PRIVACY // PLAIN LANGUAGE

What we collect, and what we don't.

Effective 12 November 2026. Last updated 12 November 2026.

Ponderica is made and run by Michael Huneycutt, a sole proprietor in Virginia, United States ("we", "us"), who is responsible for your information under this notice. This notice covers ponderica.com and the Ponderica app for Mac. Questions or requests go to [email protected].

The short version

• We don't sell your information, share it for advertising, or show ads.
• The app does its work on your Mac. Your conversations, recordings, files, keys and camera pictures never come to us.
• This website counts visits without cookies, and the only personal details we hold are the ones you choose to give the waitlist.

This website

• Hosting. The site is served and protected by Cloudflare. Like any web host, Cloudflare receives your internet address and browser details to deliver pages and block attacks.
• Visit counts. We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to see how many people visit, which pages they view, which site sent them, their country and device type, and how fast pages load. It sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device, and does not fingerprint you. We see totals, not individuals.
• No cookies, no ad pixels. The site sets no cookies and has no advertising or social-media trackers. Its fonts and code are served from ponderica.com itself.
• The microphone button on the home page is optional. If you turn it on, your browser asks permission, and your audio is measured on the page to move the orb. It is never recorded or sent anywhere.
• The question bar answers from text built into the page. What you type is not sent anywhere.
• The waitlist is a form hosted by Jotform. The details you enter are stored in our Jotform account, on servers in the United States, and used only to tell you when Ponderica is ready and about its launch. We keep them until you ask us to remove them or we close the waitlist, whichever comes first. Every message we send will tell you how to stop hearing from us.
• Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. This site does not track you across other websites, so it behaves the same whether or not your browser sends these signals.

The app

The app is in development. This describes how it is built today; if it changes before launch, this page will change first.

Stays on your Mac

• Everything you say is turned into words on your Mac. Listening for the assistant's name happens on your Mac, and your voice recordings never leave it.
• The assistant's voice is made on your Mac.
• Your voiceprint is made only if you choose to make one. It, the assistant's memory, notes, research reports, the log of changes it made (so they can be undone) and your spending records stay in your Ponderica folder.
• Your API keys stay in your Mac's Keychain. They are sent only to the service they belong to and are never written to files or logs.
• The camera picture stays on your Mac. A single still is sent only when you ask the assistant to look at or highlight something, and none are kept. A live indicator shows whenever the camera or microphone is on.

Goes to the services you use, only when needed

• Anthropic (Claude), with your key: the words of your conversations, and anything you ask it to read or look at, such as your screen, files, notes, web pages, research requests, searches or a camera still.
• Google Gemini, with your key: a camera still and the names of things to highlight, only when you ask it to highlight something.
• YouTube, with your key: the words of a video search. Wikimedia Commons: the words of a picture search.
• Websites you open with it: what any browser sends to a site you visit. Sign-ins in the assistant's own browser stay in that browser on your Mac.
• Hugging Face and GitHub: one-time downloads of the voices, and a check for app updates every few hours. They see your internet address and the app version.
• Polar: your licence key and an activation number for your Mac, once a day, to check your subscription. Nothing else.

Each of these services handles what it receives under its own privacy terms. The app sends nothing to us: no recordings, conversations, keys or usage statistics.

Your controls

The app's Control menu decides what the assistant may do, and sets your own spending limits. Under Your data you can forget your voiceprint, clear its memory, open the folder, or move all your Ponderica data to the Bin, optionally removing your keys from the Keychain.

Buying Ponderica

When Ponderica goes on sale, Polar (Polar Software, Inc.) will sell it to you as merchant of record, handling payment and sales tax. Polar collects your payment details under its own privacy policy; we never see your card number. We receive what we need to manage your subscription, such as your email address and whether it is active.

Your choices and rights

• Email us to see, correct or delete the personal details we hold about you, such as your waitlist entry. We answer within 30 days and don't charge for it.
• We rely on your consent for the waitlist (you can withdraw it at any time), on our legitimate interest in running and protecting this site for hosting and visit counts, and on our contract with you for a subscription.
• If you are in the EU or UK, you also have the right to object, to restrict use and to receive your data in a portable form, and you can complain to your local data protection authority.
• Our services are run from the United States, so information you give us is handled there.

Children

Ponderica is not meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their information. If you think a child has joined the waitlist, email us and we will remove it.

Keeping it safe

We keep what we hold to a minimum and use providers with strong security. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach ever affected your information, we would tell you as the law requires.

Changes to this notice

When this notice changes, the date at the top changes. Earlier versions are available by email. If a change is significant, we will say so on this page and, if you are on the waitlist or a customer, tell you by email before it takes effect.