Legal policy

Privacy Policy

Effective Date: August 25, 2026 · Last Updated: September 20, 2026

1. Core Commitment: Sovereign by Design

Halbert is built on an uncompromising principle: your computer's data belongs to you.

Unlike traditional cloud-based AI tools, Halbert operates 100% local-first by default. We do not harvest, monetize, train on, or transmit your logs, telemetry, configuration files, terminal commands, or conversational prompts.

2. The Halbert Software Application

2.1 What Halbert Accesses Locally

To function as a host custodian, Halbert reads local machine state on your system:

Hardware sensor telemetry (hwmon, CPU/GPU temperatures, memory and disk utilization).
Operating system logs (systemd-journald, syslog, /var/log).
Configuration files (/etc, dotfiles in $HOME, launchd plists, systemd service units).
Environment variables ($PATH, and Halbert's own override variables).

All of this data remains strictly on your local machine. It is stored in standard local directories: on Linux, per the XDG Base Directory Specification — ~/.config/halbert/, ~/.local/share/halbert/, and ~/.local/state/halbert/; on macOS — ~/Library/Application Support/Halbert/ and ~/Library/Caches/Halbert/.

2.2 Zero Telemetry, Analytics, or Crash Reporting

Halbert does not collect telemetry, event pings, or usage analytics. Halbert does not phone home on startup, execution, or shutdown. There are no background beacon scripts, tracking SDKs, or third-party diagnostic collectors embedded in Halbert.

2.3 Optional Cloud Model Connections

Halbert runs on local models (via Ollama or Apple Silicon MLX) by default. If you explicitly choose to configure external cloud API keys (e.g., Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, or OpenRouter):

Only the specific prompt and relevant retrieved context snippets required to answer your query are sent to the designated cloud provider.
Your data transfer is governed strictly by your direct agreement with that cloud provider.
Halbert never proxies your cloud requests through intermediate servers.

3. The Halbert Project Website

3.1 We Collect No Email Addresses

This website has no signup form, no newsletter, no mailing list, and no accounts. We do not ask for your email address and we have none on file. An earlier version of this page described an early-access list; no such list was ever created, and the form that appeared to feed it never transmitted anything anywhere.

3.2 Hosting & CDN Server Logs

Our website is statically served via modern content delivery networks. Standard non-identifying request metadata (IP address, browser user-agent, referring URL, timestamp) is temporarily logged by CDN infrastructure for network security, DDoS mitigation, and reliable asset delivery.

3.3 Cookies & Tracking

The Halbert website does not use advertising cookies, retargeting pixels, Google Analytics, or behavioral cross-site trackers.

4. Commercial Purchases (LemonSqueezy)

Nothing is for sale yet. When the paid Mac build (Halbert for Mac) ships, orders will be processed by our Merchant of Record, LemonSqueezy (Lemon Squeezy LLC). Financial data (such as credit cards) is handled directly by LemonSqueezy and its payment processors and is never seen, stored, or processed by Halbert servers.

5. Your Data Rights (GDPR & CCPA)

You possess the right to access or delete any personal data we hold. Today we hold none: there is no list, no account system, and nothing has been sold. Once the paid build ships, purchase records will be held by our Merchant of Record. The transient CDN logs described above are the only other trace. Halbert does not sell personal information. To exercise your rights, email hello@halbert.computer.