Privacy questions

Do I need a bighelp account?

No. There's no bighelp account. You sign in to Hermes on your own computer with Hermes' own login.

Where do my chats go?

From your device straight to your Hermes computer. They don't pass through us. Your computer sends them to the AI providers you set up on it, so your agent can answer. Those providers' own terms cover what they keep. bighelp has no AI of its own. More in the policy.

Where is my Hermes login kept?

In the Apple Keychain on your device only. It doesn't sync or move to a new device. Cloudflare Access tokens, proxy passwords and custom headers are kept there too, and bighelp sends each one only to its own address. Your Composio sign-in, if you connect Composio, is kept in iCloud Keychain so it works on all your devices.

What happens to phone data my agent uses?

An agent can use only the phone tools you turn on in Settings › Connections › Device access, and only while you have its chat open or for a short time after you leave. If you turn on Arriving and leaving, bighelp can also tell your agent when you arrive at or leave a place, even while bighelp is closed. What the agent reads goes straight from your device to your Hermes computer, and may go on to its AI provider. It doesn't go through our service. bighelp never uses Health data for ads. More in the policy.

Can bighelp read my notifications?

No, with bighelp plugin 3.4.1 or later on your computer. Your computer seals each alert's text for your device before it leaves. Our notification service and Apple pass it on without being able to read it. They see things like the kind of alert and when it was sent. Older plugins send alert text that our service can read, so update the plugin. Notifications are optional, and chatting works without them.

One exception: Apple needs Live Activity updates in a readable form. They carry only your agents' progress, never chat titles, agent names, your messages or your agent's replies. You can turn Live Activities off in iOS Settings. More in the policy.

What does usage sharing send?

Counts and timings: which features get used, how fast the app opens and replies start, and crash reports. Each report carries a random ID made on your device. It never sends your messages, files, names or addresses. It's on by default. If you run the bighelp plugin, your computer sends its own counts the same way. More in the policy.

How do I turn usage sharing off in the app?

Open Settings › Help & feedback and turn off Share usage and diagnostics.

The app stops sending at once and deletes its random ID. "Turning it off also tells your connected computers to stop sending their usage reports."

How do I turn it off on my computer?

Any one of these works. The simplest is:

hermes bighelp telemetry off

Or set BIGHELP_TELEMETRY=0 or DO_NOT_TRACK=1 in Hermes' environment, or add this to Hermes' config.yaml:

bighelp:
  telemetry: false

To check it, run hermes bighelp telemetry status. When it's off, the plugin sends nothing and deletes its random ID.

What else does the app connect to?

• GitHub, to check for plugin updates, and for downloads you choose, like the on-device voice.
• Websites you link to in a chat, for link previews, and the web addresses in pictures your agent shares.
• Our servers, for AI provider logos, the template catalog and avatar art. These requests carry no chat data.
• Apple, for music and map cards and for turning a location into a place name.
• Composio, if you sign in to it.
• Our notification service, for notifications. It sends them straight to Apple.

There are no ads and no third-party analytics or crash reporting. The policy lists every service in other services the app contacts.

What happens to what I type in Ask?

Ask, on the help pages, sends your question and the last few messages of that chat to free AI models run by other companies, through OpenRouter. When those are busy, Google's Gemini may answer instead. Before it sends, Ask takes out anything that looks like a key, token, password or email address. Those companies may keep what you send and use it to train their models, so don't type anything private. bighelp's site doesn't keep your questions. Ask is separate from the app: the app sends nothing to it. More in the policy.

How do I delete my data?

• Notifications: tap Turn Off Notifications at the bottom of Settings › Notifications. It deletes this device's notification data everywhere.
• A computer: open Settings › System, tap the computer, then Remove this computer. "Its sign-in and drafts leave this device. Chats and files on the computer aren't touched." Its permission to notify you is removed from our notification service the next time the app opens.
• Chats and memories: they live on your Hermes computer. Delete them in bighelp or on the computer.
• Anything our service holds: email [email protected].