Privacy policy
Last updated 11 November 2026
In short
- Iris is a voice assistant app for the Mac. It has no server of its own, no telemetry and no account with us.
- Nothing leaves your Mac for us without your click. If you join the beta, report a problem or send a beta report, you see everything it contains first, and it goes only when you send it.
- Your audio, the wake word, Iris's voice, your dictation history and your profile stay on your Mac.
- Your requests go to the AI provider you connect, through your own account (today: Claude Code, by Anthropic). That provider's own privacy policy covers them.
- This website sets no cookies and runs no analytics. If you ask to be told when Iris is released, we keep your email address only until we send that one email.
Who is responsible
The controller of the personal data described here is Paolo Vezzini ("we"). Write to privacy@irismac.com for anything about your data.
This website
Visiting
The site is hosted by Netlify, Inc. To deliver the pages and protect them from abuse, Netlify processes technical data such as your IP address, browser type and the pages requested, and keeps it in its logs for a short time under its own policy. We do not download those logs or use them to identify visitors. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in running a secure website (GDPR art. 6(1)(f)).
The site sets no cookies, loads no third-party scripts, fonts or embeds, and runs no analytics or advertising. There is nothing to ask your consent for, so there is no banner.
The release notice
If you leave your email address to be told when Iris is released, we receive that address and the language of the page you used. Nothing else.
| Why | To send you one email when Iris is released. |
|---|---|
| Legal basis | Your consent, given by sending the form (GDPR art. 6(1)(a)). You can withdraw it by writing to us, and we delete your address. |
| Where it is kept | Netlify Forms (Netlify, Inc., United States), as our processor, and our mailbox at Apple (iCloud Mail). Transfers to the United States are covered by the European Commission's standard contractual clauses in Netlify's data processing agreement. |
| How long | Until we send that one email, then deleted. Never used for a newsletter or marketing, never sold or shared. |
The Iris app
What stays on your Mac
Iris listens and recognises speech on your Mac, detects its wake word on your Mac, speaks with a voice synthesised on your Mac, and keeps your dictation history, your profile ("about you"), your settings, your routines and its action log in its own folder on your Mac. We never receive any of it. Settings and data stay on your Mac when the beta ends.
What goes to your AI provider
To understand and carry out a request, Iris sends the words of your request, the context it needs (for example your profile, the name of the app in front, text it reads on screen to do the job) and the results of its actions to the AI provider you connected, through your own account. Today that is Claude Code, which you sign in to yourself, with a Claude plan or an API key; Anthropic's terms and privacy policy apply to that data. Services you connect to your Claude account (for example mail or calendar connectors) are reached through that account. Iris never sends your data to us.
Connecting an AI provider is optional. Without one, Iris sends your requests to no AI service: its quick actions, hands-free mode, dictation and routines run on your Mac.
Permissions
Iris asks macOS for the microphone, speech recognition, accessibility and screen recording, each to do the job it is named for. Apps you block in Iris's settings are never read, clicked, typed into or captured. Iris's own light, cards and drawings are hidden from screen sharing and recordings by default.
No telemetry
The app sends no usage data, crash reports or analytics to us on its own. Everything we receive from the app is an email that you read and send yourself.
Joining the beta (in the app)
The beta is a free download. The first time it opens, Iris asks you to join the beta programme: you accept the beta terms in the app and send us a short sign-up. Iris fills in your Mac's details itself and shows you the whole sign-up before anything is sent; it goes to beta@irismac.com only when you click to send it.
| What it contains | Your email address, your Mac model and memory, your macOS version, the language you use with Iris, whether Claude Code is installed, and whether you want an email when Iris is released. |
|---|---|
| Why | To know who the testers are and which Macs they use, to read their reports in context, and to tell them about the beta and when it ends. |
| Legal basis | Part of the beta agreement you enter by joining (GDPR art. 6(1)(b)). The release email only with your consent, given by ticking its box (art. 6(1)(a)); you can withdraw it by writing to us. |
| Where it is kept | Our mailbox at Apple (iCloud Mail). |
| How long | Kept with your email address during the beta. When it ends we keep only anonymous totals (for example how many testers had each Mac model), and delete the sign-ups themselves within 3 months. If you ticked «tell me when Iris is released», we keep only your email address, past these limits, until we send that one email, then delete it. Apart from that one email, never used for a newsletter or marketing, never sold or shared. |
| Deletion | Write to privacy@irismac.com and we delete your sign-up. |
Reporting a problem
«Report a problem» (in Iris's menu, or by asking Iris) prepares an email to beta@irismac.com with your description and, if you choose, a file of diagnostics. You see what is attached before anything is sent, and you send the email yourself from your own mail app. Iris sends nothing on its own.
