Guide
What to check before using an AI memory app
An AI memory app can capture on your device and still store or process some of that data elsewhere. “Local” or “private” on a landing page doesn’t tell you which. Check five stages separately: capture, storage, AI processing, access and deletion.
The questions below work for any app that remembers your screen, calls or work for an AI assistant. Each section ends with how Cachejay answers it, so you can see what a specific answer looks like. Cachejay’s answers come from its privacy page, checked October 19, 2026.
1. What is captured, and what starts it?
Look for a concrete list: text from apps, screenshots, microphone, the audio other people send you, transcripts, files, AI agent conversations. Then ask what starts capture, whether you can pause it, and what is never captured.
- Is there a list of apps and sites it never reads, and can you add to it?
- Are password fields and private browser windows skipped?
- Does it record calls, and does anyone on the call know?
Cachejay: app text through macOS Accessibility, a screenshot about once a minute when the screen changed (its text read on the Mac), calls without a bot, and supported AI agent sessions. It never reads password managers, password fields or private windows, plus anything you add to Never Remember…. File search uses Spotlight on the Mac; files aren’t uploaded.
2. What is uploaded by default?
Separate the text from the thing it came from. The text read from a screenshot is not the screenshot; a transcript is not the audio. Products often treat them differently, and “processed on device” can still mean the result is uploaded.
| Data | Cachejay default | Can you change it? |
|---|---|---|
| Screen text and screenshot text | Synced to your account | Pause, exclude apps, or Delete Cloud Notes… to stop syncing |
| Screenshot pictures | On the Mac for 7 days | Opt-in upload; uploaded pictures kept 14 days |
| Your side of a call | Transcribed on the Mac; text synced | Pause or stop a call’s transcript |
| Other people’s side of a call | Audio sent in pieces for transcription; only text kept | Pause; with your own OpenAI key it’s under your agreement |
| Notes Cachejay writes | Synced to your account | Choose cloud retention, or delete |
| Your files | Not uploaded | — |
A data-flow table like this is the thing to ask any vendor for. If they can’t produce one, that is an answer too.
3. What reaches an AI provider?
There are usually two separate flows. One is the app’s own AI writing summaries. The other is your assistant (ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor) retrieving memories into a conversation. Check both.
- Which provider writes the summaries, and does it train on the data?
- Can you use your own key, or a model that runs on your device?
- When your assistant retrieves something, whose terms cover it then?
Cachejay: summaries go through Cachejay’s AI service to Anthropic’s API by default, which doesn’t train on API data; secrets are masked first. You can use your own Anthropic, OpenAI or Gemini key, Apple’s on-device model, or a CLI agent on your Mac. What your assistant retrieves becomes part of that conversation under the assistant provider’s terms. The full list is on the subprocessors page.
4. Who can read it, and who can change it?
Review connected apps and sharing separately. A “read-only” label should describe the actual tools, not be assumed from the word “connector”.
- Can a connected app read everything, or a chosen scope? Can it change anything?
- How do you see and revoke connected apps?
- On a team, what becomes shared, and what stays private? Test with a second account.
- Which of the vendor’s staff can access your data, and when?
Cachejay: apps you approve by signing in can read your account; they can change Cachejay data only if you allow it, and a read-only connection can’t. Disconnect All Phone and Web Apps revokes them at once. On a team, only projects you choose to share are visible to teammates. Staff access and encryption are described on the security page.
5. What does deletion actually cover?
Check the Mac copy, the cloud copy, uploaded pictures, and connected apps separately, plus what happens when you stop paying.
- Can you delete a recent window of time, not just everything?
- Can you set how long the cloud keeps captures?
- Can you export your data first?
- What happens to the data when a trial or subscription ends?
Cachejay: Forget the Last… deletes the last 15 minutes, hour or day on the Mac and in the cloud. You choose cloud retention (forever, a year, 90 or 30 days), export everything as JSON, or delete the account at cachejay.com/app. Delete Cloud Notes… removes the cloud copy and stops syncing. When a trial or subscription ends, cloud data is deleted after 60 days. What an assistant already retrieved stays in that conversation, under its provider’s retention.
Test it with a harmless project first
- Choose settings before capturing real work: cloud sync, screenshot uploads, Never Remember… entries, and which AI provider writes notes.
- Work on something harmless for an hour: a public article, a test document, a call with yourself.
- Ask a connected assistant what it can find, and compare it with what you expected to be captured or excluded.
- Pause capture, then disconnect an app and confirm it can no longer read anything.
- Delete that hour and check it’s gone.
The useful question isn’t whether an app calls itself private. It’s whether you can explain what it captures, where it goes, who can read it, and how to remove it. If you can, decide which work to include. Download Cachejay to run this test on it.