Your chats, documents, and models have to live somewhere. With MyBenAI, they live on your phone in app-private storage—not readable by other apps, not synced to the cloud, not held on company servers. Your message content never leaves your device (except optional features like web search that you explicitly enable). Here is exactly where your data is stored, what protects it, and how to erase it completely.
App-Private Storage: What Stays in the Vault
When you install MyBenAI, the operating system creates an app-private storage area. Other apps on your phone cannot read or access this folder. Neither can users who pick up your phone; the data is protected by device-level security. This is the foundation: your chats, long-term memories, document indexes, downloaded models, and API keys all live in this private app folder. They never leave it unless you explicitly share or export them.
This is different from cloud-synced apps (like ChatGPT or Claude.ai). Those apps upload your conversations to servers operated by the vendor, where they can be stored, logged, analyzed, and in theory subpoenaed or breached. MyBenAI's storage model is simpler: your data stays on your device, readable only by the app itself.
Your Chat History: Stored in Local SQLite
Every conversation you have with MyBenAI is stored in a SQLite database on your phone. SQLite is the same database engine used by iOS Notes, Android Messages, and thousands of other apps—it's battle-tested and efficient. Your chat messages are structured in this local database: the text you typed, the AI's responses, timestamps, and metadata like which model or persona was active.
Here's what you need to know about security: the SQLite database file itself is NOT encrypted with an application-level encryption layer like SQLCipher. Instead, it relies on the operating system's full-disk encryption. When your device is locked, the entire storage is encrypted by iOS (Data Protection with AES-256) or Android (default full-disk encryption). When your phone is unlocked, you and the app have read access to this data. This is a straightforward, honest approach: OS-level encryption protects your data at rest while the device is locked; the app doesn't add a second encryption layer on top.
Why this design? Application-level encryption adds complexity, performance overhead, and another set of keys to manage. For a phone-first app, OS encryption is sufficient and more efficient. If you're concerned about someone with physical access to an unlocked phone, note that app-private storage is still protected—they'd need to be running code as your user account to access it, which is not typical for casual physical access.
Downloaded AI Models: Stored in App Directory
The AI models themselves (Qwen, Llama, Gemma, SmolVLM, Stable Diffusion) are downloaded at runtime and stored in the app's document directory. These are large files (typically 500 MB to 2.2 GB depending on the model). They live in the same app-private storage as your chats, so they're protected by OS encryption and not readable by other apps. If you uninstall MyBenAI, the models are deleted along with everything else.
Models are never uploaded or cloud-synced. When you first run a model or update to a new model, MyBenAI downloads it once from Hugging Face (with your consent) and caches it on your phone. You can manage model storage in the app settings: download models you want, delete older versions to free space, and see the total size of your model collection.
Secrets and API Keys: Encrypted with MMKV
Sensitive data like your web search API key or connector tokens need extra protection. MyBenAI stores these in MMKV, a key-value store that provides on-app-level encryption. MMKV encrypts entries with AES-128 and sits on top of OS storage. This is a second layer of protection for secrets specifically—even if someone somehow accessed the app's storage files, the MMKV entries would be encrypted and unreadable without the app's keys.
These secrets are never sent to MyBenAI's servers. Your Serper API key (for optional web search) stays on your phone; the app uses it directly when you request a search. Connector tokens for Home Assistant, MCP servers, or other integrations remain on-device. The only transmission happens when you use the secret—when you request a web search, the app calls Serper's API with your key, just as you would from a web browser.
Diagnostics Export and Data Safety
MyBenAI includes a diagnostics export feature in the admin console. This lets you extract logs, database stats, and system information for troubleshooting. When you export diagnostics, secrets are automatically redacted. Your API keys and connector tokens are stripped out before the export file is created. This means you can safely share a diagnostics file with a developer for debugging without exposing your credentials.
The same principle applies to chat export (if you back up conversations): sensitive data is redacted or encrypted, and exports stay under your control. You decide who sees your data and when.
One-Tap Erase: Delete Everything
MyBenAI has a one-tap erase feature in Settings. Tap it, confirm, and every piece of data is deleted: chats, models, long-term memories, downloaded documents, search history, connectors, secrets. The app then resets to a blank slate, as if you'd just installed it. This is a hard reset—nothing is sent anywhere, nothing is logged. It's your phone; you own the deletion.
One-tap erase is useful if you're concerned about someone gaining access to a unlocked phone, or if you simply want to reset your data for privacy or spring-cleaning.
What Happens When You Uninstall
If you uninstall MyBenAI, the entire app-private storage folder is deleted by the operating system. All chats, memories, models, settings, and secrets are removed. Nothing persists; nothing is backed up to iCloud, Google Drive, or any cloud service. Your data is fully under your control: keep it by keeping the app, or delete it by uninstalling.
This is different from web apps or cloud services, where your data might persist on the vendor's servers even after you stop using the service. Uninstall MyBenAI, and your data is gone.
The Honest Trade-Off: OS Encryption vs. Application Encryption
The most important detail to understand: MyBenAI's chat database relies on the operating system's encryption, not a separate application-level encryption scheme. This is an honest trade-off. On the plus side, you get simplicity, speed, and the full benefit of modern OS security (iOS Data Protection, Android full-disk encryption). On the minus side, if someone were to unlock your phone and gain access to the app (e.g., via a jailbreak or physical device exploit), they could read your chat database. This is unlikely in practice for most users, but it's worth knowing.
If you need a second layer of encryption for maximum sensitivity—e.g., you're storing medical notes or legal documents—use a separate Notes app with password protection for the most sensitive information, or enable additional device-level security features (device passcode, biometric lock). MyBenAI provides strong privacy guarantees (your message content never reaches a cloud LLM, no account is required, and your message content is never analyzed), but we don't oversell encryption. The security you get is real and practical, grounded in OS-level protections that every mobile app relies on.
Privacy Across the Network
Just as your data is stored privately on your phone, MyBenAI minimizes network transmission. Your chat messages never leave your device for inference—the AI runs locally. Optional features like web search, document uploads, or MCP connectors only send network requests when you actively use them, and those requests go directly to the service you've authorized (your Serper key, your MCP server, etc.), not through MyBenAI's servers. You can inspect every network request in the app's network log to verify what's being sent.
Getting Started With Privacy
To recap: Your chats, models, and memories live in app-private storage protected by OS encryption. Secrets are encrypted with MMKV. You can erase everything in one tap, or delete it all by uninstalling. There are no accounts, no logins, and no cloud syncing. Your data is yours alone. This is what on-device AI actually means—your data stays local, your control is complete, and your privacy is by design, not by trust.
Ready to keep your AI data private? Get MyBenAI today for $2, one-time. Explore how on-device AI compares to cloud alternatives for deeper privacy context, or learn about why an AI app with no account keeps you more private. For more on managing your data over time, see how long-term memory stores and lets you audit your personal facts.