vesper.
Privacy Policy
Effective 19 July 2026 · Vesper 1.0
Vesper is a helper that lives on your iPhone. It can help with writing, plans, and everyday questions. Everything runs on your phone—no account, no company server reading your chats. You pick a mind once and download it; after that it works right there. The quick mind stays offline. The thoughtful mind can look things up on the web if you leave that on. It’s meant to feel like talking to a calm, useful friend.
The network only gets involved in a few clear cases:
Downloading a mind the first time (or when you switch to one that isn’t on the phone yet)
Optional web research on the thoughtful mind, if you leave that on in Settings
Pictures, when you ask for one and your phone can make them on-device
Links you choose to open (privacy page, email, and so on)
You can turn web research off anytime. The quick mind never looks anything up after its download. The
rest of this page says the same thing with a bit more care.
Who we are
Vesper is made by Alexander Stark, part of The Zuffenhausen Collective.
Questions about privacy or the app?
contact@TheZuffenhausenCollective.com. When you write, include the version from About (tap the vesper. wordmark in the app).
The two minds
Thoughtful uses Gemma 4 E4B (Google). After download, it may look things up on the web only if web research is on in Settings (that setting is on by default — you can turn it off).
Quick uses Gemma 3 4B (Google). After download, it stays fully offline. It never searches the web.
Older notes may have mentioned Llama as the thoughtful mind. That is no longer true. Thoughtful is Gemma 4 E4B.
What we do not collect
We (Alexander Stark / The Zuffenhausen Collective) do not:
• Ask you to create an account or sign in
• Run analytics, crash reporters, or ad networks that track you
• Sell or rent personal data
• Build advertising profiles
• Dig through your contacts, photo library, microphone, or GPS for normal chat
There is no developer database of your chats. We could not read them even if we wanted to — the app has
no channel to send them to us.
What stays on your phone
These live only in the app’s own storage on your iPhone, not on our servers:
• Your chat history
• Short notes Vesper keeps so the next chat can pick up where you left off
• How you like Vesper to speak (the voice questions)
• Settings (daylight or evening, web research on or off, effort, which mind is active)
• The mind files you downloaded
• Pictures you generate, when that feature is available
You’re in control: In Settings you can clear conversations, forget those notes, retune how Vesper speaks,
switch minds, or turn web research off. Delete the app and Vesper’s local data goes with it (your device backups are up to you and Apple).
When something leaves your phone
Requests go from your phone to the places named below. They do not pass through a Vesper server. There isn’t one.
Downloading a mind: To install a mind, Vesper downloads open model files from Hugging Face (and its content network). Rough
sizes: about 5.2 GB for thoughtful and about 3.0 GB for quick — once per mind, and it can resume if
interrupted.
What that involves: the usual connection details (like IP address) and the file request. Not the full text of
your private chats. This happens at setup, or when you switch to a mind that isn’t on the phone yet.
Hugging Face’s own privacy policy: https://huggingface.co/privacy
Optional web research (thoughtful mind only)
In Settings, THE WEB controls whether the thoughtful mind may look things up. Default is on. Turn it off
anytime for stay-offline. The quick mind never uses the web.
When web research is on and a question needs live information, Vesper may, from your device:
• Search with DuckDuckGo — usually up to about ten searches per answer (often fewer)
• Read a few result pages — open a small number of links to pull readable text (not unlimited browsing)
• Weather — for weather questions, ask wttr.in. If you name a place, that place is used. If you don’t, the
weather service may guess a rough place from your network (IP). Vesper does not use GPS or Core
Location for this.
What may leave for research: words from your question and recent turns (so a follow-up like “what about
tomorrow?” still makes sense), plus normal connection details. What does not happen: uploading your
whole chat history to a Vesper cloud, selling queries, or using research for ads.
When web research is off, thoughtful answers only from the on-device model — no search, no page reads,
no weather fetch.
DuckDuckGo’s privacy policy: https://duckduckgo.com/privacy
3. Pictures (“draw me…”)
When your phone and system support it, Vesper can make pictures with Apple’s Image Playground
(on-device). That path is Apple’s, not a Vesper server. On some devices it may simply be unavailable; the
app fails softly.
VESPER · PRIVACY POLICY · 24. Links you open yourself
If you tap a link in About — privacy, Gemma terms, support email, website — Safari or Mail opens. That’s
under your control and those apps’ own rules.
Children
Vesper is not aimed at children under 13 (or the minimum age where you live). We don’t collect kids’ data
through an account system, because there is no account. If that concerns you, delete the app and write to
us.
Answers can be wrong
Vesper can be incomplete, outdated, or just plain wrong — even after a web look-up. It is not a doctor,
lawyer, therapist, or financial adviser. Don’t rely on it alone for medical, legal, money, or emergency
decisions. If someone could be in real danger, get real-world help.
Other companies you might touch (briefly)
Their own policies apply to anything they receive when your phone contacts them.
If you’re outside the US
Downloads and research may hit servers in other countries (for example CDNs). Connection details like IP
address are handled by those providers under their policies and the law that applies.
Your choices
• Turn off web research: Settings → THE WEB → stay offline
• Stay on the quick mind: never uses the web after download
• Clear chats or forget notes: Settings
• Remove everything local to Vesper: delete the app (and manage device backups if you use them)
• Ask us anything: contact@TheZuffenhausenCollective.com
If this policy changes
If how Vesper handles data changes, we’ll update this page and the date at the top. Big changes should also
show up in the app’s About section. Keep reading this page when you care about the details.
Contact
Alexander Stark / The Zuffenhausen Collective