Last updated: August 12, 2026
Kola is an AI-native people-memory layer for macOS that pulls the people you know out of your email, calendar, LinkedIn, Telegram, and WhatsApp, and remembers the context that matters. This policy explains what Kola does — and, just as importantly, does not do — with your data.
The short version: Kola is local-first. The app indexes and stores your data on your own Mac. We run no server that receives your contacts, messages, notes, or recordings, and we never sell your data. A few optional features you turn on do send specific data to a third party in order to work — the AI assistant, contact enrichment, and profile photos. Those are described below so you know exactly what leaves your device and when. If you create a Kola account, we hold your email address, your name and your plan; that short list is set out under "Your Kola account" below.
Kola is provided by Perennify Ltd ("Perennify", "we", "us"), the company behind this AI memory layer. Reach us about this policy at privacy@getkola.app.
Because Kola stores your people graph on your own device and we run no server that receives it, you remain in control of that data at all times. For most of the data Kola handles, you — not Kola — are the party that decides how it is used; Kola provides the software, but does not collect a copy.
Depending on which accounts and features you enable, Kola processes the following on your device:
When you connect an account, Kola reads your messages, contacts, and calendar from that source and builds a unified people graph on your device. That index — names, message bodies, notes, custom fields, embeddings — is written to local storage inside the Kola.app data directory on your Mac.
Kola exposes that index to AI tools through a local server
bound to
127.0.0.1:47900. That address is reachable only from your own machine;
there is no remote endpoint, and Kola does not transmit your
indexed data to us or to any Kola-operated infrastructure.
To build your people graph, Kola accesses the accounts you explicitly authorize — which may include Google (Gmail and Calendar), LinkedIn, Telegram, and WhatsApp. Authorization happens through each provider's own login or API flow, and you can revoke it at any time from that provider or by disconnecting the account in Kola.
Data fetched from these services is delivered to your Mac and processed locally. Kola uses it only to provide the app's features — searching your network, briefing you before meetings, and capturing contacts. Kola does not sell your data, does not use it for advertising, and does not share it with third parties for their own purposes.
When you connect Google, Kola may access your Gmail messages (including bodies), Calendar events, and — if you enable contact photos — your Google contacts and their photos. Google user data is processed locally to provide these features, is never used to train any AI or machine-learning models, and is not transferred to others except as needed to provide a feature at your direction. Kola's use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Kola can record calls when you choose to. Recordings are saved as audio files in the Kola.app data directory on your Mac and transcribed on your device — the audio is not uploaded to us or to any third party for transcription. Recordings and transcripts stay local and are deleted when you delete them in Kola.
You are responsible for recording lawfully. Many jurisdictions require the consent of some or all parties before a conversation is recorded. It is your responsibility to understand and comply with the laws that apply to you and to obtain any consent required from the people you record.
Some features are off until you turn them on, and depend on an outside service to work. When enabled, they send only the data needed for that feature:
Each of these is optional and governed by the receiving provider's own terms and privacy policy. If you don't enable them, the data they would send never leaves your Mac.
Kola ships a plugin for Claude. When you choose to use it, your prompts and the specific records Claude reads to answer you are sent from your machine to Anthropic, the operator of Claude, so it can generate a response. This happens only for the data involved in the request you make, and only while you are actively using the assistant.
That exchange is governed by Anthropic's own terms and privacy policy, not by Kola. If you never use the AI plugin, none of your data leaves your Mac through Kola.
To let you know when a new version is available, the Kola app
periodically checks
getkola.app
for an update manifest (on launch and roughly every few hours)
and downloads the new version when you choose to install it.
Like any web request, this exposes standard technical data
such as your IP address and app version to our static host. It
does not send any of your indexed personal data.
Kola works without an account. If you choose to create one,
at
my.getkola.app
or from the Kola app, we hold the following on our own
servers:
Signing in does not send us your contacts, notes, recordings, messages, or calendar. Those stay on your Mac, and the account gives us no way to reach them.
