Security and privacy
Updated 7 November 2026. The legal detail is in the privacy policy.
Otto is built so that your research stays with you. Your library and PDFs live on your computer and Otto works fully without an account. Only what you choose to put online goes there, and you can take it back out or delete it at any time.
Where your work lives
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| PDFs | Your computer only. Never uploaded to us and never sent to collaborators. Optional copy to your own Google Drive. |
| Library, highlights, notes, tasks, reading progress | Your computer, backed up there every day. |
| Shared projects | Their papers' details, highlights, comments, notes and tasks, on our servers in the EU (Ireland), visible only to the project's members. Private comments and notes stay on your computer. |
| Your account | Email, name and picture, in the EU (Ireland). Only needed for sharing and the cloud assistant. |
| Voice | Transcribed on your computer. Audio is never uploaded or kept. |
| Sign-in tokens and keys | The macOS Keychain or Windows Credential Manager. |
The assistant
With a cloud model, the text a request needs, which can include passages from the paper in front of you, goes through our server to Anthropic or OpenAI. Both state that data sent through their business APIs is not used to train their models. We record how much each account uses, not what was asked. We never use your data to train AI models ourselves.
Prefer nothing to leave? Choose a model that runs on your own computer (Ollama or LM Studio) and no request content is sent anywhere. The optional extras that send text (checking cited passages, better search order, reading aloud) each have their own switch, and the privacy policy lists exactly what each sends.
Sharing and access
- Every shared table is protected by row-level security on the server, so people only ever see projects they belong to.
- Each member is an owner, an editor or a viewer; a viewer cannot change anything.
- A shared project cannot be deleted for everyone without everyone agreeing.
- Names and pictures are checked before they are shown to others.
The app
- All connections are encrypted with TLS.
- Updates are cryptographically signed; the app refuses one that is not.
- The app runs under a strict content-security policy.
- Provider keys stay on our server and are never in the app.
- Code from papers that Otto re-runs is sealed off from the network and from your files.
Your data, your call
- Download everything held online for you, from Settings.
- Delete your account from Settings: everything stored online for it goes at once.
- Export your library in standard formats whenever you like (BibTeX, RIS, CSL-JSON, Excel and more).
- Error reports and usage counts are off until you switch them on, and never include titles, searches, notes or files.
Who processes data for us
Supabase (accounts and shared projects, EU), Anthropic and OpenAI (cloud assistant, US), ElevenLabs (reading aloud, US), and a small number of others, each for one job. The full list, with locations and safeguards, is in the privacy policy.
Certifications
Otto is in early access and does not yet hold SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification. If your institution needs a security questionnaire answered or a data processing agreement, write to hello@tryotto.work.
Report a problem
If you believe you have found a vulnerability, email care@tryotto.work. We will reply as quickly as we can.