Privacy Policy v2.1

Last updated: February 22, 2026 · Effective: February 22, 2026

  1. About Us
  2. About This Policy
  3. Your Content — What Stays Local and What Does Not
  4. What Personal Data We Collect
  5. AI-Powered Features
  6. What Data NoteBee Stores Locally
  7. What NoteBee Does NOT Collect
  8. How We Use Your Data
  9. Third-Party Service Providers
  10. Cookies and Tracking Technologies
  11. International Data Transfers
  12. Data Retention
  13. Subscription and Payments
  14. Diagnostic Logs
  15. System Permissions (macOS)
  16. Data Security
  17. Your Rights Under GDPR
  18. Your Rights Under US State Privacy Laws
  19. Children's Privacy
  20. Accessibility
  21. Changes to This Policy
  22. Contact Us

1. About Us

NoteBee is operated by Nikita Havrylenko, operating as NoteBee, based in Poland.

No Data Protection Officer (DPO) is designated, as this is not required under GDPR Article 37 given the nature and scale of our data processing.

2. About This Policy

This Privacy Policy covers:

NoteBee is a local-first application. Your notes, templates, snippets, and categories are stored on your Mac and are never synced to cloud servers. However, certain features — specifically AI text processing and translation — require transmitting selected content to third-party services to function. These are clearly identified in this policy.

Revenue Model

NoteBee generates revenue exclusively through paid subscriptions. We do not sell, rent, or monetize your personal data or user content. We do not serve advertisements, engage in ad-based tracking, or share your data with advertising networks. Our business model is simple: you pay for the product, not with your data.

Compliance

This policy complies with:

3. Your Content — What Stays Local and What Does Not

Stored locally on your Mac (never transmitted)

Transmitted to third parties only when you use specific features

Feature Data Transmitted Recipient When
AI features (rewrite, summarize, grammar fix, expand, simplify, change tone, continue writing, custom instruction) Selected text content Google (Vertex AI / Gemini) Only when you invoke an AI feature
AI translation Selected text content + target language Google (Vertex AI / Gemini) Only when you choose AI translation mode
Basic translation Selected text content + target language Apple (Translation framework) Only when you use basic translation

Important:

Processed by service providers (account and service data)

Data Service Provider Purpose
Email address Google (Firebase Auth) Authentication
Display name Google (Firebase Auth) Profile
Password Google (Firebase Auth) Authentication (hashed server-side)
User profile Google (Cloud Firestore) Account persistence
Subscription status RevenueCat, Stripe Payment processing
AI usage quota Google (Cloud Firestore) Credit tracking

4. What Personal Data We Collect

Account Data

Data Legal Basis (GDPR) Retention
Email address Performance of contract (Art. 6.1.b) Until account deletion
Display name Performance of contract (Art. 6.1.b) Until account deletion
Password (hashed by Firebase) Performance of contract (Art. 6.1.b) Until account deletion
Avatar URL Performance of contract (Art. 6.1.b) Until account deletion

Automatically Collected by Firebase Authentication

Data Legal Basis (GDPR) Retention
IP address Legitimate interest (Art. 6.1.f) — security Managed by Google per Firebase terms
User agent string Legitimate interest (Art. 6.1.f) — security Managed by Google per Firebase terms
Sign-in timestamps Legitimate interest (Art. 6.1.f) — security Managed by Google per Firebase terms

Third-Party Sign-In

If you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive your email address, display name, and avatar URL via OAuth 2.0. We do not receive or store your Apple or Google password.

AI Usage Data

Data Legal Basis (GDPR) Retention
AI credits used per billing period Performance of contract (Art. 6.1.b) Until account deletion
Per-request metadata: feature used, token counts (input/output), credit cost, timestamp Legitimate interest (Art. 6.1.f) — service operation and abuse prevention Rolling 90 days, then automatically deleted

AI usage data does not include the content of your text. Only aggregate token counts and the name of the feature used are recorded.

Subscription Data

Data Legal Basis (GDPR) Retention
Subscription tier (free/pro) Performance of contract (Art. 6.1.b) Until account deletion
Billing interval, expiration date Performance of contract (Art. 6.1.b) Until account deletion
Payment transaction data Performance of contract (Art. 6.1.b) Managed by Stripe per their terms

5. AI-Powered Features

NoteBee offers optional AI features powered by Google Vertex AI (Gemini). These features process your selected text content on Google's servers and return the result to your device.

How it works

  1. You select text and choose an AI action (e.g., "Rewrite," "Summarize")
  2. The selected text is sent to Google Vertex AI via Firebase AI Logic
  3. Google's Gemini model processes the text and returns the result
  4. The result is displayed in NoteBee on your device

What is sent to Google

What is NOT sent to Google

Your consent

Before using AI features for the first time, NoteBee displays a notice explaining that your content will be sent to Google for processing. You must acknowledge this before AI features are enabled. You may decline and continue using NoteBee without AI features.

