Privacy should not require trust in a slogan.
Heliarko is built around a simple idea:
Your personal material should stay under your control.
But privacy is not one switch.
There is the Capsule on storage you control.
There are optional online services.
And there is this public website.
They are different things.
We believe you should be able to see the difference.
Three boundaries.
Local Capsule
The personal material and structure stored on storage you control.
Optional online AI
A separate connection when an online intelligence function is used.
Heliarko.com
A public website with its own technical data processing.
Three different boundaries.
No blurred language.
What happens where?
A row here claims only what the current build can be shown to do. Where the answer still depends on the 1.0.12 technical audit, the row says so rather than printing a tick we have not earned.
| What you are doing | On your computer | Over the internet | Verified for 1.0.12 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storing the Capsule | The Capsule is created on storage you choose. | Not needed in order to create or open it. | Verify for 1.0.12 |
| Browsing your own material | Reading what is already inside the Capsule. | Not needed. | Verify for 1.0.12 |
| Searching inside the Capsule | Search works against the structure inside the Capsule. | Depends on the function used. See “Online AI” below. | Verify for 1.0.12 |
| Visiting heliarko.com | Nothing from your Capsule is involved. | Yes. The server processes the ordinary technical request needed to deliver and protect the page. | Website behaviour, described in the Privacy Policy |
| Downloading Heliarko | The file is saved where you choose to save it. | Yes. The server receives the technical request required to deliver the file. | Website behaviour, described in the Privacy Policy |
| Sending us an email | You decide what to write and what to attach. | Yes. Your message and your address reach us so that we can read and answer it. | Described on this page |
| Using optional online AI | You choose when to use it. | Yes. A connection is required, and information needed for the request may have to leave the computer. | Verify for 1.0.12 |
The archive is not the website.
Heliarko is designed around a personal Capsule stored on storage controlled by the person using it.
That distinction matters.
A public website can change.
An online service can change.
A company can change direction.
The local Capsule is intended to remain the durable personal foundation.
Your photographs remain your photographs.
Your documents remain your documents.
Your stories remain your stories.
The word local is easy to print on a website.
We want to use it precisely.
For Heliarko, local-first means that the durable personal Capsule is built around storage under the user’s control.
It does not automatically mean that every possible Heliarko function is offline.
That is why online functions are described separately.
Local should describe architecture, not create an illusion.
Intelligence from outside should never enter unnoticed.
Some Heliarko functions may use an external AI service.
When such a function is used, a network connection is required.
Information needed for that request may have to leave the computer so the external service can produce an answer.
The exact data sent by Heliarko 1.0.12 must be described according to the real product behaviour.
We do not claim that only a specific narrow payload is sent, and we do not claim the entire Capsule is uploaded. Neither statement has been verified for this release.
The boundary must be described honestly.
Local
The Capsule on storage you control.
The durable personal foundation.
Online AI
An optional external intelligence layer.
Used only when you use a function that needs it.
The website may explain the desired conceptual distinction.
We do not claim that the current 1.0.12 interface already has a specific “AI gate” control; that has not been verified.
The principle is:
You should not need to wonder which side of the door you are on.
AI may work with your context. It does not become the owner of it.
Synapse is the part of Heliarko that helps search, connect, summarise, write and think with information.
Some work may use local structure.
Some functions may use optional online intelligence.
These are not automatically the same operation.
We will describe them as they actually work.
Not as a marketing sentence wishes they worked.
Say exactly what the product can prove.
We do not publish claims such as these unless the current 1.0.12 implementation has been verified:
“encrypted at rest”
“zero knowledge”
“no master key”
“secure deletion”
“end-to-end encrypted”
A PIN is not automatically encryption.
A password is not automatically encryption.
And the word “secure” is not a technical explanation.
No privacy claim should be stronger than the software behind it.
Local control also means local responsibility.
Keeping a Capsule yourself gives you independence.
It also means the physical storage matters.
A failed drive can fail.
A stolen laptop can be stolen.
A deleted file can be deleted.
If material matters, keep a backup.
If it matters greatly, keep more than one.
We would rather remind you of this now than make a promise software cannot keep.
Visiting heliarko.com is not the same as opening your Capsule.
The public website is separate from your local archive.
Like most websites, its server may process ordinary technical information required to deliver and protect the site.
If you download Heliarko, the server also receives the technical request required to deliver the file.
This does not by itself give the public website access to the contents of your local Capsule.
Heliarko is not being built around selling advertising against your private archive.
Your personal Capsule should not become a profile used to choose which advertisement to show you.
For the public-test website, keep unnecessary tracking out.
If analytics or another non-essential website technology is introduced later, explain it and obtain consent where required.
Privacy choices should not be puzzles.
Privacy can disappear through the side door.
A website may use no advertising cookies of its own and still load external services that collect information about visitors.
We want to avoid that where practical.
Where practical, Heliarko demonstrations should be served directly or loaded in a privacy-preserving way.
If an external media provider introduces additional data processing, we make that visible before external content loads.
The video is here to explain Heliarko.
Not to follow the visitor around the internet afterwards.
You decide what you tell us.
If you write to Heliarko, we need the information contained in that communication in order to read it and reply.
That may include your email address and anything you choose to put in the message.
Do not send a copy of your Capsule just because something went wrong.
For technical support, send only what is necessary to understand the problem.
A screenshot of an error is usually better than a folder full of private material.
Good support question
“When I open Search and choose this option, I receive this error.”
Less good support question
“Here are twenty years of family documents. Please find the problem.”
Please don’t.
We would rather ask one more question than receive information we did not need.
“Military-grade”
Meaningless without explaining the actual protection.
“100% private”
Too absolute for a product that may use optional online services.
“AI never sees your data”
Not a responsible claim if an external AI is deliberately asked to work with selected context.
“Trust us”
Not enough.
Show the boundary. Explain the system. Let the person decide.
A private product should make important choices visible.
Where is the Capsule stored?
Which functions work locally?
Which functions require the internet?
What information may be sent when online AI is used?
How is local access protected?
How do I make a backup?
How do I move my Capsule?
How do I remove it?
If an answer matters, it should not be buried.
- Capsule model
- Local-first personal storage
- Optional online AI
- Yes, where supported by the current product
- Advertising based on Capsule content
- No
- Technical privacy specification
- To be verified against the public 1.0.12 build
- Legal Privacy Policy
- Available separately
This record should change whenever the product changes.
A privacy page that describes last year’s software is not a privacy page.
Plain language first. Legal detail when you need it.
This page explains the privacy model of Heliarko in ordinary language.
The formal Privacy Policy explains the current test-period controller, website processing, service providers and legal rights.
The two pages should describe the same reality.
If they disagree, that is something we need to fix.
Yours means yours.
Not because the phrase looks good under a logo.
Because architecture, interface and documentation should make ownership real.