the assistant to work with a document. |
drive.readonly |
Search your Drive for documents by content when you ask the assistant to find one. |
openid, userinfo.email |
Identify which Google account is connected. |
Signing in with Google (as distinct from connecting your mailbox) uses
only the minimal identity scopes — openid, email, profile — and
grants no access to your mail or calendar.
How we use it. Google user data is used solely to provide the features you see in the app: syncing your mail and calendar into your private vault, briefing you, drafting and sending messages you approve, managing events, and finding documents you ask for. Portions of your Google data (for example, an email you're discussing) are passed to our AI model providers strictly to generate the assistant's response to you.
What we do NOT do with it. We do not sell Google user data. We do not use it for advertising. We do not use it to train AI models. We do not transfer it to third parties except the subprocessors listed below as needed to provide user-facing features, or where required for security or by law. Humans at otageLabs do not read your Google data except with your explicit permission (for example, a support request), where necessary for security investigation, or where required by law.
Storage and protection. Google OAuth tokens are encrypted at rest (Fernet symmetric encryption) and are never exposed to the AI layer — the assistant asks the application to act, and the application authenticates behind the scenes. Synced content lives in your isolated, per-user vault.
Retention and revocation. Disconnecting Google in Settings → Connections deletes the stored tokens. Deleting your account purges all synced Google data after the 30-day grace period. You can also revoke Ask Nell's access at any time from your Google security settings.
Limited Use disclosure. Ask Nell's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
5. Microsoft user data
Connecting a Microsoft account requests the equivalent Graph scopes
(Mail.ReadWrite, Mail.Send, Calendars.ReadWrite, User.Read) and is
handled identically: tokens encrypted at rest, content isolated to your
vault, used only for the features you see, never sold, never used for
advertising, never used to train models.
6. Who processes your data (subprocessors)
We use a small set of service providers, each processing only what its job requires:
| Provider | Role | What it processes |
|---|---|---|
| OpenRouter | AI inference routing | Conversation text and the excerpts of your data the assistant is working with, passed through to the model generating the response |
| Anthropic | AI model provider | As above, when a request is served by an Anthropic model |
| OpenAI | AI model provider | As above, when a request is served by an OpenAI model |
| Sign-in, mail & calendar sync | Your Google account data, under the scopes you grant | |
| Microsoft | Sign-in, mail & calendar sync | Your Microsoft account data, under the scopes you grant |
| ElevenLabs | Voice (speech-to-text, text-to-speech) | Live audio streams during voice conversations |
| Stripe | Billing | Payment method, subscription state (Stripe holds card details; we never see full card numbers) |
| Resend | Transactional email delivery | Recipient address and the content of emails we send you |
| hCaptcha | Signup abuse protection (when enabled) | A signal that you're human at registration; see their privacy policy |
AI inference requests are sent for processing only — we do not permit our inference traffic to be used for model training. Some providers operate outside Australia (chiefly the United States); where data crosses borders, it does so to deliver the features you're using, protected by the safeguards described here and in each provider's terms.
We will update this table before adding a new subprocessor category.
7. How your data is stored and protected
- Encryption at rest for secrets. OAuth tokens and API credentials are encrypted with Fernet symmetric encryption. There is no plaintext secret storage.
- The AI never sees credentials. The assistant operates on your content only; when it needs to act (send mail, create an event), it asks the application layer, which holds and uses the tokens.
- Isolated vaults. Each user's synced content lives in a private vault. Access outside your own vault is a hard error, enforced in code.
- Passwords are stored only as salted one-way hashes.
- Transport security. All traffic is served over HTTPS (TLS).
- Account security. Two-factor authentication, per-device session management with remote sign-out, login lockout after repeated failures.
The Security page describes our practices in more detail.
8. Cookies
We use a small number of strictly-necessary cookies (sign-in session, security tokens) and — only with your consent — an optional analytics cookie on our public pages. Details, and how to control them, are in the Cookie Policy.
9. Your rights
You can exercise all of these yourself, from inside the app:
- Access & portability. Settings → Security & sign-in → "Download your data" builds a complete export (your vault, conversation history, usage data, and settings) as a ZIP with a 24-hour download link.
- Correction. Update your email address and display name in Settings at any time.
- Deletion. Settings → Security & sign-in → "Delete account". Your account goes dormant immediately and is permanently purged after a 30-day grace period — signing in during that window reactivates it. See Data Retention & Deletion.
- Consent withdrawal. Disconnect linked accounts in Settings → Connections; opt out of lifecycle email via any unsubscribe link; change cookie preferences via the Cookie Policy page.
If you'd like help with any of these, or want to exercise a right we haven't automated, use the contact page — we respond within 30 days. If you're in the EU/UK you also have the right to complain to your supervisory authority; in Australia, to the OAIC.
10. How long we keep data
Your data is kept while your account is active. Synced mail follows a rolling window you control (Settings → Connections; your provider remains the permanent archive). Conversations and vault content persist until you delete them or your account. Server logs are kept for a short operational period. After account deletion, everything is purged once the 30-day grace period ends. Anonymised, aggregated statistics — which identify no one — may be retained indefinitely.
11. Children
Ask Nell is not intended for anyone under 16, and we do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we'll delete it.
12. Changes to this policy
We'll update this policy as the Service evolves. Material changes are communicated by email or in-app notice, and the date at the top always reflects the current revision.
13. Contact
Privacy questions or requests go through the contact page. Postal mail reaches us at otageLabs, Melbourne, Australia.