Privacy Architecture

How Meriq stores data

A plain-language overview of what we store, what we don't, and how encryption works.

What Meriq does not store

  • Your prompts and AI responses are not retained on our servers unless you enable the optional encrypted vault
  • Conversation content is never used for model training
  • We never sell your data or share it for advertising or model training
  • Search queries from deep research are not stored after the job completes, unless you enable the encrypted vault
  • File contents uploaded for analysis are not retained after processing, unless you enable the encrypted vault

What Meriq does store

The following data is stored to operate your account:

  • Account information: email address, hashed password (or OAuth identifiers), display name, plan type
  • Usage counters: chat usage within rolling cost windows, research job counts, image generation counts (for quota enforcement)
  • Preferences: selected model, custom instructions, theme, privacy settings
  • Billing records: subscription status, payment method type (card details are held by Stripe, not by Meriq)
  • Security events: login timestamps and security-related events (retained for 30 days, then automatically deleted)

Optional cloud vault

If you enable the cloud vault, Meriq stores your conversations in encrypted form so they persist across sessions and devices. This is entirely optional.

How encryption works

  • All vault data is encrypted with AES-256-GCM before it leaves the application layer
  • The encryption key is never stored in usable form. It is sealed under your password and under a secret that only your signed-in browser holds
  • If you sign in with a social provider, you set a separate vault password the first time you enable the vault. Until you set one, what the account saves uses a key derived from account details, which the service can reproduce
  • The service opens the key in memory to handle each request or a task it started, and processes decrypted content to provide features. This is encryption at rest, not end-to-end encryption against Meriq

What vault encryption covers

  • All conversation message content
  • Research job queries, plans, and reports
  • Generated artifact content
  • Extracted text from uploaded files
  • User memory entries

Retention and deletion

  • Non-vault conversations stay in your browser, encrypted on that device, until your chosen window passes or you clear them. Temporary chats are gone when you close the tab
  • Vault conversations you haven't touched for your chosen window (1 to 365 days, 60 by default) are deleted automatically, sooner if you delete them or disable the vault. Continuing a chat keeps its history
  • Disabling the vault deletes all encrypted data from cloud storage
  • Deleting your account removes all stored data, including vault contents and preferences. Billing records we're legally required to keep are retained for 7 years
  • Security logs are automatically purged after 30 days

Account boundaries

  • Each user's data is isolated. There is no shared conversation state between accounts
  • Account access controls limit ordinary access to conversations. Stored content cannot be decrypted without your password or one of your signed-in sessions, apart from the exceptions in our Privacy Policy, and our servers process it in readable form while handling your requests
  • API keys are scoped per user and cannot access another user's data

Summary

Browser-local history and Cloud Vault provide different storage options. Messages and conversation context are processed by Meriq and the selected AI provider to generate responses. Cloud Vault encrypts stored content with a key the service never stores; it is opened in memory only while handling your requests. Meriq does not use your conversations for model training. See the Privacy Policy for retention and deletion details.

For the formal legal version of these practices, see our Privacy Policy. For questions about capabilities and access, see the FAQ.