We also record when a Mac signs in, checks in, and signs out, so we know how many people are using Kola and on what. Those records carry your account number and your plan.
If you send a support message from the Kola app, we receive what you chose to send:
Support messages and their attachments are stored on our own infrastructure and kept only as long as we need them to answer you. They are never used for advertising and never shared for anyone else's purposes.
Signing out of a Mac ends that Mac's access. Deleting your account removes everything above.
You can share one note at a time with people you name. This is the one way your own records leave your Mac, and it only happens when you press Share.
Sharing sends a copy taken at that moment. Editing the note afterwards changes nothing, and sharing it again makes a second copy with its own link.
You can stop a share at any time. Open its link at
my.getkola.app and choose Stop
sharing. That deletes the copy and its files, and the link
stops working.
The getkola.app website is a static page that exists to describe Kola and let you download it. It carries no advertising trackers and no advertising cookies.
We do measure how the website itself is used, so we can make it clearer. The first time you visit, a banner asks whether that is alright. Nothing loads and no cookie is set until you accept, and you can decline. Three providers do the measuring:
Each one sets its own cookies to tell one visit from another.
None of them runs inside the Kola app, and none of them can
reach the data Kola indexes on your Mac. This site has no
forms and nothing to sign in to, so there is nothing you
type for them to record. PostHog also receives the
account-level records described under "Your Kola account"
above, which our server sends; the app itself contacts
neither provider. The separate
account site at
my.getkola.app
does have a sign-in; it uses Microsoft Clarity and PostHog,
it loads them only once you are signed in, and it sends them
an account number and a plan, never your name or your email.
You can change your answer at any time. , and the banner will ask again. Clearing cookies in your browser removes what these providers have already stored.
As with any website, our hosting provider (Cloudflare)
processes standard technical request data — such as your IP
address and user agent — to deliver the site and protect it
from abuse. The Kola app download is served the same way,
from our static host on Cloudflare
(static.getkola.app), and is covered by the same technical processing.
Account credentials and API keys are stored in the macOS Keychain. Your people graph, notes, recordings, and other data live in the Kola.app data directory on your Mac, under your operating-system user account. Because the data stays on your device, its security depends on the protections you have in place there — your account password, disk encryption (such as FileVault), and device security. We encourage you to keep those enabled.
Because your data is stored locally, you control it directly. Disconnecting an account stops further indexing from that source. Deleting people, notes, recordings, or other data within Kola removes them from the local index. Uninstalling Kola.app and removing its data directory deletes everything from your Mac, and we hold no copy of any of it.
The one thing we do hold is your Kola account, if you created one: the short list in "Your Kola account" above. Signing out of a Mac ends that Mac's access, and deleting your account removes the rest. Write to us at privacy@getkola.app to have it deleted.
Depending on where you live, you may have rights over your personal data — including the rights to access, correct, delete, export, and restrict or object to its processing, and to lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority. Because Kola keeps your data on your own device, you can exercise most of these rights directly: the app lets you view, edit, export, and delete your records, and disconnect any source, without involving us.
For California residents: we do not sell or share your personal information (as those terms are defined under the CCPA/CPRA), and we do not use it for cross-context behavioral advertising. You will not be discriminated against for exercising your rights. If you have a question we can help with, email privacy@getkola.app.
Your indexed data stays on your device and is not transferred by us. When you use an optional feature that contacts a third party — such as the AI assistant, enrichment, or profile photos — the data needed for that feature may be processed by that provider in another country (for example, the United States), under their own safeguards and privacy terms.
Kola is intended for adults and is not directed to anyone under 18 years of age, or the age of majority in your jurisdiction if it is higher.
We may update this policy as Kola evolves. Material changes will be reflected here with a new "Last updated" date. Your continued use of Kola after an update means you accept the revised policy.
Questions about this policy or your data? Email privacy@getkola.app.