| Attached unless you untick it | Iris's version, your macOS version and Mac model, Iris's settings (never passwords or keys), its action log (what kind of action ran and whether it worked, without the text of commands), recent errors and crash reports. |
|---|---|
| Only if you tick «Include what I said» | The words of your recent requests and hands-free commands, and how Iris's local model labelled them. Off by default, and shown to you before sending. |
| Never attached | Your audio and voice samples, your profile, Iris's memory of you, your dictation history, anything from the Keychain, and your own files. Your name and your home folder's path are replaced in what is attached. |
| Why, and legal basis | To understand and fix the problem you report: part of the beta agreement (GDPR art. 6(1)(b)). «Include what I said» is attached only with your consent, given by ticking the box for that report (art. 6(1)(a)). |
| How long | Kept with your name during the beta. When it ends we keep only anonymous totals, and delete the reports themselves within 3 months. |
| Deletion | Write to privacy@irismac.com and we delete your report and its attachments. |
The beta weekly report
During the beta, about once a week, Iris asks whether you want to send a report. You open it, read it in full, and send it yourself by email to beta@irismac.com. If you say «not now», nothing is sent and Iris asks again the following week. The app never sends a report by itself.
| What it contains | Iris's version, your macOS version and Mac model, Iris's settings (never passwords or keys), its action log (what kind of action ran and whether it worked, without the text of commands), errors and crash reports since the last report, and a summary of how long things took. |
|---|---|
| Only if you tick «Include what I said» | The words of your requests and hands-free commands since the last report, and how Iris's local model labelled them. Off by default, a separate box in every report, shown to you in full before sending. |
| Never included | Your audio and voice samples, your profile, Iris's memory of you, your dictation history, anything from the Keychain, your own files, and the content of the mail, documents or web pages Iris worked on. Your name and your home folder's path are replaced. |
| Why, and legal basis | To find and fix what goes wrong in the beta. Sending the standard report is what testers agree to do when they join the beta (GDPR art. 6(1)(b)); you can still skip any report, and skipping has no consequence other than that we learn less. «Include what I said» is sent only with your consent, given by ticking the box in that report (art. 6(1)(a)); every report is a new choice. |
| Who receives it | Only us, in our mailbox. Reports are never shared with anyone, including the AI provider. |
| How long | Kept with your name during the beta. When it ends we keep only anonymous totals, and delete the reports themselves within 3 months. |
| Deletion | Write to privacy@irismac.com and we delete your reports. |
Iris's social accounts and publishing tool
We publish videos about Iris on our own accounts on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and X, with a small tool that runs on our own Mac. It signs in only to our own accounts and uses each network's official API to upload our videos and read our own account's basic profile (name and id) to know where it posts. It does not read, collect or store data about anyone else, and it does not reply, comment or send messages. Its access tokens are kept in the macOS Keychain on that Mac.
The tool uses the YouTube API Services; the YouTube Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy apply to that use. Access can be revoked at any time from the Google account's security settings. The TikTok, Meta and X developer terms apply to the other networks.
Who else sees your data
Netlify (hosting and the release-notice form) and Apple (iCloud Mail, our mailbox) process data on our behalf, under their data processing agreements, and only to provide those services. Nobody else receives your data. We make no automated decisions about you and we do not profile you.
Age
The beta is open to people aged 18 or over. Iris and this website are not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect their data. If you believe a minor has sent us data, write to us and we delete it.
Your rights
Under the GDPR you can ask us for access to your data, its correction or deletion, a copy to take elsewhere, or to restrict or object to its use, and you can withdraw a consent you gave (this does not affect what was done before). Write to privacy@irismac.com; we answer within a month. Since everything we hold about you arrived by email, the quickest copy of your data is often your own Sent folder, and we can send your reports back to you.
You can also complain to your data protection authority; in Italy, the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali (garanteprivacy.it).
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version is published here with a new date. A change that affects data you already sent is told to you by email first.
This policy is published in English and Italian. The two versions have the same meaning; if you live in Italy and the two differ, the Italian text applies.