BenchAgent Privacy Policy
Last updated: November 2, 2026
BenchAgent is a lab notebook and assistant. This policy explains what we collect, why, and the choices you have.
What we collect
- Account details: your name and email, or the identifier Apple or Google gives us when you sign in with them.
- Your notebook: notes, projects, tags, photos you attach, and the values BenchAgent extracts from them (amounts, conditions, dates).
- Your lab profile: the field, techniques and samples you choose during setup.
- Recordings and documents you choose to transcribe, scan or import.
- Feedback and reports you send us from the app.
- A daily count of your AI requests, so we can apply fair-use limits.
We do not collect diagnostics or analytics, and we do not track you across other apps or websites.
How we use it
To store and sync your notebook between your devices, to transcribe, search, check and format your notes, to answer your questions, to send the reminders you turn on, and to fix problems you report. We do not sell your data or use it for advertising.
Third-party AI
AI features are off until you allow them. When you use one, BenchAgent's server sends only what that feature needs:
- Anthropic writes answers to your questions, using the notes they need.
- OpenAI transcribes recordings, reads scanned pages and PDFs, extracts values from notes, builds search embeddings, and writes answers when Anthropic is unavailable. For live voice (Talk and voice notes), your microphone audio goes from the app straight to OpenAI over an encrypted connection, so it can be transcribed and the questions spoken back.
- ElevenLabs turns answers into speech when you ask BenchAgent to read aloud, with Google as a backup.
Requests to Anthropic, OpenAI and Google reach them through OpenRouter, an AI routing service, which passes each request on and returns the result.
Zero data retention
Apart from voice (see below), your notes, questions, scanned pages, documents and searches go only to AI services with zero data retention: the provider keeps no copy once the answer comes back, and nothing you send is used to train AI models. BenchAgent's server asks for this on every request, and if no zero-retention service is available at that moment the request fails rather than go anywhere else. That is why Anthropic's Claude models run on Amazon Bedrock or Google Cloud, and OpenAI's models on Microsoft Azure. (OpenRouter may still hold content that the law requires it to report, such as child sexual abuse material.)
Voice is the one exception. In live voice (Talk and voice notes), what you say, BenchAgent's answers, and any notes it searches or reads to answer you go to OpenAI. Recordings sent for transcription also go to OpenAI. OpenAI may keep these for up to 30 days to check for abuse and does not train on them. Answers read aloud go to ElevenLabs (with Google as a backup) under their own policies, which may also keep them for a limited time. If you'd rather avoid this, type your questions in Ask instead of using Talk, or turn AI features off.
These providers process the data to return a result to you. You can turn AI features off at any time in Profile; notes, protocols and calculators keep working without them. While AI features are off, new and edited notes, tasks and schedule items stay on your device and are not uploaded; notes uploaded earlier stay in your account (marked so no AI processing runs on them) until you delete them.
Who we share it with
We share your data only with the services named in this policy (Anthropic, OpenAI, ElevenLabs, Google, OpenRouter, the cloud services that run the AI models for them (Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure), and Google Firebase), and only to run BenchAgent. Each of them is required to protect your data at least as well as this policy does. We never sell your data or share it with advertisers.
Where data is stored
Your account, notebook, tasks and schedule are stored with Google Firebase (Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore and, for pictures you add to notes, Cloud Storage) and are visible only to your account. A copy is also kept on your device.
How long we keep it
Your notes stay on our servers until you delete them or delete your account. Feedback and reports stay until you delete your account. Deleting your account removes all of it from our servers straight away, along with your daily AI request counts.
BenchAgent's server does not keep your recordings, scanned pages or documents. They are passed to the AI provider, and only the result comes back to you. The AI services that handle text, scans and documents keep nothing (see Zero data retention above); the voice services (including notes Talk reads aloud to answer you) may keep requests for a limited time under their own policies.
Your choices
- Delete your account and data: Profile › Delete Account removes your account and every note, record and report we hold for you.
- Export: Notebook › ⋯ › Export everything gives you a ZIP of your notes.
- Withdraw AI consent: turn AI features off in Profile. Nothing more is sent to the AI providers, and new notes stay on your device.
- Ask us to delete your data by emailing [email protected].
- Notifications and microphone permissions can be changed in your device's Settings.
Children
BenchAgent is meant for researchers and students aged 13 and over and is not directed at children.
Contact
Email [email protected], or use Profile › Leave Feedback in the app. We reply by email.