# Privacy and Local Use

## NOVA Privacy Statement

NOVA is designed as a **local-first, privacy-focused** language model. This document explains how NOVA handles your data.

---

## Core Principles

### 1. Local-First

**Everything runs on your device.**

- Model inference happens locally
- Training data stays on your machine
- No cloud dependencies
- No internet required (except for dataset downloads)

### 2. Zero Telemetry

**NOVA collects zero data.**

- No usage tracking
- No error reporting
- No analytics
- No phone-home functionality

### 3. Complete User Control

**You own everything.**

- Your conversations
- Your trained models
- Your custom personas
- Your data

---

## Data Storage

### Where Your Data Lives

```
C:\Development\Nova\
├── memory.db                    # Your conversation history (SQLite)
├── checkpoints/                 # Your trained models
├── data/                        # Your training data
└── configs/persona/             # Your custom personas
```

**All on your device. Never uploaded.**

### Conversation Memory

- **Location:** `memory.db` (SQLite database)
- **Contents:** Your chat history
- **Encryption:** Not encrypted by default (it's local)
- **Deletion:** Delete `memory.db` file to erase all history
- **Recommendation:** Encrypt your drive if sharing the device

### Model Checkpoints

- **Location:** `checkpoints/` directory
- **Contents:** Model weights and training state
- **Sharing:** Safe to share (contains no personal data)

---

## Network Activity

### When NOVA Uses the Internet

NOVA **only** uses the internet for:

1. **Dataset Downloads:** Downloading legal training datasets (opt-in)
2. **Optional:** Downloading pre-trained weights (if available)

### When NOVA Does NOT Use Internet

- **Chat inference:** 100% offline
- **Model training:** 100% offline
- **Persona customization:** 100% offline
- **Evolution (NOVA-EVO):** 100% offline

### Firewall Safety

NOVA is safe to run behind a firewall with no internet access (after initial setup).

---

## AI Disclosure Setting

### `always_disclose` Flag

NOVA personas have an `always_disclose` setting:

```yaml
always_disclose: false  # Default
```

**What this means:**

- `false` (default): NOVA does NOT disclose being AI
  - Designed for **private, personal use**
  - Appropriate for local companion scenarios

- `true`: NOVA includes AI disclosure text
  - Recommended for **shared or public use**
  - Adds transparency about AI nature

### When to Enable Disclosure

✅ **Enable `always_disclose: true` if:**
- Sharing NOVA with others
- Deploying publicly (e.g., website, app)
- Any scenario where users might not know it's AI

❌ **Keep `always_disclose: false` if:**
- Personal, private use on your own device
- You're fully aware it's a language model
- Testing/development

**Default:** False (personal use assumption)

---

## Persona System Privacy

### Personality Matrix

The personality matrix (warmth, humor, empathy, etc.) is:

- **Stored:** In persona YAML files
- **Processed:** Locally during generation
- **Shared:** Never (unless you share the files)

### Custom Personas

Your custom persona configurations:

- **Location:** `configs/persona/` directory
- **Format:** YAML (human-readable text)
- **Privacy:** Stored locally, never transmitted

---

## Training Data Privacy

### Legal Data Only

NOVA enforces **legal-only datasets**:

- Public domain sources
- Openly licensed datasets (CC0, CC-BY, MIT, Apache)
- License tracking in `license_ledger.json`

**No private data scraping.**

### Your Own Data

If you train NOVA on your own data:

- **Stays local:** Never leaves your device
- **Your responsibility:** Ensure you have rights to use it
- **Recommendation:** Don't train on sensitive/private data you don't want in the model

---

## Security Considerations

### Running NOVA Safely

✅ **Do:**
- Run on a trusted device
- Keep your OS and Python dependencies updated
- Use filesystem encryption if device is shared
- Review code before running (it's open source!)

⚠️ **Don't:**
- Expose the REST API to the internet without authentication
- Train on sensitive data you can't afford to leak
- Share `memory.db` if it contains private conversations

### REST API Security

If using the REST API (`nova chat serve`):

- **Default:** Binds to `0.0.0.0:8000` (all interfaces)
- **Recommendation:** Use `--host 127.0.0.1` for local-only
- **Authentication:** Not included (add if exposing externally)
- **HTTPS:** Not included (add if exposing externally)

**For personal use:** Keep localhost-only.
**For shared use:** Add authentication, HTTPS, rate limiting.

---

## Data Deletion

### Clear All Conversations

```bash
# Delete conversation database
rm memory.db

# Or programmatically
from nova_chat import ConversationMemory
memory = ConversationMemory()
memory.clear_all()
```

### Remove Models

```bash
# Delete checkpoints
rm -rf checkpoints/
```

### Complete Reset

```bash
# Remove all data
rm -rf data/ checkpoints/ memory.db
```

---

## Third-Party Dependencies

NOVA uses standard open-source libraries:

- **PyTorch:** ML framework
- **SentencePiece:** Tokenization
- **FastAPI/Uvicorn:** REST API (optional)
- **SQLite:** Conversation storage

**All are open source and widely audited.**

### Dependency Privacy

- PyTorch: No telemetry (when installed normally)
- SentencePiece: No telemetry
- FastAPI: No telemetry
- SQLite: Local database, no telemetry

---

## Comparison to Cloud LLMs

| Feature | NOVA | Cloud LLMs |
|---------|------|------------|
| **Data Location** | Your device | Company servers |
| **Privacy** | Complete | Varies by provider |
| **Telemetry** | None | Usually tracked |
| **Internet Required** | No (after setup) | Yes |
| **Cost** | One-time (hardware) | Per-token/monthly |
| **Customization** | Full control | Limited |
| **Data Retention** | Your choice | Company policy |

---

## Transparency

### Open Source

NOVA is **fully open source** under Apache 2.0:

- **Source code:** Fully auditable
- **No hidden functionality:** What you see is what you get
- **Community review:** Anyone can inspect for privacy issues

### No Hidden Behavior

NOVA does **not**:
- Phone home
- Send analytics
- Track usage
- Report errors to external services
- Auto-update without your action

---

## Recommendations

### For Maximum Privacy

1. **Offline Mode:** Disable network after downloading dependencies
2. **Encrypt Storage:** Use full-disk encryption (BitLocker, FileVault, LUKS)
3. **Regular Cleanup:** Clear `memory.db` periodically if desired
4. **Review Code:** Inspect the source before running

### For Shared Devices

1. **Enable Disclosure:** Set `always_disclose: true`
2. **Separate Accounts:** Use OS user accounts to isolate data
3. **Clear Conversations:** Delete history after sessions

### For Development

1. **Test Data Only:** Don't use real sensitive data for testing
2. **Version Control:** Add `memory.db` and `checkpoints/` to `.gitignore`

---

## Contact for Privacy Concerns

If you find privacy issues:

- **GitHub Issues:** [github.com/yourusername/nova/issues](https://github.com/yourusername/nova/issues)
- **Security:** Tag issues with `security` label

---

## Summary

**NOVA is designed for local, private use.**

✅ No data collection
✅ No telemetry
✅ No cloud dependencies
✅ Complete user control
✅ Open source and auditable

**Your data stays on your device.**

---

**Last Updated:** 2025
**Document Version:** 1.0