Google's data handling

Google processes content under their Cloud Data Processing Addendum and Vertex AI terms. Google is contractually prohibited from using customer data submitted via Vertex AI to train its models. NoteBee has verified this restriction and monitors compliance through Google's published terms and data processing commitments.

6. What Data NoteBee Stores Locally

All template content is stored in a local SQLite database at:

~/Library/Application Support/NoteBee/notebee.store

This data is never transmitted to any server.

Local database contents

UserDefaults (preferences)

macOS Keychain

No encryption keys are stored in the Keychain in this version (encryption features are not active).

7. What NoteBee Does NOT Collect

NoteBee does not collect, transmit, or process:

8. How We Use Your Data

Purpose Data Used Legal Basis
Account management Email, display name, password Contract (Art. 6.1.b)
Authentication Email, sign-in metadata, third-party tokens Contract (Art. 6.1.b)
AI text processing Selected text content (only when you invoke AI) Consent (Art. 6.1.a)
Basic translation Selected text content (only when you invoke translation) Contract (Art. 6.1.b)
AI usage tracking Token counts, credits consumed Legitimate interest (Art. 6.1.f)
Subscription management Subscription tier, billing data Contract (Art. 6.1.b)
Security IP address, sign-in metadata Legitimate interest (Art. 6.1.f)
Software updates App version, macOS version, architecture Legitimate interest (Art. 6.1.f)

We do NOT use your data for:

9. Third-Party Service Providers

Google Firebase Authentication (Google LLC, USA/EU)

Google Cloud Firestore (Google LLC, USA/EU)

Google Vertex AI / Gemini (Google LLC, USA/EU)

Google Firebase Remote Config (Google LLC, USA/EU)

Google Firebase App Check (Google LLC + Apple Inc.)

Apple Inc. (USA)

Google LLC (USA)

RevenueCat Inc. (USA)

Stripe Inc. (USA)

NoteBee never sees or stores your payment card details.

Sparkle (Open Source)

10. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

NoteBee macOS Application

The app does not use cookies, tracking pixels, advertising identifiers, or any form of analytics or telemetry.

notebee.cloud Website

Only essential session cookies and TLS/HTTPS. No analytics, no advertising cookies, no social media tracking.

11. International Data Transfers

NoteBee is operated from Poland (EU). Primary data storage is in EU (europe-west). Safeguards for US transfers include:

12. Data Retention

Data Retention Period Deletion Method
Account data Until account deletion Account deletion in Settings
Local templates and content Until deletion or app uninstall Manual or app removal
AI usage quota Until account deletion Account deletion
AI transaction logs Rolling 90 days Automatic
Subscription data Until account deletion Account deletion
Payment data (Stripe) Per Stripe's retention policy Contact Stripe
Diagnostic logs Managed by macOS Automatic rotation

13. Subscription and Payments

Free tier: Full editing, basic translation, 50 AI credits/month.

Pro subscription: 1,000 AI credits/month, processed via Stripe through RevenueCat.

NoteBee never sees or stores your payment card details. All payment processing is handled by Stripe. Subscription management (status, billing interval, expiration) is handled by RevenueCat.

14. Diagnostic Logs

NoteBee uses macOS unified logging (OS Log). Logs are stored locally on your device and are never transmitted to any server. Sensitive values (such as email addresses) are masked in log output.

15. System Permissions (macOS)

NoteBee may request the following macOS permissions:

NoteBee does not request access to your camera, microphone, location, contacts, calendar, photos, screen recording, or full disk.

16. Data Security

17. Your Rights Under GDPR

If you are in the EU/EEA, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

Contact privacy@notebee.cloud to exercise your rights. We will respond within 30 days.

Supervisory authority: UODO (Urząd Ochrony Danych Osobowych), ul. Stawki 2, 00-193 Warsaw, Poland — uodo.gov.pl

18. Your Rights Under US State Privacy Laws

NoteBee respects privacy rights under state laws in California (CCPA/CPRA), Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana, Delaware, Iowa, Indiana, Tennessee, Minnesota, Maryland, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and New Jersey.

NoteBee does not:

To exercise your rights, contact privacy@notebee.cloud.

19. Children's Privacy

NoteBee is not intended for children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has provided data, contact privacy@notebee.cloud.

20. Accessibility

This policy is written in plain language with clear headings to improve readability. If you need this policy in an alternative format, contact support@notebee.cloud.

21. Changes to This Policy

Version Date Changes
1.0 February 19, 2026 Initial policy (local-only)
2.0 February 22, 2026 Added AI features, Firestore, subscriptions, translation, Remote Config, App Check
2.1 February 22, 2026 Added cookies section, expanded US state coverage to 17 states, data breach procedures, revenue model transparency, Do Not Track, CCPA notice-at-collection, accessibility section

22. Contact Us