huggingface.co
Models you download
Chat, transcription and search models. You press download. They then run on this Mac.
Privacy
Your life.
Your memory.
Your device.
Your meetings, notes and screens belong to you. Choose which sources Selv remembers, keep them on your Mac, and delete them when you want.
On your device
ScreensAudioNotes
Your searchable memory
It can stay here.
After the app and local models are set up, core capture, search and chat can work without a cloud AI service.
Your memory doesn’t need to leave your device to be useful.
01
Choose what comes in.
Grant the permissions you want. Exclude apps and private moments from capture.
02
Choose what stays.
Retention settings control how long saved screen images stay. Delete existing memories in Storage. Excluding an app stops future capture; it does not erase what was already saved.
03
Choose what goes out.
Connected AI tools and backups are optional. Settings → Diagnostics → Network activity shows recent metadata for wrapped app HTTP requests and recorded mail commands.
Network activity
What leaves this Mac.
Known paths. Limited diagnostics.
Capture, search and local-model chat process your memory on your device. The paths below describe setup, licensing, updates, and sources you switch on. Open Settings → Diagnostics → Network activity for a bounded history of host, purpose, status and observed byte counts. Request and response payload bodies, headers and URL paths are not recorded. The records are stored locally.
github.com
Speaker models
A small extra download the first time Selv needs them.
selv.io
Licence
Activation and renewal. An install identifier and OS information — not your memory.
selv.io
Updates
Asks whether a newer build exists. You still choose whether to install.
api.notion.com
Notion
Only if you connect it. Pages your token can read, requested from your Mac.
IMAP
Mail you import
Only if you add an account. Proton Bridge stays on this Mac; Fastmail, iCloud Mail and custom hosts go to the server you entered. Apple Mail is local files, not IMAP.
This diagnostic does not block connections or establish that no other traffic occurred. Native libraries, direct sockets, other processes and uninstrumented Dart isolates are outside its coverage, including the native update installer. Connected tools have their own cloud requests. Public releases do not send automatic crash reports or usage analytics.
Read the full listOptional connections.
A clear choice.
You can optionally let an AI app, such as Claude or Cursor, read selected sources from Selv. If that app uses a cloud AI service, its provider may process the returned context under its own privacy terms.
Connect your toolsYour memory↓ Only the sources you allowAn AI app you connect, such as Claude or Cursor
LOCAL DATA PROTECTION
Private on disk.
Ready when you need it.
Protected stores are encrypted. Selv opens them locally for search, answers and writing.
ON DISK
server finally green — wrote down the gotchas
Keys held by macOS
On macOS, the Data Protection Keychain restricts key access to Selv’s signed components.
Databases
Encrypted page by page, including their headers.
ChaCha20-Poly1305SQLite3 Multiple CiphersSaved files
New journal writes use authenticated encryption. Other protected file formats can also wrap individual item keys.
AES-256-GCMNative on macOS · software on Windows and LinuxAuthenticated formats detect changes when opened. Older journal formats use CBC encryption without authentication.
Where protection stops
Raw audio is temporarily held as an unencrypted working file while it is transcribed. It is removed on a rolling basis after processing. Saved transcripts are encrypted.
The journal implementation writes selv-doc-v3: AES-256-GCM with a fresh 12-byte nonce and a 16-byte tag. HKDF-SHA256 derives its document key from the shared journal key, using the selv.journal.document.v3 domain and aes-256-gcm info. It does not give every entry a new random key. Bare CBC and selv-doc-v2 remain readable legacy formats without authentication. Existing archives have not been migrated, and these changes have not been verified in an installed build.
Encryption at rest protects stored data. It does not hide content already open in the app, or protect copies you export or send to another service.
Security review and reporting
When one has been done, the report goes here in whatever state it comes back. No badges, no seals.
Found a security issue? Email security@selv.io. Include the Selv version and what you observed. Do not send someone else's notes, screenshots, or meeting text to demonstrate it.
Include enough detail for us to investigate without sending private source content. Pausing an update feed does not remove a copy already installed on a Mac.
Read the privacy policy for how Selv’s website and services handle personal data.